This article by Bryce Courtenay appeared in The Australian newspaper several years ago
and is as relevant today as it was then.

Australian author of "The Power of One" and other great books – buy, read and
enjoy!

One of the more unrewarding experiences you can have within the urban landscape is the
business of selling your home.

Building a home is said to be the number one cause of nervous breakdowns and the number
two of divorce.

Selling your home is somewhere in the top 10 causes of modern-day urban stress.

Having recently sold my house for less than the real estate bloke told me I’d get and
more than I had a right to expect, I have evolved several grass-roots marketing
principles.

While too late for me, they may be useful to you if the roof over your head is about to
be sold, in order to keep you in a future manner to which you have no right to become
accustomed.

These are not rules, they are simply marketing ideas that could make the difference.

The point is that a $100,000 difference in the price of a house may be something you
added to it that cost you a couple of hundred bucks.

Most people buy a house emotionally. Sure they walk around looking for rising damp and
knocking on the odd wall to see whether it’s hollow, but in house terms this is like
kicking the tyres of a second hand car so the salesman won’t think you are an idiot.

A properly marketed house is capable of getting the heart pumping overtime and turning
brain to mush before the potential buyer reaches the front door. So let’s begin with the
front door – even before it – the front gate!

Your house may need a good overall paint job, but if the gate and the fence are freshly
painted and the front door has been done in a designer colour with a brass lion with a
ring in its mouth for a knocker, you’ve already told the potential new owner that he or
she is dealing with the sort of house that will make them look good. 

The best colours for a front door are deep olive, deep maroon (known as oxblood),
battleship grey or salmon pink all in super high gloss and set off with a big brass
doorknob, knocker, letter slot or bell or, for a top brass  door, all of these
things.

If the front garden is a bit of a mess, plant a few flowering shrubs which you can buy
at the markets a week or so before the first inspection.

If you have a pathway to the front door then buy or hire a dozen standard roses in
bloom and bury them in the ground, tub and all, to suggest that they’re the work of a
caring owner with old fashioned home values. Standard roses can add tens of thousands to
the end price.

Don’t forget to mow the lawn on the week before the inspection so that it looks green
and inviting by inspection day.

Always clean the windows. Clean windows are the sort of thing people don’t see, they
feel. And on a sunny Saturday morning, clean windows can give the interior of the house a
crisp spring look.

If there is a down gutter or two showing on the front of the house that has rusted
through, replace it – preferably with a copper one. Don’t paint the copper, make it look
like a recent repair you haven’t had time to paint.

Copper drainpipes are the sign of an owner who insists on only the best for his home.
Husbands who are oblivious to the other niceties will pick this up in a flash, even if
they know nothing about building. 

If you get all these first impressions right, the inside is easy: be tidy but not
spotless; make sure that the hygiene of the home is right – the bathroom and toilet
spotless (no sign of mould in the shower recess), the kitchen gleaming.

If you have carpet on the bathroom floor, replace it with new carpet. Most bathroom
carpets, even in the best houses, are stained.

Make the beds, don’t leave washing in the bathroom, but make the house look lived in.

Flowers should only be where flowers are normally expected. Don’t turn the place into a
florist’s shop.

If the house at one time in its history featured a fireplace which subsequently got
blocked up, unblock it and rebuild it to the authentic design. Admittedly, this could cost
you a few hundred but it will add $20,000.

Always set the fire with fresh logs and pine cones, summer or winter, as though it’s
ready to be lit at the touch of a match. A house with a fireplace or two is a deeply
atavistic experience for most people. 

The next important factor is smell. Homes that smell of animals, particularly cats, can
cost you thousands. So board the cat and the dog for a couple of weeks before the
inspection and get the smell out.

But just as important is putting smell back in. There are three important smells to
know about: fresh bread, cinnamon and coffee. Most houses are up for inspection over a two
or three week period and people can often return for a second look, so varying your smell
can be the clincher.

The fresh bread smell is achieved by buying a large white loaf and opening up its belly
and pouring a bottle of vanilla essence into it and popping it into the oven at medium
heat for half an hour before the inspection begins.  Remove it before the real estate
man or lady arrives. The result is a home that smells of freshly baked bread which, as you
know, is the warmest, cleanest, most home-caring smell there is. 

Another smell that kills any other smells that might have been left behind by the cat
or the parrot, is cinnamon.  Simply warm a couple of tablespoons in a pan and allow
the smell to invade the house.

If your home is a bit upmarket or in a trendy area, then use the famous coffee-bean
ploy. Half a cup of coffee beans roasted in the oven will fill the house with the aroma of
fresh coffee.

Add to this a tape of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or a little Mozart both played very
softly, and the result can be a year’s salary added to the value of your home. The point
is, even if the prospective buyer isn’t a classical music lover, he or she will make
decisions about the house that are most favourable if Mozart or Handel are thought to be
in residence.

Finally, the backyard – it must look lived in but well kept. So make sure it has
recreational furniture and that this is in good condition. A child’s swing is a terrific
asset.

A few hastily planted flowering shrubs can also make a big buck difference and a nice
looking garden shed or greenhouse can be the clincher.

A couple of citrus trees, a Eureka lemon and a grapefruit are turn-ons and can be
bought in an advanced state of growth from most nurseries.

And, of course, if there is a pool the water in it must be perfect. Buy a bottle of
water polish (I’m not kidding) from your pool shop – it gives the pool a wonderful
translucent look.

The thing to remember always is that the buyer has been out, sometimes for weeks,
looking at houses most of which are identical in appearance to yours.

The difference, providing your place isn’t positively falling down, will be the little
things. 

Most people buy a home on first impressions. The emotional impact they receive in the
first few moments can be critical to the way they bid at auction or bargain when it comes
down to the sale. 

Last of all, don’t let the real estate bloke tell you that these little touches don’t
help. Most real estate people don’t even see a house, they are house-blind. Your house is
a name on a list – one of three they have to be at that morning. After six weeks of
supervising regular inspections at my house, I asked the real estate man to close his eyes
and describe my home to me. He couldn’t even tell me how many bedrooms there were in it
and he didn’t know the colour of the carpet, the front door or the roof tiles.

Market your house as though you were buying it yourself. Remember, a couple of grand
(usually it’s less) spent carefully upfront, can make the difference of tens of thousands
of bucks.

The two or three weeks you put into getting it ready to sell may be the most profitable
investment of time and money you make this year.

Bryce Courtenay is the Australian author of "The Power of One" and other
great books.