Making an Entrance: How to make your Hallway impress.
The entrance hallway is the way in and out of your home, often busy and cluttered, taking an objective look at it will help you visualise what impression it will give potential buyers.
Your hallway is often the first part of your home that any visitor will see, it can also be the most convenient place to store/dump coats, shoes and bags. The home of dog leads and poo bags, or wellies and woolly hats, there is probably a bowl filled with random keys somewhere too.
The entrance hallway is the way in and out of your home, an area of high traffic....and it can show. But, if you are looking to buy, this will be the first impression. It is the first part that you see. It tells the story of what it is like to live in this property.
Is it a tangle to get through the door?
Can you barely pick your way through the shoes, or do you have to wrestle with coats just to make it through to the other side like a round on Total Wipeout?
What impression does your hallway make of the rest of your home?
We want our homes to be welcoming and inviting. Especially when we are trying to sell.
Imagine walking into a luxurious hotel. The door is easy to open, and the entrance is clutter-free. You feel welcome and as if the property is drawing you in, inviting you to explore and see what is inside. Now I know that you probably don’t have a doorman to open the door for you, but you can definitely take some tips from the hospitality industry when marketing your home for sale.
Luxury hotel managers will walk around the hotel, looking at everything through the eyes of their guests. They want to ensure a wonderful experience and they pay particular attention to the entrance, as this will set the tone for the whole visit.
What do they see? How does it make them feel?
Are they going to receive a warm welcome? Is the entrance inviting them in? Or will they be met by terrible parking, piles of mess and a grumpy receptionist?
You can do this for your home too.
Try walking through your front gate - is it easy to open? Is the path clear? Slippery? Are there leaves everywhere, or are the bushes overgrown?
Does the doorbell work?
Have you sellotaped an old tatty note for a delivery man to the front door?
Have you left Christmas lights up way past Christmas?
Or do you still have the Halloween pumpkin slowly melting away on the doorstep?
Is the door stiff? Or is the handle broken? You don’t want a struggle opening the door to be the first impression. And you certainly don’t want the viewers left out in the cold because they rang the doorbell that doesn’t work.
Once the door is opened, what can you see?
A welcoming entrance or a mass of clutter?
A lovely scent and ambient lighting or a lamp with no bulb and a pile of teenagers’ smelly trainers?
Really look with objective eyes at what your viewers will see.
When you live in the home every day, you can become blind to things that may not make the best impression to a potential buyer. I have often had a client present their home ready for photography, and then when the images come back, they are not happy with the amount of clutter that can be seen.
Your entrance is the first part of any viewing - make it count!
For more advice on how you can maximise the first impression of your home, get in touch!
