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Squeezing out every cent of profit with Belinda Grundy


with Belinda Grundy BG Property Styling

To get the best price, a property and the lifestyle it offers has to seduce a buyer. When preparing a property for sale, it is therefore imperative that a property has the most attractive façade and interior.

Property presentation specialist, from BG Property Styling, Belinda Grundy works with clients to create as much profit as possible. She says, “It's an investment for getting your property sold in an efficient amount of time, for the maximum dollar.” Belinda knows how to maximise potential purchaser appeal through makeovers and styling. She can walk into a property and immediately see opportunity for enhancement in value.

Belinda says the objective is to attract, “…as many competitors, potential purchasers, as possible. What's going to draw those people in?”

1. MAXIMISE STREET APPEAL

First impressions count and will determine if a prospective buyer gets out of the car. Belinda says, “Street appeal pulls all those rubberneckers in. Make sure that your street appeal is fantastic. You've got to give that impression of, ‘This property is loved’, and then it will attract people. Investing in front landscaping, painting the front of the house, fixing up the cracks down the walls, pressure cleaning - whatever it might be, your property needs to look appealing and loved, so people come in.”

2. PAINT

Belinda advises to do a full repaint. She says, “Painting's not cheap, but as far as return on investment, it is one of the cheapest and most effective returns.”

3. CREATE AN EXTRA BEDROOM

Belinda says if for a few thousand dollars you can put in another wall and create another bedroom – do it. “Suddenly, you're in a different target market. I love agents having to rewrite their copy with a more valuable house.”

4. CREATE AN OUTDOOR ENTERTAINING AREA

It pays to have a lovely outdoor entertaining area as well. Belinda says, “If we've built an outdoor entertaining area so it actually feels like an extension of the house, it's going to add far more value than what it actually costs.”

5. CREATE A “WOW” ROOM

Belinda says, it could be the outdoor entertaining area or the master bedroom with a view. Whatever it is - there has to be a ‘wow’ room.

6. THINK ABOUT HOW THE PROPERTY WILL BE SEEN AT NIGHT

Selling a home means people will be driving home 24 hours a day. Belinda says, “Make sure your exterior lighting is great, dusk til dawn. If someone pulls up at your property at 9 o'clock at night, is it going to look its best? It's always good to get some strong uplighting in any feature trees. It's always good to have lighting around the building numbers on the exterior wall.”

7. MAKE SURE THE NUMBER OF THE PROPERTY CAN BE SEEN

Belinda says, “Nine times out of ten we will nominate that new shiny numbers need to be bought and put on the wall.”

8. UPDATE EVERYDAY LIGHT FITTING AND DOOR WARE.

9. GET THE BINS OUT

Pressure clean the bins. Belinda says, “Even make them a house, get them out of the way. We don't want bins in front of the house, but at nine out of ten people's places, the bins hang out the front of the house.”

10. STYLING CRIMES

Old furniture. Terrible colours. Feature walls. Old light fittings. Belinda says, “Everything has to go that shouldn't be in a photograph. That’s unclean carpet. Pets. I normally ask pets to go on a holiday for a good four to six weeks.”

11. ODOURS.

She explains, “I'll always have the odour conversation, always. I do apologise at the start of the appraisal if I'm going to say anything that offends (a client), but I’ve been asked to come along and give my feedback - this is what I need to do, because I'm the sneak peek before potential purchasers. I need to tell the client. It could be pets, could be damp, it could be anything.” Once the property is ready for the market, Belinda’s number one task is to declutter. She says, “Decluttering is such an important part of this whole process. It's actually quite refreshing to our clients.” She advises that with every object, clients ask: ‘How much do I love you? Am I going to pack you? Store you? Wrap you? Move you? Unpack you? Get up on another ladder? Place you in the new home?’ Belinda continues, “I talk to our clients about making sure when they're in their new place, they're surrounded by things that they really love” - and are worth the cost of the storage and journey to the new place of residence. “Decluttering, is a time of cleansing out, keeping only what you want in the property, and then making sure you're filling your new property with things that you really want.”

12. TAKE AWAY ALL PERSONAL ITEMS AND PHOTOS

Belinda is firm: “Make sure all those personal items are away. Anything that tells a story about who's living there or who owns the house is actually a distraction. We need to eliminate all those distractions. Personal photos are definitely one of those. People will make assumptions about, ‘Oh, they're desperate to sell. The wardrobe’s empty - why is that?’. Or, ‘Obviously they're divorced because there's baby photos,’ or whatever it might be. They'll make up all this stuff but what we actually want them to do is to spend their time in this property enjoying it, and imagining themselves and their families in there, and imagining where they would put their photos, not trying to make decisions and second guessing who's in there.”

13. HYGIENE SELLS

The cleanliness standard must be like a five star hotel. Belinda says, “Top to bottom clean, and especially focus on kitchens and bathrooms. That's something that people will get used to - a certain standard of living - but it actually has to be way different to the normal standard of living.”

For more information please visit BGPROPERTYSTYLING.COM.AU. Belinda has also authored a book: RIGHTSIZE YOUR HOME.

 

 


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