Cleaning a flat before a sale in Bratislava

Cleaning a flat before a sale or a photo shoot in Bratislava, from €46. A buyer decides in the first ten seconds after walking in, and much of that impression comes from things they never consciously register: smell, light, and whether the flat looks looked-after.

Why it pays for itself

A flat is not sold on its condition but on the idea of it. A neglected kitchen unit and grey grout in the bathroom get converted by the buyer into a renovation budget — even one they would never spend — and that number comes off the offer. A hundred euros of cleaning routinely decides several thousand.

The second reason is the photographs. The listing is chosen from them, and a photo shows everything the eye loses in a room: water marks on the glass, dust on the sill, fingerprints on glazed doors.

Before the photo shoot

Windows and frames — on a photograph the window is the largest source of light and every streak shows up in every shot. Mirrors and glass. The kitchen including fronts and the splashback. The bathroom in detail: taps, shower enclosure, grout. Floors and skirting. Limescale, which reads worse on camera than in the room.

We also recommend what we do not do ourselves: clear personal items off visible surfaces, take the magnets off the fridge and the photographs down. The buyer is meant to picture themselves, not you.

Before viewings

Before the first viewing a deep clean makes sense, including the oven, fridge and windows. For later ones a maintenance pass on the day is enough — bathroom, kitchen, floors, air the rooms.

Smell

The most underrated factor. Cigarettes, a pet, damp in the bathroom or a stale empty flat are what a buyer remembers even when they cannot name it. Scented candles do not fix it — they mask it for an hour and then you have both.

The source has to go: textiles washed or extraction-cleaned, the kitchen degreased, the traps flushed. Where smoke or animal odour has soaked into walls and ceiling, ozone treatment is what resolves it.

An empty flat

When the flat is empty it cleans differently and better: we reach the places where a wardrobe stood for years, and those are exactly what a viewer notices — pale rectangles on the floor and dust behind the bed.

Price

By the number of rooms and bathrooms, as with any clean: from €46 for a one-bedroom, €54 for two, €62 for three. The add-ons that are almost always booked before a sale — windows at €12 each, oven €20, fridge €16 — have fixed rates. For estate agents booking repeatedly we set up a framework agreement with monthly invoicing.