25 tips to sell your home in a downturn

Desperate sellers across the land are battling for the attention of an ever-dwindling number of buyers. According to a recent report, there are 15 homes on the market for every buyer. And the headache for homeowners eager to sell up doesn’t stop at finding an interested party. Estate Agents report offers are falling far below asking prices.

To help struggling vendors, Times Money has spoken to five celebrity property experts to build a list of hints and tips to ensure homeowners snag that elusive sale. From new taps to laptops, here are 25 tips to help you sell your home.

Phil Spencer, presenter of Location, Location, Location with Kirsty Allsopp (above) and CEO of property search company Garrington says:

1. Get cleaning. It might sound obvious but make sure the outside of your house is neat, tidy and well presented. Smelly bins, rusty bikes, a messy garden, a broken gate etc can make a real difference to how a house is perceived and remembered by a prospective buyer.

2. Get painting. If the outside of your house is looking a bit tatty then I would recommend a professional paint job if you can afford it. A freshly painted façade, railings, front door etc really can make a difference. (Find out here why painting really pays with our list of the 10 home improvements that add most value)

3. Keep it simple. Don’t spend too much money on your property trying to ‘do it up’ to sell. Simple cosmetic improvements will be the most worthwhile in the current market

4. De-clutter the inside of your house. Make sure that surfaces such as mantelpieces, windowsills, dressers and tables are clear of unnecessary clutter. If you have a spare room or study that is often used as a dressing room or general dumping ground, then clear it out before you commence viewings. De-cluttering can make rooms appear bigger, and junk-free surfaces create a far better impression of space.

5. Choose the right agent. Make sure you choose the right estate agent for your type of property and price bracket and try not to get tied into lengthy ‘sole agency’ agreements.

Colin and Justin, property experts and television presenters, suggest:

6. Lifestyle additions, while less tangible than other areas, can make all the difference. It might be a cool flat screen TV or a hot new laptop but their subliminal signalling can make all the difference. People like to ‘buy into’ success and ‘lifestyle visuals’ can make all the difference. What’s more, you, the seller, take these things with you when you leave!

7. Sell smart. Few people will be impressed if you answer the door in a dirty track suit with food debris down the front. People buy people so ALWAYS get smart. We’re not suggesting top hat and tails or a ball gown when your buyer is about to arrive – just a little sensible sartorial thinking.

8. Emphasise features that make your house stand out. We’re not talking heli pads or landing strips, just fab extra’s like one more bedroom than the rest of the houses in the street or a fantastically large garden if the rest of the street is crammed for space. Yours might be the house that has an unbroken view to the river whereas others in the street look onto a cliff face. And so on…

9. A shower. If you don’t have one, buyers will be put off or will at least adjust their offer. Installing shower fittings to your tub or a separate cubicle is costly but it could make all the difference.

10. Know your market. The trick with any investment is to produce an appropriate product. And the same principal applies to home selling. Quiz your local Estate Agent about what’s selling, and then follow their advice. Could it be, perhaps, that your three-bedroom house is in an area where young professionals without families are buying? And that, therefore, your third bedroom might appear more valuable if dressed as an office?

11. Leave something for buyers to do – whether DIY or décor. This is an odd one, but if there is nothing at all to do some people won’t feel challenged. A few bits to do here and there will make buyers feel they can make even more of your home and in turn increase its value further when they become owners. Without wanting to contradict everything else, this is a good point to argue.

Ann Maurice, presenter of House Doctor on Five, says that “buyers buy with their emotions, not their heads.” She suggests:

12. Buyers respond to light, capitalise on natural light sources and supplement with lamps, candles and reflective surfaces.

13. Water features or subtle wind chimes can be soothing in outdoor spaces, and can help mask exterior noise that you can’t control. Light background music also helps, but be subtle with the volume.

14. Providing texture in soft furnishings and accessories adds depth and comfort and entices buyers.

15. Use bowls of fresh fruits or vegetables as “accessories” in kitchens and dining rooms.

16. Use scents that say “home”... fresh baked bread or cookies, vanilla, cinnamon, coffee and of course the best scent of all - clean fresh air, so ensure you open all the windows and air out the house before viewings.

Martin Roberts is the presenter of BBC TV’s property auction show Homes Under The Hammer and the author of the new book, Teach Yourself: Making Money From Property, says:

17. Kerb appeal – provide off street parking. Having the curb in front of your property lowered so you can create a driveway or off street parking if it doesn’t already exist is time consuming (you’ll need to put in a planning application with the council) but not expensive (£800 to £1500) and it will add considerable value and differentiate your property.

18. Repaint walls and ceilings in neutral colours if they aren’t already. A fresh coat of paint can transform a property- but do clear away all tools and paint pots.

19. Swap old lamp fittings for modern ones- ideally with halogen or low energy bulbs. It’s not an expensive job, but you will create a much more modern and cared for feeling for the property, plus old lamp fittings are often dusty and dated.

20. Replace the kitchen work surface. You don’t have to go to the trouble of a full kitchen refit but replacing the work surface with a new one will dramatically improve and rejuvenate a tired looking kitchen. Putting in a new sink at the same time will also work wonders. You can also just replace the cabinet fronts, rather than the whole cabinet

21. Replace old and worn carpets. Old carpets smell, look and feel terrible. If they’re beyond cleaning, replacing them with even budget carpet will give a very positive impression and at £1.99 a sq m, won’t cost a lot!

22. Replace old light switches and taps. Accessorising with quality (but not expensive) fixtures and fittings will again give a very positive impression. The internet is a good source of discounted fixtures, fittings and building and renovation materials. £500 taps can often be found for £20 - £30.

Melissa Porter, property expert and presenter of I Own Britain's Best Home on Five, says:

23. Home stage your house. Pamper it, de-ruffle, polish and tidy it to an inch of it's life. Refer to home magazines and emulate the look. Buyers should not be given the opportunity to chip any more money from the selling price.

24. Banish pet odour with generous amounts of smelling salts.

25. Avoid chintz, flying ducks, any wallpaper from Laurence Lewelyn Bowen's range, and frankly anything that will offend potential buyers or cause people to react adversely towards it.

Posted by James Charles

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Comments

[Matt Brook]

Does realising the effect of globalisation on wages, taxation fiscal drag coupled with student loan payments and a tightening mortgage lending standard ultimately reflecting in lower ability to leverage suicidally, figure in the obvious requirement to lower prices?

[oliver]

I don't know but i would just lower the price and hope i sell, before interest rate go up, as i do not think the bank really cares what the house looks like , when i have to give them the keys!

[Dominic James]

Is this the best The Times and these Guru's can do?

I mean really, this is the kind of advice you'd expect from a very green negotiator, not the nations property 'experts'.

Marks: 3 out of 10, please try harder.

[Gavin]

26. Most importantly drop the price to affordable levels or you will find it far harder to sell.

All other points are almost meaningless in this economic climate.

[Roderick McGahon]

When articles like this have to be printed...it makes you wonder what
is wrong with the hordes of so called property advisory experts....
i.e. Auctioneers?

[Nick]

You missed out the critical point here and the one that really matters.

Drop the price!!!!!!!

[Ben]

How about cutting the price?

[Justin Thyme]

I'm astounded by the audacity of people like Phil Spencer. When the credit crunch was in full swing, I recall reading his continued bullish property market comments in my local area magazine, "The Hill" which serves Notting Hill, North Kensington etc. It was CLEAR that the property boom was over and turning on a sixpence but he persistently advised readers that the market would merely pause for a breather and then probably race off again.

Never rely on so called "experts" because they're nothing of the sort. If I'd done so, I'd not have sold late last year. The best advice is to trust what your eyes tell you. In my case, I saw fewer and fewer of those Foxtons Minis tearing around Portobello on viewings and properties taking longer to sell. No brainer really !

[sue]

i agree with Nick- THE SIGNIFICANT THING TO DO IS REDUCE THE PRICE! the rest is tosh. K.A. and P.S. dont live in the real world and have not got a clue.take no notice, they only deal with rich people

[mark g]

wow...yes!...and maybe a lick of paint and i can make an extra 30k!....get real...get some real experts in ...these dinosaurs are past their londoncentric sell by date.

[Liza]

Drop the price!! That's the very first thing anyone should do if they want to sell in today's market! I'd have written this piece for a fraction of what the Times paid for it AND made sure it was relevant for today. Whoever commissioned this piece... you were done!

[Michael]

You "property experts" forgot to mention dropping the price. Vested Interests still trying to do everything and anything to prop up your pyramid scam.

[Reinhard Schu]

It is high time that Phil and Kirsty shut up. They have led the British public into debt slavery by endlessly promoting every rising house prices. Now that they tide has turned they look rather stupid with their ridiculous "tips".

If your house does not sell, it's because the asking price is too ambitious.

[Eloise Binder]

It's hard to understand what planet these 'property experts' live on (obviously one where property prices always go up by 15% a year and adding a few cushions, some IKEA shelves and a basket with freshly baked rolls means an extra £15,000 on the price tag).

If this wasn't printed in the times i'd have a hard time believing it was a serious article.

Easy way to sell your house - drop the price by about 25%. You won't regret it in 2 years when its dropped 40%.

[Sam Smith]

1.Drop the price
2.Drop the price
3.Drop the price
4.Drop the price
5.Drop the price
6.Drop the price
7.Drop the price
8.Drop the price
9.Drop the price
10 - 25 - Drop the price

[Phil Spender & Kirsty Allgob]

These so-called 'experts' are TV presenters with vested interests with plenty to lose if things get as bad as is generally anticipated.

In particular, Ann Maurice saying that “buyers buy with their emotions, not their heads” is hopelessly arrogant and patronising. Isn't it rude to consider one's own audience as feeble-minded?

But hang on, maybe Ms Maurice is right after all: there is one emotion that would prevent folk from buying in today's crashing market... FEAR!

That's FEAR of instantaneous negative equity; FEAR of lifelong financial ruin; FEAR of making a ill-informed decision when all the FACTS right now say DO NOT BUY UNLESS THE SELLER DROPS THE PRICE. A LOT.

And if that FEAR does not stop the purchase, it will lead to the buyer experiencing REGRET and then BITTERNESS.

BITTER TV viewers are still a great audience so don't worry too much my friends... the vested interests' nests will remain feathered for plenty of time to come!

[iKnow]

To be fair to kirtsty and phil they may be annoying but they are experts. They have, after all, made themselves a small fortune out of property, which is probably more than can be said for most the people leaving comments....

[ronnie]

It must be great to make a living ,out of spouting the bleedin obvious.

[Phil Spender & Kirsty Allgob]

@iKnow - You don't have to be an expert in any market to make money out of it.

That's like me betting on the favourite in the Grand National. If it wins, I'm not suddenly an expert in horse racing.

Kirstie and Phil's financial success is due to bullish attitudes amidst the biggest house price boom we've ever known. They bet on the favourite horse.

The 'experts' Kirstie and Phil both say house prices won't crash or more amusingly, AREN'T crashing when it is clear to anyone who can be bothered to do the tiniest amount of economic research that they obviously ARE... and it is a global phenomenon.

Most 'experts' are self-proclaimed and Kirstie and Phil do have vested interests to protect (read: their own properties which you correctly refer to). They will therefore ALWAYS talk up the market, like they always have, in order to protect THEIR assets.

They are simply 'experts' at feathering their own nest and their credibility is dissipating just as rapidly as prices continue to fall (the fastest rate in history!).

[sophie smith]

whatever is a quality paper like the Times giving space to that nerd Phil Spencer!

[C Wright]

So, some houses in the UK don't have a shower???

[michelle]

I agree with the comments, drop the price believe it or not displaying a fruit bowl won't sell your house!

[Robert]

Get cleaning. Get painting. De-clutter. Absolute rubbish. The one and only house down my street which has sold was a complete tip in need of total refurbishment. It also had the lowest asking price. The houses on sale where the owners have spent years doing them up remain unsold, their asking prices dropping by £25,000 at regular intervals.

[Paul Owen]

It would be easier to take the advice of these so called experts and indeed maybe even invest in their books if they knew the difference between 'curb' and 'kerb'. As it is I suspect they are just guessing like the rest of us.

The property market is overpriced and mortgages have dried up. One does not have to be an overpaid and semi literate 'expert' to see that what we are going through is an overdue correction, the duration of which is pure guesswork even if you appear regularly on television.

Curb appeal should surely be KERB appeal

[MB]

And finally no. 26, the most important tip of all, "drop the price"! The main problem with the market is that prices have risen beyond affordability. First-time buyers can't get mortgages because they can't raise an entire year's salary required for a 10% deposit. It's no surprise that nothing is selling as a result. The solution is not to bring back 100% mortgages but to lower prices so buyers don't have to wait 4 years (and that only if they're saving 25% of their salary) to buy but maybe only 1 or 2 years instead.

Sellers need to accept the new reality that the prices that prevailed from 2004 to 2007 were just a blip, not the norm.

[David]

One silver lining to all of this housing-related gloom is that hopefully we won't have to put up with every other television programme being little more than an advert for life on the property ladder fronted by smug muppets like Kirsty and Phil....by the way, where's Alvin Hall got to, now that the nation actually needs him?

[JJ]

how is this different from what you would do if there wasn't a recession?

[Geoff]

Still fiddling while Rome burns! Didn't Kirsty say that she'd eat her hat 3 years ago if property prices in the UK ever fell? If that is the case I really hopes she fails to diggest that big pile of Philip Treacy's in her wardrobe. Perhaps her subsequent indigestion will serve to remind both her and us that an economy based on house prices and shopping is anathema to the national good.

[Liane]

The only people that are selling in my area are those who have gone with agents who are realistic about pricing and who are dropping their prices. Those who don't drop or keep their prices ABOVE what the asking prices were at the height of the market are NOT selling.

[geoff]

Hilarious stuff. Lets bake bread and clear out the spare room. Its like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. These experts clearly dont know the meaning of a property slump and, hey, does it show, does it show.

[lazyGun]

Can't believe I just wasted 10 minutes reading this desperate effort. I must be almost as big a wally as the authors.

[Lord Creator]

Question for readers: How annoying are Frank Spencer and Allgob?

[Rod Baker]

Regarding Point 17 Curb appeal... I presume you mean Kerb appeal?

[God/Jah]

@Lazygun: 1) You are a pathetically slow reader. 2) The authors make fair points. But, yes, you are clearly a massive wally.

[lazyGun]

@God/jah.

I guess I must have been re-reading it as I questioned how effective buying a new laptop would be in selling your house.

Though I am also a bit of a wally.

[A gentleman]

The horrendous Colin and Justin have chutzpah to lecture the nation on "sartorial thinking". Their trademark "look" is the absurdly oversized tie-knot as sported by 14-year-old Comprehensive school boys.

[john]

I can't believe these two jokers are still getting paid to peddle this facile rubbish.

[Jenny]

if you buy a laptop or a flat TV to impress your viewers, be sure to also buy some good locks in case some of the viewers turn out to have only been casing the property :)

[Mumar]

Are these not the same people that have been the cause of the problem.

How can you take advise from these over valuers and stump up merchants.

Look at the history of these people they pushed the price of homes up beyond the reach of most people, to line there own pockets.

[steve]

DROP THE PRICE!

[Trevor]

I am somewhat confused. Prices can never fall and there is a shortage. Why would anyone have a problem selling?

As for the advice. Thanks for pointing out the ble*ding obvious. Perhaps the next story should be how there can be so many programmes saying exactly the same thing for ten years (basic common sense) and how so many people are able to watch them without figuring that out!

Should I eat my hat now?:)

[Liz]

Evidently we need a new definition of 'expert'.
Mine is spot on, but alas somewhat too rude to post here.

[Vlad]

Wonderful photo, gloomy and despondent. Looks like the cover of a new edition of Love on the Dole

[Allan]

With all due respect, I fear that it is going to take a little more that new taps and light fittings to sell a property in the current collapsing market.
How about simply slashing the asking price?

[Tom K]

My comment - get some literate sub-editors. Kerb is the word, not 'curb' which is a common American misuse of a word that means to cut short or curtail.

Oh and these 'celebrity' estage agents are part of what caused the crash in the first place (along with easy money and lax regulation). Time to consign them to the dustbin of history (or at least put them in the stocks and throw tomatoes) not pay them to wibble even more drivel at us.

[Paul Clothhier]

Hardly fresh, original ideas, are they? It was all this neutral colours and fresh coffee smells which whipped up the prices of houses in the first place, and the last thing anyone poorer than a hedge-funder wants is an unaffordable house with all this instant lifestyle snazz. Don't worry about lowering your prices, vendors; next month these will be lowered quite adequately on your behalf.

[Melanie]

Make sure that your property is the cheapest on your road by at least 10%. Nobody is really interested in your fixtures and fittings which will be dated soon - they just want a realistic price! It needs to be this as its USP - remember other prices will be similar to yours in 3 months time but you will have already sold yours.

[RICH]

I really want to sell my well-proportioned and spacious 15 year old Saab for £299,950. I think it's a bargain as I've replaced several features: the gear-knob and mud flaps. I've also invested in halfords wood-effect floor mats. For this month only I'll throw in a gorgeous pine-scented dangly tree. This will engage the emotions of my viewers and swiftly cause them to commit financial suicide, allowing me to lord it for life on the profits without lifting a fat, chavvy finger. Good job because otherwise I'm a socially usleless parasite with no other means to make money.

[T Johnson]

These whingeing "drop-your-price" comments are as amusing as they are contemptible. Not surprised at all that lay-abouts who cannot afford home ownership on their rightly feeble salaries/benefits are now desperate for prices to tumble. Thank God it won't happen.

[Carol]

The unfortunate thing about this piece is that some people may use it as another excuse to avoid the inevitable, and cut their asking price. In my area outside Manchester, sellers lower their asking price by £5000, call it "drastic" and then probably wonder why their property hasn't sold. Best advice for sellers: find out what houses on your road sold for in 2002. Cut your asking price to that level. That's where prices will stabilise in a couple of years' time, so you might as well get it over with now.

[Grazza]

Personally speaking, I'm always sold on gimmicks such as these. In fact, the more the better. Forget minor trifles like the price in such times as these, if the sellers dress up in monkey costumes and put on a little sideshow while I'm looking around, I'll give them an offer there and then. Better still if they put on some sort of ribald show ...

[Flopsy]

Wow, the silly season is with us in full force.

This fluff was unwelcome in the times of "plenty" and even more unwelcome now.

I'm looking to buy and funnily enough the sight of a laptop is not a selling point. Laptop computers and flat screens are not aspiration objects. The latter is pure chav.

What I am looking for in a home is a reasonable selling price. It's a buyers market and the competition (with real things like proper sized bedrooms and bathrooms on each floor) is huge.

[Clive]

Tip 1 -DROP THE PRICE BY 30%, Tip 2 - DROP THE PRICE BY 30%...Tip 25 - DROP THE PRICE BY 30%. Not much more to say really. As for DIY etc - most of the tarted up properties I've viewed have spingy fake wood floors that the sellers have done themselves etc etc. This just tells me that I'll need to put another 50k aside to get this all done again properly. Phil and Kirsty are surely now so unpopular that any newspaper or tv show which features them will lose circulation?

[Clint]

T Johnson - that'll be the layabout nurses, firefighters, ambulance crew, police officers, teachers etc who have to borrow 6-8x salary to buy a shoebox sized home? From the 'wisdom' of your comments I can only guess that you either live alone on an island or are luxuriating in padded room somewhere and don't have the need for such people? Or maybe you are happy that only merchant bankers and estate agents live anywhere near you! As for the rest of us (including homeowners such as me) we look forward to property prices crashing as we quite like the idea that these service providers can afford to live in our communities.

[Brian]

As anyone who has actually sold a house in the past 18 months will know (depending on the local advent of the slowdown), while a bit of tidying up and painting probably helps, it will only sell if the price has fallen from the joke asking prices of 2005 to 2007.
Any vendors reading this need to know ONE CRUCIAL TIP: drop your price now and sell before you end up "chasing the market down" and get even less in 18 months time.

[Allan]

RICH - 21 Jul 2008 16:20:17
FANTASTIC!! Could you please forward me details of your solicitor I'd like to make a ridiculous offer!

[Np]

BLAH!! These experts are so 'last year'.
It seemed alright to have them around when they were helping to overinflte prices, but they're redundant now that prices are crashing to the floor.
When's she gonna eat this hat then.
I wanna see it happen.

[DR H]

T Johnson: You'd obviously love to pay 300K for a 2-up 2-down in Surrey and fund someone's retirement? Go for it. I am a doctor, not a layabout, and refuse to buy because the prices are at insane levels right now. I resent your comment.

[Anthony E. Price]

These are the 'experts' who talked up the greed and hysteria that created the bubble market that has just burst. And that's the truth of it - the never was a 'property ladder' - just a greed driven bubble and it ain't there no more.

[Paul]

LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!!
Advice for selling anything in any market (bad and good, housing or not housing: Make sure your price for selling meets the price a buyer is really willing/able to pay!
Want to sell your house in this market: DROP THE PRICE!
Oh and yes - make your you bake cookies for that special smell. LOL!

[James Johnson]

Every person who has left a comment sounds so bitter about the property market. Are you all perhaps, the amateur economists who refused to buy a house over the last 10 years thinking prices couldn't go any higher? Losers...

[Ella from London]

It is a little galling that at a time of economic crisis, when first-time buyers are stilling struggling to get on the ladder, despite falling house prices, the Times thinks it appropriate to give 'advice' to sellers on how to over-sell properties, or even potentially mislead buyers. Perhaps a list for buyers next, on the best tell-tale signs of 'cosmetic' masking, to balance it out?

[greg]

One additional item to the drop the price recommendation is to get a proper registry system as Canada & the US have so that when an offer is accepted it can quickly become firm and binding with significant penalties for people backing out of agreements. The UK has a third world system for completing sales of residential real estate, and this will contribute to the current decline as well as make many people's lives even more miserable as their "sales" fall apart at the last moment. Call your MP and ask why this has not been changed, it isn't that hard to do.

[Paul]

Guys, how about just a clean tidy house with a realistic asking price in todays market. Everyone is shouting about 'dropping the price' but if the property is on at a realistic price, neither too high or low, you don't need to do this as at negotiation you'll inevitably reduce your rate to sell... I suspect our 'drop the price' friends had unrealistic prices on their properties in the first place! Or perhaps these comments come from those who are actually renting and want to buy your property at a low 'dropped down' price!!! ;-)

[Natalie]

Highly amusing article. Was it written by a staff writer while Phil, Kirsty, Martin and the sartorially superior Colin and Justin were sunning themselves somewhere? No mention of price was bad enough. What about mystery shopping your agent to see if they are actually doing a decent job? Are they getting viewings but no offers? I'm afraid these experts have become rather lazy...

[Ray]

Phil Spencer runs some kind of property finding company and has every reason to continue talking up a property market that's fast heading for a CRASH, not a "slowdown" or a "soft landing" or a "consolidation".

Programmes like that presented by Spencer managed to convince a nation of slackers that it was eminently possible to buy in at the top of the market and still make a fortune by making a property look like a hundred others.

I sold last year and if the precious metals, soft commodities and oil company shares I bought with the profits perform well, I'll be looking for some huge discounts on a pad in London in about 2 or 3 years because that's how long this is going to last.

[Ester]

Re David"s post asking, "where is Alvin Hall now that the nation actualy needs him?"
Answer :- you can find him on "Alvin Hall"s World of Money" on BBC Radio 4. See bbc.co.uk/radio4

[Ester]

Ella thinks the UK has a third world legal system when it comes to buying and selling property. In fact the UK does not have a legal system because the legal system is completely differnt in Scotland. It is only in England and Wales that the system is third world. In Scotland an offer made by a prospective purchaser is binding on both purchaser and vendor, once an offer has been made and accepted.

[ANDY]

These clowns make me sick. The fallout of the credit crunch will raise the awareness of how socially irresposible high house prices have become. It is just an engineered mega-boom to reap huge profits in stamp duty from an otherwise bankrupt government. It also takes pressure off the immediate pensions crisis and poverty amongst pensioners, as they can cash in huge profits. All this ownership of debt gets piled onto the younger generations, who will be in debt slavery to a mis-managed, debt ridden, affluenza-stricken, social vacuum. This is what happens when a government is controlled by corporatism / crony capitalism and sells us all out for personal gains. What is left in the UK?

[Hugh]

personally i'm just looking forward to doing some gazundering to some distressed sellers.

[srinivas]

Nice article & at the right time.thank you.

[Ian Free]

Fair enough it's a pretty generic article, and it could more accurately be titled simply "Tips to sell your home". However, that's the point all these overly-excited venomous responses are missing: that you still need to differentiate your property whether you're maximising profit or minimising loss!

Ok it's mostly common sense, (apart from the bit about laptops and flat screens!!) but it still gets forgotten by many sellers as I know from personal experience. Even in a falling market, most buyers will be prepared to pay *relatively* more for somewhere that has smart neutral decor, and doesn't look like it needs an urgent steam clean!

[Julie B]

I agree with comments that none of the suggestions are exactly rocket science, and I find it hard to take seriously the advice of professional 'experts' who can't tell the difference between curb and kerb, and who don't know how to use apostrophes. Rubbish punctuation, feeble advice.

[Andy]

Why do you want freshly baked bread and coffee in the house? As a buyer, my first thought would be "What are the bad smells they are trying to hide?"