Preparing your home for inspections.

First impressions decide your campaign. Most buyers form a view within the first 30 seconds of walking through the front door — and that view rarely changes. The good news: presentation is the one part of selling you have near-total control over, and the return on a well-prepared home routinely runs into tens of thousands of dollars.

This guide covers decluttering, staging, repairs and styling — how to present your home so buyers feel compelled to bid.

01 · The brief

Start with the brief.

Before you move a single piece of furniture, get clear on who you’re presenting to.

• Family home in a school zone? You’re presenting to families. Show the backyard, the kids’ bedrooms, the storage.
• Boutique apartment? You’re presenting to professionals or downsizers. Show light, view, lifestyle.
• Entry-level house? You’re presenting to first-home buyers. Show that the property is move-in ready and not a project.
• Investment-grade? You’re presenting to investors. Show low maintenance and rentable bones.

Every styling decision flows from this. The same vase belongs in one campaign and looks out of place in another.

02 · Phase one

Declutter ruthlessly.

Decluttering is the highest-ROI step in the entire process and costs nothing but time. Buyers can’t see space if it’s full of your stuff. They certainly can’t imagine themselves living there if they’re walking past your family photos.

The 50% rule

Remove half of what’s currently in each room. Half the furniture, half the surfaces, half the wardrobe contents. Buyers look in your wardrobes, your pantry, your garage. Empty space reads as generous storage. Crammed space reads as not enough storage.

Room-by-room targets

• Living room — no more than three pieces of seating, one coffee table, one rug, one or two pieces of wall art. Remove side tables, ottomans, footstools, and most cushions.
• Kitchen — benchtops cleared except for one or two carefully chosen pieces (a fruit bowl, a single appliance). Everything else into cupboards.
• Bedrooms — bed, two bedside tables, one chair if the room takes it. Nothing under the bed. Wardrobes half-empty.
• Bathrooms — no toothbrushes, no soap, no half-empty bottles. One folded towel per rail, ideally fresh white.
• Study — monitor, keyboard, one plant, one notebook. Hide cables. Empty the recycling bin.
• Garage — this is harder than it looks. Half-fill the floor, ideally. Buyers checking storage capacity will open the door.

Personal items

Family photos, religious items, hobby collections, sports memorabilia, fridge magnets — all of it goes into storage for the duration of the campaign. Buyers need to imagine their lives in the space. They can’t do that while looking at yours.

Buyers can’t see space if it’s full of your stuff. Empty space reads as generous storage. Crammed space reads as not enough.

03 · Phase two

Fix what’s obviously broken.

Anything obviously broken signals deferred maintenance to a buyer — and deferred maintenance in one place implies deferred maintenance everywhere. The instinct is to think “the buyer will accept it as-is.” The reality is that the buyer will mentally double the repair cost and subtract it from their offer.

The non-negotiable list

• Replace cracked or missing tiles
• Fix leaking taps, running toilets, slow drains
• Replace dead light bulbs — every single one, including downlights
• Fix sticky doors, broken handles, loose hinges
• Patch and paint over wall damage, scuff marks, kids’ drawings
• Re-grout silicone around showers, baths and kitchen splashbacks
• Service the air conditioning before the agent demonstrates it at the first open
• Mow, edge and weed the front and back garden
• Pressure-wash paths, driveways, and any tired-looking external paving

The judgement calls

Some repairs deliver three or four times their cost. Others don’t. Use this rule of thumb: any cosmetic repair under $2,000 that affects a buyer’s first impression is worth doing. Anything structural — a re-stump, a re-roof, a full electrical rewire — usually isn’t, unless the property is otherwise unmarketable. Buyers expect to pay for major work themselves and have it factored in their finance.

04 · Phase three

Style the final 30%.

Once the property is decluttered and repaired, styling does the final 30%. There are three options.

Option 1 — Full property styling

Professional stylists remove your furniture, replace it with theirs, and present the property as a magazine-ready space for 4 to 6 weeks. Cost varies by size and tier — $4,000 to $15,000 is typical for a four-bedroom Melbourne home. Best for vacant properties, properties with tired furniture, or premium campaigns where every dollar of presentation lift matters.

Option 2 — Partial styling

Your furniture stays; the stylist adds accent pieces, art, rugs, cushions, bedlinen and tabletop styling. Cost runs $1,500 to $5,000. Best for properties with decent existing furniture that just needs lifting.

Option 3 — DIY styling

You do it yourself with a clear brief. The right approach if your home is already well-furnished and well-presented, and your buyer doesn’t expect a styled property. Buy three or four pieces — fresh white bedlinen for the master, a styled tabletop in the dining room, a neutral throw for the living room couch, one or two new framed art pieces — and stop there.

Universal styling rules

• Light the space. Open every blind, switch on every lamp, even during the day. Dark rooms photograph badly and feel small in person.
• Fresh flowers in the kitchen and main living area for every open.
• One mid-sized indoor plant in any room that lacks life. Real, not fake.
• Towels, bedlinen, cushions in white, oatmeal or muted tones. Avoid patterns.
• Hide the bin, the laundry basket, the pet bowl, the litter tray. They’re scent triggers as well as visual ones.

Stage proportionally. A $4,000 deep clean and partial styling delivers most of the lift on a sub-$1M property.

05 · Open day

The 24 hours before an open.

Even a perfectly styled property needs a routine.

• Vacuum and mop every floor, including under the beds.
• Wipe every bench, sink and bathroom surface.
• Make every bed tightly. Tuck the sheets military-style if you have the patience — it photographs.
• Open windows for 30 minutes to clear stale air.
• Switch on every light, including bedside lamps, kitchen pendants and feature lights.
• Put on subtle background ambience — light music, never the TV.
• Brew coffee or bake something simple 20 minutes before. The smell is a cliché because it works.
• Take the pets out for the duration. No exceptions.
• Walk through the property as a buyer would, from the front gate. Anything that catches your eye negatively, fix it.

06 · Street appeal

The view from the kerb.

A buyer’s view from the kerb determines whether they walk inside with optimism or scepticism. Street appeal carries more weight than any single internal feature.

• Mow and edge the lawn the day before, not the morning of (the smell of fresh-cut grass is great; the noise during an open is not).
• Sweep paths, the driveway, and any external stairs.
• Repaint or pressure-wash the front door. The single most photographed surface of your home.
• New doormat. $30. Always.
• Trim any tree that’s hiding the front of the house. Buyers — and their finance valuers — need to see what they’re buying.
• Remove the wheelie bins from view. Take them down the side of the house or into the garage.
• If the letterbox is tired, replace it. $80–$150 and immediate lift.

07 · Pitfalls

Mistakes to avoid.

• Over-personalising the styling. Beige, white, oatmeal, eucalyptus. Buyers buy a blank canvas they can colour themselves.
• Hiding flaws instead of disclosing them. Mould behind freshly painted walls, cracks plastered the morning of the open. Both will be found at building inspection and both will cost more than they hid.
• Leaving the property in mid-renovation. Either finish, or undo. Half-tiled bathrooms and bare-stud walls kill campaigns.
• Putting too much pressure on the open. The campaign runs 3 to 4 weeks. The first weekend matters most, but every open is a chance. Don’t burn out on a marathon dress rehearsal.
• Ignoring scent. The single biggest difference between a property that feels new and one that feels lived-in is smell. Air everything out. Avoid heavy artificial fragrances. Stick to clean, neutral, fresh.

In two lines

Buyers don’t buy houses. They buy a feeling.

That this is the one, that it’s better than the others, that they’d be foolish not to act. Your job during preparation is to remove every reason for a buyer to feel anything else.

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This guide is general information. Costs and timeframes vary by property, region and market conditions.