Firstly, you need to decide what you are planning to do to your property. Here is a section that will, hopefully, help you do this.

Before saying anything relevant about this article, know that most of what is here, you already know. All we’re interested in, is helping you to really believe in yourself and to give a few pointers. Before, after or during making your property special, you will need someone to sell it for you. This is because the market is too competitive to allow for sole owners to market their property effectively.

You now have a choice of who to allow to sell your property. Here are a few things to bear in mind:

1. Often, selling a new property (off-plan) is more desirable to an agent because they can get a much higher commission - at least double the going rate - which is 5% + VAT.
2. Make sure your property is not just another listing at a minimal effort. Find someone who really takes an interest in what you have to offer; find someone who will go not just one extra mile, but many, many more.
3. Use someone you can trust. We can’t be more straightforward than that.

If you want us to help you get your property well on its way with all our other advantages then - if you please - get in touch with Fitzgerald Estates Ltd or contact Daryl directly (the other one).

At the end of the day, you want to create something more desirable. However, what we find desirable may not convince someone else to feel the same way. After all, YOUR mother’s cooking is always the best (traditionally, at least! )

Desirable is just another way of saying ‘worth having, advantageous, or pleasing.

Having this at the back of our mind, we need to look at a few other aspects:

• What kind of property is it?
• Where is your property?
• What is your neighbourhood like?
• What is your budget?

Some things apply to every category you fall into, here are just three:

Simple is more attractive than over personal. The trick is to create a simple area with a personal touch; so neither a warehouse, nor a memorabilia museum. The simple reason for this is that a guest/prospective buyer needs to also feel comfortable in your house. But don’t despair! It’s not a fine line you must imperatively tread, but more of a controlled area you can glide your way through.

Another note is about unison – so we guess ‘harmonising’ - for example:

You want to do up your house to sell it; you have a small budget and it only contains 2 rooms, but they both need some work. One of the rooms is your favourite, so you want to pump most of the money into that one room, since no one really goes into the other one anyway...

Right, well stop there!

We’ve completely forgotten what we planned to do. You are selling your house: people don’t buy entire houses just because they like the guest toilet, or just the living room. It’s a package. Take a step back; don’t think about what’s just going to please you, think about what’s going to make someone else buy your place for the best price that also pleases you.

You will have to split up your budget evenly, according to size and type of room. Doing up one room but neglecting the other will not increase the value of your house to its maximum potential. This can be done in two ways:

1. Complete one room at a time. This way, you see the progress better. However, it takes longer and is not cost- effective.
2. Do the same thing for each room at one time - e.g., re-do the flooring of both at one time, or paint the walls at one time. This doesn’t mean the floor and paint has to be the same in each room though.

Interior and exterior. Believe it or not, the best way to think about this is that the exterior of your house is another room - possibly the largest room there is. There is so much you can do to the outside to create a certain effect; after all, it is the first thing you see and first impressions mean a lot.

Right, enough notes.

Identifying what is positive and negative about your house, and the area you live in can automatically change what you can/can’t do. Trying to make a beach villa in a remote village in the foothills of Troodos, or having a huge fireplace when you live in a block of apartments needs some thinking about. To be honest, if we build a palace in an undesirable area, the value of the palace will have gone down because of the area. This idea goes back to “location, location, location”.

Identify your property as honestly as you can:

What are the main GOOD features about your property? For instance:- I have a large living room; the garden is full of fruit trees that surround the whole house; there are 3 bedrooms and each bedroom has its own balcony, including the living room.

What are the main BAD features about your property? In my case – again – :- not all of the exterior is painted; an old, dirty-grey carpet covers the entire house; the fence around the house is either broken, old or rusted; all doors/cupboards are of very dark brown varnish, and the kitchen is lacking in every way - not to mention the fact that I live in the not-too-nice part of town.

Out of all these problems, the biggest let-down would definitely be the location. Take this as an example; to even begin thinking about selling my place I need to make it stand out. So, already a fairly large chunk of my budget will go towards the outside (presentation to the public). An interested member of ‘the public’ becomes a ‘potential customer’, and from here he may or may not become ‘a client’. Sales are made on this kind of ladder.

Now I piece together the biggest let-down and any relevant bad features. Therefore, exterior, fence and garden need my first attention.

By either using the high or low budget for the worst part, I have now tackled the biggest portion of making your property special. The stress is on the ‘either high or low budget’ because the overall picture needs to be balanced, and an unbalance in either direction WILL sadly create a negative response.

From here, there are some examples that create a certain moods. Bearing in mind everything on this page, you need to decide on what mood to go for. Try to stick to one style, as this brings ‘harmony’ to your house; or at the very least, stick to the same style for similar rooms - eg, bedrooms and bathrooms go together because of their personal level; the kitchen and utility room; the living room and hallway as presentation areas (for instance)

These are some examples of solid styles; you don’t have to follow these as strongly as I have presented them; they are simply here to help you to think and to give you ideas. If you would like help with presenting your property, don’t hesitate to ask for help. E-mail Andrea

• Go for a Western styled beach villa.
• Love that traditional Greek style?
• Break the limits - own the Modern with a touch of Class!