Breathe life into your home

A new year brings with it resolutions and new ideas: a new health regime, job or home. If you’re looking to move home in 2008, that sale of your existing abode will be helped with a little thought to introduce some up-to-the-minute interior style features.

Bellway Homes Northern Home Counties has a few tips to help you make the most of your living space.

With stunning show homes at their developments, The Observatory in Oakley Vale, Furlongs Edge in Market Harborough, Barton Fields in Earls Barton and Meadow View in Ambrosden housebuilder, Bellway, is well placed to offer advice on how to make our own homes, showhome-tastic.

Sales Director, Chris Edginton, explains: “Time for a change? After taking down the Christmas tree, our homes often look quite stark scream out for a spot of re-decoration – or at least, reorganisation. If you’re looking for a quick sale on the open market, creating the wow-factor by preparing and presenting your home so it is appealing to buyers is easy.”

Spring clean

Clean and keep it spotless until your house is sold.

De-clutter

Be ruthless by sorting through those boxes looming at the back of your cupboards and tidy away any bits and pieces that you may have left over from Christmas; packaging, instruction manuals and receipts.

Finish those D.I.Y jobs

A well maintained house is a big plus for a buyer so fix those leaking taps and unfinished paint jobs.

Depersonalise your house

Remove items that are personal to you, e.g. family portraits and trophies to encourage buyers to visualise themselves living in your home.

Go neutral

Continuing the theme of depersonalising your home, bright colours are great used as accent colours but can often be a turn-off if used as permanent features such as wall-tiles or kitchen units. Don’t let your personal taste affect your sale. Repainting in a neutral colour is a cost effective way to change the look of your rooms and they will look brighter and bigger. Confine colour to pictures, cushions and ornaments.

Define your rooms

Add a rug. Whether you have wood, laminate of wall to wall carpets, adding a rug can pull your rooms together by anchoring your furniture groups. Rugs can help establish seating and dining areas, define hallways and work as accents.

Eliminate any bad odours

Air your house regularly to clear smoking, cooking, pet smells - a put-off for any house hunter.

Add a spot of greenery

An interior is not fully dressed without plants or fresh cut flowers. If the corners of your rooms appear empty, add a palm or small tree, to bring a touch of the outdoors in. A simple bowl of daffodils or hyacinths will add a delicious scent to your home as well as colour.

First impressions count

You only have one chance to make a first impression. That means the outside of your home must look inviting and meticulous. Clear paths of dead leaves and plant debris; buy some attractive containers and plant with winter pansies, spring bulbs or some striking architectural plants.

The great outdoors

The garden is often viewed as an extra living space so treat it as such. If you have a back garden, or balconies, make these outdoor spaces look inviting. Prospective buyers will want to dream of warmer evenings when they can sit outside and enjoy a well-lit, well-tended garden or patio.

Bellway aims to make the house buying process as easy as possible, offering a number of schemes to ensure that buying your dream home is a dream experience – not a nightmare.

*Bellway is currently offering customers the chance to buy a new home for 75% of the current market value at its developments: Furlongs Edge in Market Harborough; The Observatory in Oakley vale Corby and the final two homes at Barton Fields in Earls Barton, Northants. Alternatively for those who have yet to sell their property but are eager to move, Bellway is speeding up the home buying process by offering to take buyers’ existing property in part exchange for a new home.

For further information visit Bellway.co.uk.