IT TOOK me 45 minutes to get out of the B&Q car park last week. I had only bought a pot of paint, but the road was completely blocked by crowds of DIY enthusiasts stocking up for the Easter weekend. They clearly had far more ambitious plans than mine, with stacks of laminate flooring, shelving and tiles crammed into their cars. One family was even trying to pack the kitchen sink into the boot. The spring weather has triggered the seasonal desire to give a lift to our homes, and with Easter marking the official start of the house-selling season homeowners are using every trick in the book to attract the highest possible offer.

Out go the tired carpets, the busy curtains and pine country-style kitchens. In come smart laminate floors, pared-down blinds and pale kitchen units. Walls are given a fresh lick in a fairly neutral hue. The garden is tidied, the front door repainted and the new letterbox polished. How can buyers resist? Quite easily, apparently.

According to recent research by B&Q, we could be wasting our time. The study by the DIY chain, along with the estate agent Haart, tells us that sellers could lose Pounds 47 million this year because they have failed to do the right jobs. It's down to the old style-versus-substance debate. We are spending too much time and money on cosmetic improvements at the expense of all the boring maintenance work that we would all rather forget.

B&Q cautions that superficial improvements might attract a good offer (buyers make up their minds within eight seconds, it seems), but unless homeowners spend as much effort to get the fundamentals right they risk losing their sale if problems show up on the survey. About 10 per cent of buyers choose to have a full survey, of which one in ten shows that about Pounds 4,700 of maintenance is required.

Getting your house in order is sound advice considering the state of the property market. Prices might be rising again and buyers outnumbering sellers, but we are hardly in the throes of a boom. Buyers are still cautious and pricesensitive. They might be prepared to overlook small problems if they sense there is competition from other buyers, but in most cases, if the property is less than perfect, they will demand money off or insist that the problem is put right.