Deciding to sell up and move on to pastures new is very exciting but if you’re planning on putting your home on the market in the near future, you’re sure to want to do all you can to maximise the value of your property so that you can get the full asking price, or as close to it as possible.

There are all sorts of ways in which this can be achieved, ranging from tidying up the front garden to make a good first impression to painting the various rooms in neutral colours to help increase the chances of bagging that all-important sale.

But there’s something you may not have considered before and that’s how domestic pests can have an impact on the overall value of the property itself. Pests can cause a huge amount of damage to our homes and if you don’t have repair work carried out, your home will be instantly devalued because of this.

In actual fact, recent research from Confused.com revealed that a pest problem could decrease the value of a property by up to 20 per cent – which is bad news for anyone planning to sell and who knows they do have an issue in this regard.

And, of course, you need to consider how offputting it may be to prospective buyers to have a pest control problem in the first place. If you do have an infestation of something, be it cockroaches, silverfish, rats, mice or something else, enlisting the services of a 24 hour emergency pest control company would certainly be a wise move.

What is most advisable is that, whether you’re planning on selling your home or otherwise, you don’t rest on your laurels if you know you’ve got a problem where pests are concerned. 

The issue is unlikely to resolve itself and could soon spiral out of control, so deal with it as soon as you become aware of it to protect your home and the health of your family.