Preparing your home for a summer sale

After nearly four decades of walking buyers through Wexbridge homes, we can tell you that very few sales are won by grand gestures. They are won in the first ninety seconds: the approach to the front door, the smell of the hall, the sense that a house has been looked after. Happily, most of what creates that impression costs very little.

Start outside. Buyers form their view from the kerb, so cut the grass, weed the path, clean the windows and, if the front door is tired, paint it - a £40 tin of exterior paint is the best return on investment in this business. Inside, the job is less about decorating than editing: clear the hallway, thin out furniture so rooms read at their full size, and box up anything you were going to pack anyway. You are moving; you may as well start.

Fix the small things, because buyers extrapolate. A dripping tap, a cracked pane, a door that sticks - each is trivial, but together they whisper that bigger things may have been neglected too. An afternoon with a screwdriver and a tube of sealant changes how a survey reads and how an offer is pitched.

The two jobs nearly always worth paying for: a proper clean - the deep, professional kind, especially kitchens, bathrooms and windows - and attention to anything a surveyor will flag, such as a slipped tile or blocked gutter. Dealing with these before launch keeps the sale steady at exactly the point, between offer and exchange, where sales most often wobble.

Finally, on summer specifically: gardens sell houses in June and July, so mow, water and put the bins out of sight before photography. And book the photographer for a bright morning - in our experience a good set of photographs adds more viewings than any portal upgrade ever has. If you would like a room-by-room opinion on your own home, any of us will happily provide one when we visit to value.