Brace yourself: Kirstie Allsopp wants you to put some work in. "Dust! What the hell is wrong with everybody? Just get a duster and dust. Do I have to do classes? Don’t tell me your life is too busy, this is about selling your house, you’re talking about huge amounts of money."
There’s nobody better to ask for advice if you want to sell your home – now or in the future – and would like to get the best possible price. Allsopp and Phil Spencer, her co-host on Location, Location, Location Kirtie and Phil's Love It Or List It - have been helping people move since 2000. But, as viewers will know, the 46-year-old expert is friendly but brisk and she doesn’t pull punches.
Kirstie is keen not to over-promise on what’s realistic when selling a house. She says: "It’s a percentage game. You have to ask yourself honestly, 'Did you overpay in the first place? Is the property still in the good condition it was in when you bought it?'" She also says: "You need to know the state of the market. If the Queen put in bi-fold doors on the back kitchen of Buckingham Palace, would it increase in value by ten per cent? No. But if you take the average family house with a narrow old-style kitchen, sitting room and dining room, classic semi-detached style, and you knock down a wall and put in bi-fold doors and a family kitchen then, yes, it will add ten per cent. I’ve no fear in saying that."
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Be careful to consider the state of the whole house though, if your budget is limited. "If something big needs fixing, such as the roof needs replacing, then do it. But let’s say Granny dies and her whole house is just very dated. There’s no point only doing the kitchen. People will say, 'Oh yes, a new kitchen but I’m going to rip it out because I’m doing the whole house anyway.' It’ll also show up just how much the other rooms need work. It’s about balance."
Allsopp may be the daughter of a baronet and live in London's Notting Hill – with her partner, property developer Ben Anderson and their two boys Bay and Oscar, aged ten and eight – but she is passionate about the struggle moving home can be, having spent more than two decades speaking to families across Britain, rich and poor, about their own difficulties in doing so. So what else will ensure your home sells – especially as the market slows?
First impressions count, says Kirstie: "Sometimes it’s difficult to see what needs doing when you live in a place, so ask a friend. Your agent won’t tell you, because they’re afraid they’ll offend you and you’ll fire them. Chipped tiles, scruffy unfinished DIY jobs, damp and mould. It’s not always necessary to get someone in – there is a lot you can do yourself.
"But be practical – big jobs, such as rewiring the house, will also mean you need to re-plaster and repaint. You may well not need to get into that."
As for those who want to buy a home right now, her best advice will surprise you: "Stop using the b****y internet! Houses are homes, they are physical entities. You can’t go and look at every place, I know that, but people get into this thing of rejecting properties that would really work for them, if they only went and had a look. Pictures are so misleading."
Kirstie and Phil’s Love It Or List It airs on TVNZ on Wednesdays at 7.30pm
This article was first published on the Daily Mail.
