7 Simple Tips to
Raise Your Home Value Before Selling
Paint
Home buyers have endless creativity when it comes to tearing down walls, adding on rooms, and remodeling an entire kitchen. But give them a mustard yellow dining room or a black bedroom and suddenly the task seems like "way too much work!"
Seems ridiculous, right? Well, it may seem that way, but it's the reality of today's home buyer. A major remodel makes a home a "fixer-upper" but terrible paint will stop them in their tracks.
If you're skilled to DIY it can be done for just a few hundred dollars. If you have high ceilings, tricky angles, or just lack a steady hand - hire a pro! $300-3000 in paint can make a huge difference.
Carpet
Much like crazy paint, stained, worn, or outdated carpet will turn off a buyer fast. Shoppers are going to be taking off their shoes to come through from showing and open houses. Give them a new, upgraded carpet pad and a neutral carpet to walk on. They'll believe a lot of care has gone into every detail of your home.
Lawn
Don't let your lawn turn off a buyer before they even park their car! Trim the hedges, add new mulch, and take care of any dead or weed-infested lawn patches. $300 worth of fresh mulch will instantly perk up your curb appeal.
Don't have a green thumb? Bring in the pros for a few sessions of lawn maintenance in the months leading up to listing and buyers will find that the grass really is greener.
Outdoor Fixtures
A porch light fixture with rusted metal, cracked glass, or dim bulbs may seem like no big deal. Same with house numbers that are faded, missing, or broken. These little touches can give your home a shabby look that's not the "shabby chic" you have in mind. Take care of the little details or leave buyers wondering what other parts of the home have been neglected.
With any luck your major systems - furnace, air conditioner, water heater - still have many years of useful life remaining. Replacing these is a major expense and a major turn-off for buyers. That doesn't mean you can neglect them. For a few hundred dollars, you can have them cleaned and serviced to make sure they are in tip-top shape. That small sticker showing a recent service date will give peace of mind worth far more than it cost.
Systems Maintenance
Want to modernize your home without remodeling the kitchen? Install new light fixtures that feel modern and fresh. Just make sure they blend with the style of your home. That sleek chrome number may be beautiful but it will detract from the modern farmhouse vibe your home has. Turn off the electricity at the electrical panel and even an amateur can swap a fixture in much less than an hour.
Even if your fixtures are great, consider updating light bulbs. Those curly CFLs may be saving you a few dollars over their lifetime but their hue may not be showing off your beautiful quartz counters as well as a new LED in the right color temperature.
Light Fixtures
(& bulbs!)
Moving because you've outgrown your space? Guess what... no one else wants to live in a cramped house either! Now's the time to clear out those closets you've been meaning to get to. You could hold a garage/yard/tag sale. But unless you are very organized and diligent in making that happen, finding a great local charity for your unnecessary treasures is a lot more efficient.
For things you need to keep but won't need to use between now and moving day (hello, holiday decorations!) box them up. For less than $1 you can get sturdy moving boxes at your favorite hardware store. Label them well and load them up. If you have a nice storage area in the home, use it. If you don't, consider asking a family member to borrow some basement space for a short time. And if all else fails, find a short-term storage rental unit.
You're going to have to move everything eventually anyway, you may as well start now!