Monday, October 05, 2009

Selling your French property - kerb appeal


Excellent ideas from Sarah Beeny in the Daily Telegraph over the week-end that are probably even more pertinent in my slice of rural France than they are in the UK.

I see it all the time with my business. I was doing a search last year for a professional couple from London - Mrs X was, and indeed still is, Chief Exec of a big property company.

We came to one particular property, walked through the (freshly painted) gates and she literally started skipping through the (immaculately tended) garden saying that this was "the one" before we'd even opened the (shiny new) front door.

This kind of thing is intensified here as the charentaise simply have no idea when it comes to presenting properties (note to Sarah....big business opportunity to launch a programme or two on TF1). Rusty gates, peeling shutters, patchy lawns and junk filled rooms seem to be the norm.

As it says in the article, on average it takes potential buyers just 8 seconds to decide if they like a property or not.

With winter coming up it's going to be even more important to sweep your drive, get the lighting right and make sure that yours is the most inviting & welcoming house on a buyers short-list.

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