The 8-week plan to prepare your property for sale
Selling · 9 min read · Updated 31 July 2026
Preparation is the cheapest money you will spend on your sale — and the easiest to overspend on. A new kitchen rarely returns its cost; a $400 gardener and a decluttered hallway routinely do. Here is an eight-week plan, in order, with a clear line between what pays for itself and what does not.
Weeks 8–7: decide and appoint
Get two or three appraisals, and ask each agent for comparable sales that justify their number. Choose on demonstrated results — properties sold in your suburb, days on market, sale price against original guide — and negotiate the commission and the marketing schedule before you sign anything. Take the agency agreement away overnight.
At the same time, instruct a conveyancer or solicitor. In most states the contract of sale (and in Victoria, the vendor's statement) must be ready before the property can be marketed, and gathering title documents, plans and certificates takes longer than anyone expects.
Weeks 6–5: repairs, not renovations
Walk the property with fresh eyes and fix everything that reads as neglect: dripping taps, sticking doors, cracked tiles, blown bulbs, torn flyscreens, a gate that does not latch. Individually trivial; collectively they tell a buyer the house has not been cared for, and that assumption gets priced in.
Now is also the time to book trades, because good ones are booked out weeks ahead.
Weeks 4–3: paint, garden, declutter
Interior paint in a neutral tone is the highest-returning cosmetic spend in Australian residential property. Exterior tidying — mulch, edges, pressure-washed paths, a mown lawn — is second, because it decides whether a buyer arrives interested or sceptical.
Then remove roughly a third of your furniture and almost all of your personal items. Decluttering costs nothing and makes rooms read larger in both photographs and inspections. Rent a storage unit for six weeks if you need to; it is cheaper than a price reduction.
What is worth spending on — and what is not
| Job | Typical cost | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Deep clean, inside and out | $300–$800 | Always. Non-negotiable |
| Garden tidy and mulch | $400–$1,500 | Always. Drives first impressions |
| Interior repaint, neutral | $3,000–$8,000 | Usually pays for itself |
| Professional styling | $2,000–$6,000 | Worth it for empty or dated homes |
| Carpet clean or replace | $300–$4,000 | Clean yes; replace only if stained |
| Minor repairs and handyman | $500–$2,000 | Always. Removes the neglect signal |
| New kitchen | $15,000–$40,000 | Rarely returns cost before a sale |
| New bathroom | $12,000–$30,000 | Rarely. Fix and clean instead |
| Pool, deck, landscaping build | $10,000+ | No. Buyers discount your taste |
The rule of thumb: spend on presentation, not on improvement. Buyers pay a premium for a home that looks cared for and move-in ready. They do not reimburse you for capital works completed to your taste in the last month.
Week 2: photography and copy
Photography is the entire first impression — the overwhelming majority of buyers see your property on a screen before they see the street. Book a professional (never the agent's phone), shoot on a clear day, and include a floor plan; listings with floor plans attract materially more enquiry. Consider twilight shots if the property has a view, a pool, or good outdoor lighting.
Style the house the day before, not the morning of. Fresh flowers, clean benches, everything off the floors, cars out of the driveway, bins away.
Week 1: pricing and launch
Confirm the price strategy and method of sale with your agent, using comparable sales from the last ninety days rather than optimism. Review the listing copy and every photograph before it goes live — you know things about the property the copywriter does not.
The first two weeks of a campaign attract the best buyers, the ones already searching and ready to act. A property priced correctly at launch typically sells closer to asking than one that starts high and is corrected later, because by then the early buyers have moved on and the listing looks tired.
During the campaign
- Keep the property inspection-ready; you will get short-notice requests.
- Leave the house for every open home, and take pets with you.
- Ask for written feedback after every inspection, including buyer price expectations.
- Do not discuss price, motivation or timing with buyers — that is what you hired an agent for.
- If there is no meaningful offer by week three, review strategy before you review price.
The short version
Eight weeks: appoint the agent and conveyancer, fix everything broken, paint and tidy the garden, declutter hard, photograph professionally, price honestly, and launch. Spend on cleaning, gardens, paint and styling. Skip the new kitchen.
Sales & Leasing shortlists up to three of the best-performing agents for your property, with commissions already capped. Every agency in our network pays the identical fee, and only on a successful sale or lease — no sale, no fee.