Bored with Bare Walls? Bring Blank Spaces to Life with these Expert design Tips
By Rachel Ollington on 20th Sep 2024Everyone has walls, but choosing how to style them can be a tricky task. Too much blank space can feel cold and unfinished, while too much going on can look cluttered and confused. Meanwhile, when it comes to selling, your walls...
Autumn Kerb Appeal: Top Seasonal Tips for Dazzling Photos and First Impressions
By Rachel OllingtonAutumn is the season of magic and mayhem for selling your home. On the one hand, the light is lovely at this time of year, and when the sun hits the leaves on the trees, they take on a golden glow that gives your photos a...
High Price, Low Stress: How to Time Your Sale Perfectly For a Worry-Free Move
By Rachel OllingtonThe phrase “timing is everything” can be applied to every major decision in life, but how is it relevant to your move? Well, from advance preparations to meeting your deadlines to choosing an agent, the magic ingredient is...
Selling for the First Time: Our Guide to Getting it Right and Avoiding Beginner’s Mistakes
By Rachel OllingtonWhether you’re going upmarket to a bigger place, relocating for work or schools, or even downsizing from a longtime family home, selling for the first time is an exciting prospect in your life’s next chapter. Even so, the idea...
Moving Checklist: Everything You Need to Do Before, During, and After Selling Your Home
By Rachel OllingtonIf moving home is anything, it's a massive to-do list! Jobs to do right now, others in the future, and plenty of opportunity to wonder what you've missed. In short, there’s a lot going on, and the best way to avoid overwhelm is...
Viewings Feedback: Using Negative Buyer Comments to Boost Your Home’s Saleability
By The Vesta TeamYou’ve been on the market for a while, followed your agent’s advice on price, and had plenty of viewings, but nothing ever comes of them. Where do you go from here? It can be a frustrating experience when all you want to do is...
Summer Renovations: Project Inspiration for the Perfect Season to Upgrade Your Home
By Rachel OllingtonThere’s no better season for improving your home than the summer. With long and sunny evenings from up to 17 hours of daylight, there's so much more time to get things done before it gets dark, which means you can enjoy the...
Is Your Home Fit for Sale? Keep it in Shape with Our Simple Weekly Workout
By Rachel OllingtonWhether your home is already on the market or about to go up for sale, making sure it looks the part for viewings, even at short notice, is the way to get it sold. If you’ve ever visited any showhomes, you’ll have experienced...
Planting for Summer: Turn your Garden or Balcony into a Magical and Valuable Haven
By Rachel OllingtonWhether you're planning to sell in the brightest months or dreaming of long days and balmy evenings outdoors at home, May is the perfect moment to start planting for summer. And if a move is on the cards, a blooming garden or...
Selling to Your Tenant: Everything You Need to Know to Cut the Best Deal
By The Vesta TeamWhen opportunity knocks, it’s not always clear whether to say yes or no, particularly when it’s unexpected or means changing your plans. Selling to your tenant could be one of those times, and even if you’re planning to be a...
Outgrown Your Home? Getting it Right When it’s Time to Upsize
By Rachel OllingtonPeople outgrow their homes for all sorts of reasons, from pure practicalities to aspirational dreams. Maybe your family’s growing, you're thinking about schools, or you can simply afford to go upmarket. Whatever lies behind your...
Conflicting Valuations: How do You Know Which Agent has Given You the Right Price?
By Rachel OllingtonImagine putting your home on the market in spring, then missing the two best seasons to get the best price, and finally selling for less money in winter - how disappointing would that feel? Unfortunately, it's not an unusual tale,...
Four Ways to Declutter: Add Value and Space with the Perfect Method for You
By The Vesta TeamEven though it can add thousands to your selling price and give you more space to enjoy, decluttering can feel like a mountain to climb. As well as the dilemma of where to start, it's easy to lose momentum when you're halfway...
A New Look for 2024? Discover the Year’s First Major Trends for Home Interiors
By Rachel OllingtonStyle and comfort are the perfect combination for every home - not just for quality moments, but also for adding value when you want to move. Interior trends have a longer shelf life than the fickle world of fashion, and perhaps...
Going Nowhere: Is Your Asking Price or Estate Agent Holding Up Your Sale?
By Rachel OllingtonIf your home has been on the market for a while, something probably needs to change to get your move underway. The latest government figures show the market performing at about 80% of last year, with transactions in September 2023...
Moving for Schools: Get the Timing Right for Your Home Search, Sale and Children’s New Start
By Rachel OllingtonMoving home with your family is a momentous time, especially when it involves changing schools. And although it can be challenging for everyone, it can also be an exciting new chapter. Nonetheless, whether it’s switching from...
Selling in Winter: How to Play to the Season's Strengths to Move Home in Spring
By Rachel OllingtonIf you want to move home in spring, winter is the time to get it live on the market, but does anyone actually buy at this time of year? Well, yes, they do. It's true that activity levels are lower, mainly down to people waiting...
Stuck in Neutral? Does Your Home Need to be Beige to Sell for the Best Price?
By Rachel Ollington"Whatever you have in your rooms, think first of the walls" - wise words indeed from pattern and textile god William Morris (and nobody could call his designs neutral). However, if you read any lifestyle articles on selling your
Is Your Home Performing? Unlocking the Secrets of Your Rightmove Results Report
By Rachel OllingtonWith more than 9 out of 10 buyers searching for a property online, the way your home appears on websites like Rightmove and Zoopla directly impacts your chances of a sale. But the portals are more than just pages and pages of...
Accurate Valuations: How Do You Know You’re Getting the Right Price?
By Rachel OllingtonPrice is everything when selling your home. It doesn’t matter where you live, what you live in or what condition it’s in - if the price is wrong, you’ll be out of pocket or stuck where you are. Accurate valuations are...
Grand Designs: How to Use Planning Permission to Boost Your Home’s Value
By Rachel OllingtonHow do you feel about adding thousands to your home without making a single improvement? One of the magic words in property is ‘potential’, and getting planning permission to increase the amount of accommodation is a great way...
Gaining Extra Pounds: Fine Tune the Most Valuable and Saleable Parts of Your Home
By Rachel OllingtonNot every part of your home is created equal, and some have a quantifiably higher value than others. At the same time, there are those unique and saleable qualities that are less easy to put a figure on, but nonetheless play a...
Unhappy With Your Agent? The Biggest Tell-Tale Signs that it’s Time for a Change
By Rachel OllingtonIt seemed so exciting when your home first went on the market. You were full of anticipation around people coming to view, and your agent sounded convincing when they said they had buyers waiting. But that was months ago, and your...
Big Buyer Turn-Offs: Five Major Viewing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
By Rachel OllingtonYou've picked your estate agent, you're chuffed with your photos and description, and your home is priced to precision. Now all that's left is your viewings - what can go wrong? Well, quite a lot! There are plenty of pitfalls to...
You and Your Estate Agent: Five Ways to Work Together as a Top-Notch Team
By Rachel OllingtonPower couples, dynamic duos, dream teams… every goal is easier to reach when you've got someone on your side. Selling your home is no different, and by working closely with your estate agent, you're far more likely to sell...
Stress-Free Downsizing: Swap a Home That’s Too Big for Happiness, Financial Freedom and Your Ideal Lifestyle
By Rachel OllingtonOf all the reasons for moving home, downsizing can be the most overwhelming. It doesn’t matter if your home has become unmanageable or even if you know that moving to a smaller space will improve your life: just thinking about...
Selling Your Rental Home: Plan the Perfect Exit Without Losing Your Tenant or Income
By The Vesta TeamAlthough rents are going through the roof, yields are getting higher, and there’s massive demand from tenants, many landlords are selling their rental homes. For some, it’s part of their long-term plan, but for others, it’s...
Summer Selling: Hot Tips and Style Secrets for a Speedy Sale and Top Price
By Rachel OllingtonThe sun’s out, the sky’s blue, summer’s here, so it’s time to view! World-class poetry aside, with the sun shining bright and nature in bloom, the conditions are perfect for selling your home when it looks its best....
Setting the Scene: How to Be Ready for Viewings Every Day
By Rachel OllingtonNo matter how neat and tidy they are, people always ask us how their home should look on viewings and whether they can improve their presentation. While no one expects you to live in a perfect show home, buyers do react well to a...
Boost Your Sale Price: The Best Upgrades to Bowl Over Buyers and Sell Your Home for More
By Rachel OllingtonPushing your home's value to its full potential can make your next move bigger and better. That could mean more space, a larger garden, or a swisher location than you thought was possible. But where do you start? Well, we talk to...
Spring Viewings: Get Your Home Ready for the Year's Busiest Selling Season
By Rachel OllingtonSpring has been the most popular season to buy and sell a home for as long as we can remember, and with good reason. Plans are often hatched around the beginning of the year, and as the weather warms up and nature bursts into...
Win Over the Market: Five Reasons Why You're Better off Selling Your Home When Prices Cool
By Rachel OllingtonHow do you feel about the property market right now? It's peak prediction season in the press, with daily claims from experts that house prices are about to fall off a cliff, stagnate or even slowly rise. We know that most of...
Photography Secrets: Top Pro-Styling Tips to Give Your Home the Edge
By The Vesta Team"As soon as I saw the photo, I knew it was the one!" Such is the power of photography, and as a potential buyer's first introduction to your home, it can make or break a sale. Given how influential photos are, it's surprising how
Show Your Home's Heart: Instantly Unlock the Hidden Extra Value by Shining a Light on all the Existing Features
By Rachel OllingtonNot every home sells for its full potential value, and that’s often because the finest features are either hidden or under-presented. But you can add many thousands to your sale price simply by showing off what’s already...
Interior Motives: Start Your 2023 in Style with our Guide to the Latest Home Decor Trends
By The Vesta TeamWhat are your big plans this year? Fitness, wealth, travel, something else? Change is always in the air when January arrives. We're entering 2023 on the back of quite a ride. Lockdowns, Brexit, empty shelves, four prime ministers,...
Kill Your Bills: Turn a Period Property into a High-Performance Eco Home
By The Vesta TeamHave you ever known the costs of utility bills to be such a massive conversation? As well as being a hot topic at home and at work, the news is full of stories about soaring energy prices, future supply questions and the...
Christmas Selling: Why You Need to Start Now if You Want to Move Next Summer
By Rachel OllingtonIt’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, so isn't it a bit soon to be talking about moving home next summer? Usually, this time of year is all about office parties, family gatherings and frantic last-minute shopping, but...
Selling Off Market: Can You Still Get the Best Price and the Best Buyer?
By Rachel OllingtonIf 2022 is anything to go by, 2023 could be the year that selling homes off-market hits the mainstream. About 10% of property sales in the UK in 2022 have been off-market homes. That's more than ever before, and for a number of...
Winter Gardens: Wow Your Buyers with a Wonderland
By Rachel OllingtonGardens get a raw deal at Christmas. While everyone's thinking about getting together with family and friends, gardens and balconies are left out in the cold, cut off and forgotten behind the curtains with not so much as a passing...
Evening Viewings: Wow Your Buyers with a Warm Welcome when its Dark and Cold
By Rachel OllingtonAfter the clocks go back and the nights start earlier, viewings at your home happen in a whole new light. Most buyers will come for their first look in the evening on their way home from work, so instead of letting the sunshine in...
Changing Estate Agents: Could a Fresh Start be the Key to Getting Your Home Sold?
By Rachel OllingtonIt doesn't always work out with your first choice of estate agent. Perhaps things went well at first, but viewings are now thin on the ground. Maybe you sense your agent’s initial enthusiasm has begun to cool. Or you could be...
Love at First Sight: How to Make Your Home Irresistible to Buyers
By Rachel OllingtonAre you planning to move next year? If you are, you'll probably be thinking about getting ready for viewings and how to help buyers fall in love with your home. Getting the highest possible price in the shortest period of time is...
Selling Off Market: Can You Still Get the Best Price and the Best Buyer?
By Rachel OllingtonIf 2022 is anything to go by, 2023 could be the year that selling homes off-market hits the mainstream. About 10% of property sales in the UK in 2022 have been off-market homes. That's more than ever before, and for a number of...
2022 Design Trends: Our Guide to what's in Store for Next Year
By Rachel OllingtonIt's the middle of November, and your thoughts are probably turning to putting your feet up for Christmas. But with the new year just six weeks off, it's also natural and exciting to look forward to new beginnings, so what better...