Preparing Your Home for Market: What Actually Matters

By Leigh Martinuzzi of Martinuzzi Group – eXp Realty | Sunshine Coast Real Estate

Preparing a home for sale is not about making it perfect. It is about removing whatever distracts a buyer, then showing the property the way it deserves to be seen.

The simplest way to think about it is to work backwards from one date. Photography day.

Your photos are the only part of the campaign every single buyer sees, and most of them see nothing else before deciding whether your home is worth leaving the house for. A shoot runs about ninety minutes. Those ninety minutes carry more weight than anything else you will do, and almost everything that ruins a photo costs nothing to fix.

So here is the whole process, working back from that morning.

Four to six weeks out: repairs, trades and clearing space

Anything that needs a tradesperson, a delivery or a decision starts here, because lead times are what catch people out.

Repairs. Dripping taps, sticking doors, cracked tiles, torn flyscreens, blown globes. Paint touch ups in high traffic areas and around door frames. Anything a building and pest report would flag is better dealt with now, on your terms, than mid negotiation when a buyer has the upper hand. Service the pool equipment, air conditioning and any pumps included in the sale.

Compliance. Two Queensland requirements are worth starting early, because both take time and neither is optional.

Smoke alarms must be photoelectric and interconnected, so that when one sounds they all do. They are required in every bedroom, in hallways connecting bedrooms, and on each storey. For any sale contract signed after the end of 2021 the seller has to have them in before the property transfers, and it is confirmed on the transfer paperwork. If your home still has the older single alarms, sort it now rather than three days before settlement.

If you have a pool, you need a pool safety certificate before you enter into a contract, or alternatively a Form 36 notice telling the buyer there is no certificate and what would be needed to get one. A copy of that notice also goes to the QBCC. Penalties for getting this wrong are not small, so it is worth handling early and properly.

While you are at it, track down any approvals or certificates for past work on the house and take copies. Buyers ask, and having them ready prevents an awkward pause later.

Clearing space. Aim to remove about a third of what is in each room. Buyers read space as value, and a full room reads as a small room no matter what the measurements say.

Start where you look least. The garage, the shed, the spare room, the linen cupboard. Those are the spaces that quietly tell a buyer the home has run out of room. Short term storage is worth considering for anything you want to keep but do not need right now, and book a skip early because availability gets tight.

Two weeks out: clean, garden and present

This is where the property starts to look like the version buyers will meet.

Inside. A proper deep clean, including windows, skirtings, light fittings and ceiling fans. Carpets professionally cleaned and hard floors polished. Bench tops cleared back to a few considered items. Personal photographs and fridge magnets packed away, so a buyer can picture themselves living there rather than looking at someone else’s life.

Then check every room for smell, particularly if you have pets. Sellers notice it least and buyers notice it first. It is the one thing nobody will tell you about to your face.

Outside. Mow, edge, weed and mulch. Fresh mulch is the cheapest visual win available anywhere in this process. Prune anything blocking a window, a view or the path to the front door. Pressure wash the driveway, paths, decking and exterior walls. Clear the gutters and roof valleys, which show up clearly from the air if there is drone footage. Tidy the sheds, because if a buyer can open it, they will look inside it.

There is a good reason the outside matters this much. A buyer forms an opinion in roughly fifteen seconds, long before they reach the living room. The driveway, the entry, the front door and the smell of the home carry more weight than almost anything inside it.

Photography day, room by room

Everything needs to be ready before the photographer arrives, not during the shoot. Anything we ask you to move is temporary and goes straight back afterwards.

Living areas. Television off. Pedestal fans removed and ceiling fans switched off, so the blades photograph cleanly instead of blurring. Children’s toys, pet bedding and bowls packed away. Shelves and surfaces decluttered. Remotes, magazines, chargers and cables out of sight. Family photos, cards and seasonal decorations away. Lounge covers off, unless they are hiding damage.

Dining. Clear the table apart from one small centrepiece. Remove tablecloths and placemats. Push all the chairs in evenly. Clear the sideboards and buffets.

Kitchen. Benches completely clear. Toaster, kettle and other appliances away. Every surface wiped, including the fridge, with no fingerprints. Magnets, photos and notes off the fridge. Tops of the fridge and cupboards cleared. Tea towels, soap, dish racks and cleaning products put away. Sink empty and dishwasher closed. Bins, floor mats, key racks and stationery out of the room.

Bathrooms. Every toiletry out of the shower, bath and basin. A bucket kept out of sight makes it quick to put everything back afterwards. Cleaning products gone. Hand towels and bath mats away, with fresh matching towels hung neatly. Mirrors, screens and tiles thoroughly cleaned. Toys, bins and scales removed. Toilet seats and lids down.

Bedrooms. Beds made with clean, ironed linen and matching pillows. Bedside lamps on. Wardrobe doors closed. Boxes and stored items cleared from the corners. Wall art straightened. Toys, laundry baskets and chargers removed.

Outside areas. Mow, collect the clippings, trim the edges and weed the beds. Every car out of view, parked across the road or in a closed garage. Trailers, bikes, bins, hoses and gardening equipment moved out of shot. Washing and pegs off the line. Outdoor table set, chairs pushed in, cushions straightened. Mail cleared from the letterbox. Pets and any sign of them removed.

The final sweep on the morning. Every light on, including lamps and cabinet lighting. Blinds and curtains fully open, windows aired. Ceiling fans off. Bins well out of shot, including from the street. Fresh flowers or fruit in the kitchen and living area. Then plan to be out of the way for the full shoot.

If you are on acreage

On a rural block the land is a significant part of what a buyer is paying for, and drone photography will show all of it. These matter as much as the house.

Sweep the driveway, define the edges and fill the potholes, because it is the first and last thing every buyer sees. Make sure the entry and gates are tidy, working and clear of overgrowth. Clear fence lines of fallen timber and weeds so the boundaries read properly from the air, and clear the tracks and walking paths so we can show the full extent of the land.

Tidy the sheds and outbuildings inside and out. Group machinery, trailers and materials neatly or move them out of view. Clean the pool surrounds and decking, arrange the furniture and put the umbrellas up. Keep tanks, pumps and dams accessible and presentable. Slash the paddocks where you can get to them, and move stock if they will be in shot.

One thing people get wrong: tidy the bush edges without over clearing them. Buyers looking at acreage want the natural setting, so it should look cared for rather than stripped back. There is a real difference between the two, and it shows immediately in drone footage.

Before you spend a dollar

The most common mistake we see is money spent on the wrong things. A seller renovates a kitchen and recovers very little of it, while the overgrown entry that turned buyers off before they reached the front door goes untouched.

The simple test is whether a dollar either improves how the property photographs or removes a question a buyer would otherwise ask. If it does neither, leave it.

Usually worth it: a professional deep clean and carpet clean, decluttering and storage, garden tidy and mulch, pressure washing, paint touch ups, fixing anything visibly broken or unsafe, modest styling, updating tired tapware and light fittings, and resolving compliance before it becomes a negotiating point.

Usually not: full kitchen or bathroom renovations right before a sale, new flooring throughout when a clean would do, landscaping that will not establish in time, adding a room or deck to lift the price, replacing appliances that work, and anything that cannot be finished calmly before photography.

We have written about where renovation money works hardest in more detail here, if you are weighing up something larger.

The honest version is this. Presentation influences how quickly a property sells and how hard buyers compete for it. It rarely changes the fundamental value of the home. The job at a walkthrough is to find the few things that will genuinely move the result, and to say plainly when something is not worth your money.

You do not have to work this out alone

Nobody expects a seller to run this process from scratch. At a pre photography walkthrough we go through the property room by room, agree what is worth doing, and build a plan around the time you actually have.

And if you are about to spend money on something significant, call first. That conversation is free, it takes an hour, and it has saved people a great deal more than it has ever cost them.

Want the full checklist?

We have put the whole thing into a printable guide, including the complete room by room list for photography day and the acreage notes.

Read Preparing Your Home for Markets, and your solicitor or conveyancer can confirm how any of it applies to your contract.