How To Prepare For An Inspection?

This is probably where most vendors fail to maximize the potential of their Bali Property: they neglect to dress it up and present it in a less than favorable state.

It doesn’t take much to prepare an inspection for a house and it is worth the effort. You will get a better price and a quicker sale if your villa shines in its best light and stands out among the crowd.

What to do?

It’s quite simple: your Bali villa needs to look prettier and more attractive than the rest. Let’s start with the pretty look. You may not be the best judge here, after all, it is your villa and owners have a tendency to overrate their babies. Why don’t you get someone else to walk through your property and point out, what he or she thinks would need to be done to spruce it up and make it pretty?

Here are some simple and inexpensive things that can make a huge difference. Make sure your villa is clean. Open the windows and let the fresh air in. Switch on the AC or fans and the lights. Put up some flowers. Remove as much of your stuff as you possibly can.

Paint job? When was your villa painted last time? More than 2-3 years ago? Well, then this is most likely something you can’t avoid getting done. Buy some fresh paint and maybe rethink the entire color scheme of your interior. It may be fun.

How is your floor looking? I have seen sad-looking floors that simply needed a thorough cleaning job to look fresh again. If you have a terrazzo floor that has aged badly and looks stained, consider getting it repolished and it will look like new. It was less expensive than you think.

The condition and impression of your roof is another very important aspect, particularly here in the tropics. Any stains that indicate leaks? If you have an alang-alang (elephant grass) roof with those ugly black or red patches everywhere, consider replacing it before you go to the market. It’s a big turn-off for a prospective buyer if he realizes that the roof is the first thing he will have to fix or replace after having bought a (not so) new house. Most buyers have no clue what a roof reno will cost and overestimate the expense and hence will shy away from buying your villa.

Let’s step outside now and look at your garden. In most villas we have seen, the gardens would benefit hugely from a bit of professional attention, and believe me, it makes such a difference. And the good thing is, it really doesn’t cost much and it’s almost instant. For less than 1.000 USD you can create wonders and transform a property. But please get a pro to help you here.

Now that you have taken care of the most important cosmetics of your villa, let’s have a look at one more thing that’s super important for the first impression your property will make on a buyer. And that’s your stuff. Be honest to yourself: how messy is your villa on a scale from 1 (super organized and neat) to 10 (really and badly cluttered). Isn’t this the best moment to clean things up? You will have to do it anyway once the villa is sold. So why not do it now! It will make your villa look larger and more expensive and you might even enjoy it more while waiting for a buyer.

Let’s have a last look at the immediate neighborhood. I know that’s not entirely your responsibility but it is important to at least be aware of what is out there to turn away a potential buyer. Any garbage or litter on the access road? Any bad smells? Use some incense sticks before the inspection.