5 Ways To Quickly Add Value When Selling Your Home
5 Ways To Quickly Add Value When Selling Your Home
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When selling your home, there are a number of things that you can do to add value and make it more attractive to potential buyers. These include sprucing up the landscaping, making sure the exterior of the home is well-maintained. Adding a fresh coat of paint, making sure the front door and shutters are in good condition. Consider outdoor lighting options while making sure the interior is well-maintained. Replacing or refinishing flooring, adding modern fixtures, decluttering and depersonalizing. Staging the home to appeal to potential buyers, adding furniture to make the home look inviting, using neutral colors and décor to appeal to buyers. Make sure the home is well-lit. Researching the market to determine the right price, making sure the price is competitive and attractive to potential buyers.
1. Curb Appeal
When it comes to adding value to your home, one of the most important things is curb appeal. This is the first impression potential buyers get when they drive up to your home, so it’s important to make sure it looks its best. To do this, you should spruce up the landscaping, make sure the exterior of the home is well-maintained, add a fresh coat of paint, make sure the front door and shutters are in good condition, and add outdoor lighting.
Spruce up the landscaping
When it comes to adding value to your home, sprucing up the landscaping can make a big difference. This can include adding flowers, plants, and shrubs, as well as trimming trees and bushes. Fresh mulch on all the beds around the exterior of the homes and a nice, neat edged lawn can make the house really stand out.
Make sure the exterior of the home is well-maintained
In addition to sprucing up the landscaping, it’s also important to make sure the exterior of the home is well-maintained. This includes checking for any damage to the siding, roof, windows, and doors, as well as making sure the gutters and downspouts are in good condition.
Add a fresh coat of paint
Adding a fresh coat of paint to the exterior of the home can make a big difference when it comes to adding value. This is especially true if the existing paint is faded or chipped. Now this will depend on the siding of the home, vinyl just needs to be pressure washed, fiber cement may need to be painted if it’s older. Brick used to never be painted but the trend these days is to often paint brick especially in older homes in areas of revitalization.
Make sure the front door and shutters are in good condition
The front door and shutters are one of the first things potential buyers will notice, so it’s important to make sure they are in good condition. This includes making sure the paint is fresh and the hardware is in good working order. If the hardware is dated it’s a good idea to replace it with a more modern look perhaps adding a keyless door handle.
Add outdoor lighting
Adding outdoor lighting can add a lot of value to your home, as it can make it look more inviting and welcoming. This can include adding lights to the front of the house, as well as walkways and pathways. Hard wired exterior lights can be expensive and not something that is worthwhile installing when selling your home, however solar powered lighting can be bought for relatively little cost. While most buyers will tour the house during the day when the lights are off, it's a good idea to have some evening/night time pictures in the listing presentation and interested buyers could do a drive by at night.
2. Interior Upgrades
In addition to curb appeal, it’s also important to make sure the interior of the home is in good condition. This includes making sure the interior is well-maintained, adding fresh paint, adding new flooring or refinishing existing , adding modern fixtures, and decluttering and depersonalizing. Remember some upgrades are just necessary to get the best price and the most interest from buyers so the investment should not be seen as a dollar for dollar return. This is why it’s important to spend money wisely and look at different approaches to upgrades.
Make sure the interior is well-maintained
When it comes to adding value to your home, it’s important to make sure the interior is well-maintained. This includes checking for any damage to the walls, floors, and ceilings, as well as making sure the plumbing and electrical systems are in good working order. Regular maintenance is key to having a house ready to sell when the time comes, otherwise you could be faced with unwanted expenses just as you’re moving out.
A Fresh Coat of Paint
Adding a fresh coat of paint to the interior of the home is probably one of the most cost effective ways to add value. If you take on the painting yourself it can make a big difference when it comes to adding value. However a poorly executed paint job is never a good selling point, so if you can afford it, it’s always better to have a professional painter do the work.
Add Or Renew Flooring
Adding new flooring can also add a lot of value to your home. This can include adding new carpets, hardwood floors, or tile. There are only so many times you can clean a carpet, either professionally or by yourself before they need to be replaced. New carpet is a home buyer's favorite, so long as it is of good quality and a neutral color. While hardwood floors are still desirable, many builders and homeowners have opted to go with LVP or luxury vinyl plank. LVP comes in countless colors, sizes and price range. It is extremely hard wearing and can take a beating from kids, pets, is waterproof and relatively easy to install. It may be that it makes more sense to replace old hardwoods with this product, but if you are going to refinish the hardwoods choose a neutral stain more in keeping with the original color of the wood. A poorly stained hardwood floor will be difficult for buyers to overlook.
Add Modern Fixtures
Adding modern fixtures, such as light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and door handles, can also add a lot of value to your home. These are things that you might be able to do yourself and save some money while adding features that home buyers want. It’s amazing how just replacing cabinet pulls and knobs can immediately change the look of the whole kitchen. Lighting can also be done cheaply such as replacing old bulbs with LED bulbs, adding a floor lamp to brighten a dark corner or replacing old light fixtures.
Declutter & Depersonalize
Decluttering and depersonalizing the home is also important when it comes to adding value. This means removing any personal items, such as family photos, and making sure the home is organized and uncluttered. You want the buyers to feel like it’s their home so a blank canvas is what you’re going for. Selling a home is a big deal and the hardest part is getting the house ready for pictures and showings...and the second hardest part is keeping it that way until it goes under contract. If you’re going to be moving anyway why not rent a pod and start the packing right away. Choose the furniture you need and the bare necessities to get by for the time the house will be on the market and sold. This is the time to have that heart to heart with yourself and start making trips to Goodwill or having yard sales every weekend.
3. Home Staging
Home staging is another important aspect of adding value to your home. This involves making sure the home is clean and organized, staging the home to appeal to potential buyers, adding furniture to make the home look inviting, using neutral colors and décor to appeal to buyers, and making sure the home is well-lit. If possible removing large pieces of furniture, extra chairs, dressers will help to show off the rooms in their best light and this could be as simple as moving furniture from one room to another.
The Home Should Be Clean & Organized
When it comes to home staging, it’s important to make sure the home is clean and organized. Some folks are on a cleaning schedule and once a week a section of the house is cleaned, most people are not and so when it comes time to sell the house they realize all the places that never got cleaned through the years. This may be when you want to spend some money and have the house pressure washed, and hire a cleaning company to come and get to all the places you missed over the years.
Neutral Colors & Home Decor
When it comes to home staging, it’s important to use neutral colors and décor to appeal to potential buyers. This means avoiding bright colors and patterns, and sticking with more neutral tones. Most home sellers will use the furniture and decor they have in the house and why wouldn’t they. The key is to find a good balance of what design features the home seller had what would be worth switching out. Again a lot of the design elements can be done inexpensively and there is no shortage of how to videos on You Tube and other social media outlets to inspire your creativity.
Lighting The Home
Making sure the home is well-lit is also important when it comes to home staging. This means making sure there are enough lights in each room and that the lights are bright enough to make the home look inviting. Lighting is important especially if the house does not get a lot of natural light and it’s important to use whatever light is available. Consider removing blinds or drapes, window treatments if they restrict light from entering.
4. The Back Yard
The recent pandemic forced people to stay home a lot more and the backyard became the new Airbnb, the market garden and sometimes the office cubicle. This trend is not going away any time soon as prices for short term rentals have skyrocketed and a lot more people are working from home. Here are some ideas that potential buyers will like and appreciate the value they bring. A privacy fence while it can be expensive to have installed will instantly provide a relaxing and safe place where the new buyers can enjoy. Any potential buyer who has kids or pets the addition of a fence can be a game changer.Along with taking up baking, a lot of people discovered they could grow some of their own vegetables right in their backyard. Setting up some simple raised beds does not have to be costly and if nothing else...fresh lettuce. Turning a garden shed into an office has been around for a while but really took off when people needed to work from home. It’ll need a power source and some tidying up but the possibilities to create a work from home space is real.
5. Bathroom Upgrades
One of the top features many home buyers look for is updated bathrooms. The rooms that take a beating in everyday life can start to show some wear and tear after a number of years. Depending on the age of the home it may be that the upgrades could be inexpensive and fairly easy to accomplish. A trip to any big box home improvement store and you’ll find a range of ready to install vanities complete with sinks and drawers. Light fixtures and plumbing fixtures come in lots of different price ranges and styles and are easy for any handy person to install. Unless you’ve been working with plumbing and electricity for a good while it is recommended to hire a professional. A major renovation on most bathrooms could end up being expensive, new tubs, flooring, new tile so while appealing to most home buyers and certainly adds value the return may not be there.
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