Property Advice: Getting the timing and preparation right to maximise your home's value

Timing and time spent preparing a home for sale will always pay dividends, writesMajella Galvin

Buyers notice when a home has been thoughtfully presented — it looks more inviting in photographs and attracts more viewers.

Hi Majella,

We are hoping to sell our three-bed semi and move into a larger home. Obviously, we are hoping to get the most for it. One of my friends told me that I’d missed the boat and should have put it on the market earlier. She also said I should put a lot of thought into staging it for viewing. My own view is that given the current demand for houses we shouldn’t have any problem selling it at any time and getting a good price. Which of course we’ll need if we want to buy the larger home our growing family now needs. So, my questions are: Is it OK to put it on the market in the next month or so? If not, when? And is it worth staging your home for sale in the current market? Will it require investment, and most importantly will we get it back? What rooms should we concentrate on? We hadn’t factored any budget for staging so any advice on budget friendly ways to stage what is a fairly standard three-bed semi in a city estate would be great.
Áine