Home Value Tips
Your home, as you live in it, is an investment in your family’s comfort and safety. But if you ever plan to sell it down the road, it’s an investment in your family’s financial future as well.
If you intend to sell your home soon and haven’t been making gradual improvements to its value over time, you might be tempted to rush into a flurry of projects to fetch a better price on the market. But don’t be so hasty!
Any money you put into selling your home should be recoupable through the actual sale. If you invest in projects but don’t receive a good ROI, you’ve only provided your buyer some nice bonuses.
Home value improvements should be cost-effective yet powerful in boosting appeal. What that exactly looks like will be different from property to property, but here are some ideas well worth considering.
Upgrade Your Landscaping Out Front
First impressions matter, and “curb appeal” is a very real thing. A few improvements to your front yard can provide even more of an inviting feeling to a potential buyer.
You do not have to go all out and make the front of your home look like a country club. Go for native, low-maintenance plants and trees that you won’t have to work constantly to maintain. Both you and a future buyer will be grateful for it.
Even if you don’t opt for additional landscaping features, make sure your lawn looks up to snuff. Hiring a lawn service company to work out any patch areas of grass and ensure everything is properly trimmed can go a long way toward giving your home a much tidier and verdant first impression.
Clean Up Your Home Exterior
When was the last time you power-washed your siding, driveway, and sidewalks? Could your door, shutters, or other areas do with a fresh coat of paint?
Pressure washing and painting and relatively low-cost actions can reap a ton of benefits in value and appeal. You might not realize just how drab your home exterior has grown over the years until you uncover its true colors again (or update them to something newer and more appealing, of course!).
Paint Those Interior Walls, Too
If you’re going with painting at all, you should absolutely consider whether your interior could use some new colors, too.
You might have made your walls your canvas with vivid color choices and accents over the years, but they could, unfortunately, restrict appeal to a narrower audience. Having a color scheme that is inconsistent, dark, or overly vibrant can make rooms feel smaller than they really are and make it more difficult for a potential buyer to imagine them as something of their own.
It might not feel like your cup of tea, but beiges, grays, and off-whites are the most buyer-inclusive colors to consider repainting your walls. Go for colors that complement your flooring and have matte finishes. You can also use contrasting colors (even two different shades of gray or beige) to accentuate trim.
Modernize Your Kitchen
The kitchen is a center of focus for almost every potential home buyer, so any small improvements you can make in this room will often yield excellent results.
Here are some elements of your kitchen that are worth considering action on:
- Swapping out an old, stained sink for a new one.
- Replacing old appliances (even just smaller ones, like microwaves)
- Updating the knobs, handles, and other fixtures on drawers.
- Replacing your countertops – perhaps with granite or quartz
- Adding a water filtration system to your faucet (home-buyers can see this as modern, luxurious, and cost-saving – a triple threat!)
Small actions in the kitchen can have a big influence. If you are thinking of larger renovations, though, it may benefit you to consult with an expert first to determine what would best work for your ROI.
Improve Your Bathroom
The bathroom is another area of high focus and often comes with an inherent feeling of intimacy. If a potential buyer can’t imagine themselves using it comfortably, that can be a damaging blow to a sale.
Just like in the kitchen, swap out old and worn-down fixtures with new and attractive features. You might also want to consider renovating or replacing a tub if it is run-down or even simply replace it with a walk-in shower. Tubs are not as high in demand as they once were.
Refinish, Replace, or Install New Hardwood Floors
New or refinished hardwood floors can make any otherwise nondescript room shine. They’re among one of the most highly recoverable improvement costs you can make to your home, so are often well worth the effort.
That said, whether this is an improvement you wish to pursue can depend largely upon the condition of your current floors or carpets. If your carpets are in great shape and complementary to a room, you might want to keep them. But if your carpets are worn down or have been considerably lived on by pets, a hardwood replacement may be best.
Consult With Us for More Direct Advice!
There are many general considerations you can make to help improve the value of your home before a sale, but the best recommendations for no two homes will ever be the same. Homes have different considerations and needs, and different markets will tend to lean toward valuing certain features more highly than others.
That’s the nature of real estate, but you have access to experts who have their finger on the pulse of it!
If you are in the market to sell your home, we would be happy to walk through your property with you and point out areas where a little investment can go a long way. Our agents have broad experience in what sells in our region, and we want to put that knowledge to work for you.
Call us today to discuss how we can improve the potential of your home sale. Or, if you prefer to reach out to us electronically, fill out our online contact form and a member of our staff will respond to you during our standard office hours.