Detailed before the photographs.

A buyer cannot easily judge how an aircraft has been maintained from a photograph. So they use what they can see as a proxy - and a well-kept exterior reads as a well-kept aircraft, fairly or otherwise.

The reverse is more expensive. Visible neglect invites a buyer to assume neglect elsewhere and to price that assumption into their offer, usually by far more than a detail would have cost.

There is also the walkaround. A prospective buyer runs a hand along the leading edge and looks into the wheel wells. A degreased belly and clean gear bays answer a question before it is asked.

Inside is where deals cool off. Marked leather, a stained carpet and a galley that smells of the last trip are what people remember from a viewing, and none of it is expensive to put right beforehand.

Some of it does have to be done in time. A spill left in a carpet becomes permanent, and at that point you are discussing a refurbishment allowance rather than showing a clean aircraft.

Which is the whole argument for doing this before the listing goes live rather than after the first viewing goes badly.

The order that works is simple: decide to sell, detail the aircraft, then shoot it. Everything a broker publishes comes off that shoot, and it stays online for as long as the aircraft is on the market.

If the aircraft is going to a pre-purchase inspection, it is worth going in clean as well. An inspector working on a clean airframe finds what is genuinely there rather than reporting on grime.

And if it is coming out of storage, allow more time. Bonded dirt and oxidised paint take longer than a routine detail, and rushing that stage shows in the photographs.