Although the value of homes in the United States are showing signs of recovery after a slump over the last six years, you may well find yourself in the position where your property is worth less than when you purchased it. Financially now might not be a good time to sell your home, but sometimes this is out of your control; you need to move to take up a promotion or to take care of an ageing relative, or perhaps your current home can no longer accommodate your growing family. We all want to maximize the value of our homes, but expensive modifications such as extensions, new kitchens and double glazing are beyond many people’s means. However, all is not lost, as there are a range of changes you can make to where you live that require minimal financial input and will make your property much more attractive to prospective buyers.
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Bring in a Home Inspector
Before you even put your home up for sale consider calling in the services of a home inspector. So often sales will fall through or the selling price falls far short of the asking price, as when the potential buyer hires a home inspector their report throws up problems with your property that you weren’t aware of. If you know any failings beforehand, you can take the necessary steps to resolve them; if they are beyond your budget at least you are prepared for the inevitable loss in value of your property.
Change Room Usage
Besides your kitchen and bathroom, no room’s function is set in stone. There are particular rooms that are desirable to buyers, so find out what these are in your area from a local realtor and adjust the layout of your home accordingly. For example, if four bedroom homes are a must, a three bedroom home can be transformed to meet the demand by using one of its reception rooms; equally a nursery or playroom is easy to achieve. This is simple if you have a spare room or an attic, but still possible if all of the rooms in your home are currently in use.
By Asamouse (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Give Your Kitchen a Facelift
While a new kitchen might add around $17,000 to the value of a property, this is typically less than the cost of purchasing and installing it. A more cost-effective way to add value in the kitchen is to update the cabinets. Simply painting your kitchen units and replacing their handles can give the impression that your kitchen has received a complete refit. If you feel that this alone will not rescue your dated kitchen, it’s possible to replace the doors and work surfaces, which will still work out significantly cheaper than replacing the whole kitchen. Shiny also says “new” to buyers, so consider this if replacing faucets or surfaces; however, getting out your cleaning products and putting in some elbow grease can have the same effect.
Update Your Lighting
After you’ve moved into your home and put up your light fittings they are often forgotten. However, this means that by the time you decide to sell your property they can look very dated. Add a modern touch to each room by purchasing an inexpensive light fitting from a DIY store; this can particularly make a difference if viewers are to see your property empty.
Add Extra Storage
No one can ever have enough storage, so extra storage units – particularly if built-in and therefore a permanent feature of the property – are attractive to buyers. Having extra storage while you are trying to sell your property will also work in your favor, as it helps your home to look less cluttered and more spacious.
Dress Down Your Home
It’s easy to accumulate objects in your home over the years, which you don’t tend to notice, but these will be glaringly obvious to viewers and can detract from the features of your property that you hope that they’ll notice. Use your extra storage to hide these away or use the opportunity to de-clutter; selling items on eBay or through your local paper can help to generate some extra cash into the bargain.
Create an Outdoor Sitting Area
A good option in homes with limited living space downstairs is to create a seating area outside, as this gives the impression that your home has more usable space. If you don’t already have a patio area, they are cheap and easy to create. A set of garden furniture does not have to be expensive either and you will get years of use from them in your new property.
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We sold our house last year to move for my wife’s job and the best thing we did was “dress down” the house and declutter it. In addition to that we moved a lot of the furniture into different places so that it made the rooms look bigger (maybe not as functional, but who cares for the people looking!) and more inviting. In the end, we sold our house in 2 days for almost full asking price – so I think it worked. All these tips are great though, especially as they are inexpensive fixes!
AB
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Nice. Good for you, 2 days is pretty fast. These tips in the article are very good, I especially like the “shiny says new”. It is such a simple idea but it works wonders.
Great tips! Changing the lighting fixtures is really important! Nothing dates a house faster. I’d also repaint all walls a neutral color. Your fashion colors are the next person’s nightmare. Most people don’t want to have to repaint before moving in. They will tolerate a neutral color, but not strong colors.
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Hi, Maggie. Painting the walls with a neutral color is a good, practical tip. That tip should have been included in the article.