10 Tips to Get Higher Offers On Your Vacant Home

There is much that owners and their agents can do to make an empty home more appealing.

There are all sorts of reasons for a home to be sold unfurnished. The owners may have had to relocate in a hurry for work or may have been letting to tenants who have now moved out.

Buyers don’t know that though - they will be much more likely to think that the property has been on the market so long that the owners had to move anyway or that there is something wrong with the property that has kept it from being sold.

And this can quite easily lead them to the assumption that the seller must be desperate and will accept even a really low offer, especially if the property is dirty or neglected and is surrounded by a dying garden.

In addition, those buyers who do get past the front door of an empty house will often struggle to visualise how they will live there. They may have difficulty trying to work out the layout or how big the rooms are and whether their furniture will fit. When that happens, they are not likely to make any offer at all.

In short, it is worthwhile for absent sellers to ensure that their homes will still make a good first impression by enlisting the help of an experienced estate agent who understands their situation and agrees to oversee all the work necessary to keep their properties looking good for prospective buyers.

This is also a good idea from a security point of view since it will mean that only one person or agency has the keys, remotes and security codes, and that access to the property is controlled.

Tips for maintaining the property

1. Have the house dusted and cleaned at least a couple of times a month.

2. Hire a garden service or gardener to come in regularly and keep the lawns mowed, driveway swept and the plants watered.

3. Make sure the pool is kept clean and properly ‘dosed’. 

4. Make sure the post box is regularly cleared of any junk mail.

5. Rent some furniture if necessary to stage the property to create a better sense of size and proportion.

How to improve your home’s appeal

6. Repaint, inside and out, in neutral colours. Fresh paint is the number one attraction for prospective buyers looking at empty homes.

7. Make your front entrance looks inviting by repainting or re-varnishing the door if necessary and removing all clutter from the front path, steps or porch.

8. Get the property professionally cleaned top to bottom as you move out.

9. Leave your curtains or blinds in place to make the home look more 'lived in'.

Keep up security payments

10. And finally, homeowners should take into account that security is a vital part of the package from the buyer’s point of view.

You don’t want prospective buyers to arrive for a viewing only to find that the property has been broken into or vandalised.

As such, it is worth keeping up the payments to your security company while it remains unoccupied, and installing timers that will turn some lights on and off every night.