A Guide to Selling Your Home – Part 3: Home Improvements
Now after signing a contract with an estate agent, you need to get your home ready for viewings. Home improvements certainly give the best chance to sell your home effectively. Here, in our third part of ‘A Guide to Selling Your Home’ we give you some tips on how to highlight your home’s strengths and show your home in the best possible way to the potential buyers.
Keeping your home in the best possible condition provides the best chance to sell it in the competitive housing market. Your home sustains some wear and tear over the years. Therefore, get as many of the repairs done as possible so that buyers do not find any negatives. This will also give you an edge over the competition, which means better offers.
Investing some money on home repairs can always be a profitable proposition. It adds more to the value of your house and gives you an edge when you negotiate the price. So, you can choose plenty of quick fixes on a budget before you start showing your home.
Don’t Over Spend
Do not spend large amounts of money on major renovations of your house before selling it. Do your research before investing in home improvements and put your money into only those things that are likely to get you the best return. So, inexpensive and low-cost home improvements are recommended to increase the value of your property.
Therefore, spend your money on inexpensive repairs and upgrades to the home such as getting doorknobs and wonky handles repaired, the walls painted, de-cluttering and other minor improvements.
Decide What to Fix
Work with your agent to decide on what needs renovating to get the home ready for showing. After all, you want your home to look great at first glance to impress the potential buyers.
Keep Your Home in Move-In-Condition
Keep the home in move in condition so that potential buyers can have the impression that they will be able to move right in and start enjoying their new home. So, try to make a great first impression on buyers. They would not like dingy carpet, worn furniture or outdated appliances. Therefore, try to keep all doors, appliances and electrical and plumbing fixtures in working order otherwise it can put off potential buyers.
You should try to get anything repaired that doesn’t work perfectly. Consider to replace all the broken knobs and doorbell and fix water stains on the ceiling or leaks under sinks or around toilets. Ensure sticky or jammed gate and doors are on track and work properly.
Steam clean the carpet, replace worn area rugs and fix any cracks, nail holes and scuff marks in the walls and floor or anywhere in your house. Repair dripping taps and give a quick makeover to your bathrooms with a new shower-head.
Following are some examples of things you can do to make your house look more attractive to buyers:
De- Clutter Your Home
De-clutter and use sensible storage when selling your house. You might even need to put some of your items in a storage unit so that they’re not cluttering your home. This includes family photos, memorabilia collections, and personal keepsakes.
Remove all clutter from the home before showing it to potential buyers because buyers visualize how they can fill the space. Pack up personal items like picture frames and artwork and remove some furniture to make rooms look bigger. Clutter can make even spacious homes look cramped and dirty.
Keep the Home Clean
You can put in some hard work to get your home ready for showing to the home buyers. It’s very important to keep your house clean, so be sure to sweep up bathroom sink, and sneaky dust bunnies in the corners.
Keep the Storage Clean and Organized
Storage is an important buying consideration and it is something every buyer looks for. You want potential owners to be able to see the true amount of space in each closet. Buyers will look and open closets, so make sure to keep all your closets and cabinets clean and neatly organize.
Light Your Home up
Maximize the light as every buyer wants good light in a home. You should replace any light bulbs that don’t work and increase their wattage, and get the lampshades changed. Make your house bright and cheery to make it more sellable.
The kitchen
There are many benefits of remodeling your kitchen. Clean your cupboards and kitchen thoroughly. Get your kitchen painted and also get new cabinet hardware. It’s best to keep your kitchen wall colors neutral to appeal to a wider audience.
Improve Exterior of Your Home
Finally, it is time to spruce up your home’s exterior. That is the area where buyers will first step up to your home and make their first impression. No matter how good the interior of your home looks, the first thing a buyer sees is a home’s external appearance and the way it fits into the surrounding neighborhood. So, work hard to make this area to give a great first impression.
Stage the exterior with a fresh coat of paint, and trim the bushes and lawn. The front door is particularly important. A fresh coat of paint on your front door can add value to a house.
Overgrown trees can make a home seem dark and creepy, you should scale them back. If your front lawn is lacking in shrubs and flowers, add some. Also, make sure your lawn is mowed, and if you have a pool that’s open, keep it sparkling.
After getting your home improvements done and making your house look fantastic both from inside and outside, it’s time for you to spread the news that it’s up for grabs. Keep yourself available whenever the buyers want to visit your place and always keep your house in tip-top shape.
Also read: A Guide To Selling Your Home – Part 1: An Overview
A Guide to Selling Your Home – Part 3: Home Improvements
Ajay Verma, founder, and writer of The Housing World, a real estate and mortgage news website. He has over fifteen years of rich experience in the above-mentioned industries.
