By Shoshana Dubnow
Getting ready to sell your home can be overwhelming and intimidating. Even though a real estate agent can recommend a good selling price for your home, it is ultimately the buyer who decides the home’s value. It can be discouraging when a buyer won’t pay the amount that the seller believes his or her home is worth. Below you can find some tips on making your home more marketable, and you just might raise the value of your home in the process.
Before taking out your toolbox and getting to work, the first step is to plan what you need to fix. If you want a professional to help you with your planning, many realtors will offer a free or inexpensive consultation for one hour. However, if you want to tackle the projects by yourself, there’s a few ways to organize your thoughts. One method is to go individually into every room in your home and write down things you see that need to be fixed. Start with the most significant rooms like the kitchen and master bedrooms, and then work your way down to smaller rooms such as the guest bedroom or laundry room. Another option is to sit down and list everything that comes to mind if you had unlimited money to fix up your home. Next, look up the costs of all the repairs you wrote down. After deciding on your budget, circle the tasks that are most important until you’ve reached your spending limit.
For most people, it can be difficult to know which fixes will be the best investment in the long run. If you want to add the most value to your home, start in the kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home and the place that buyers scrutinize the most. Upgrading appliances or countertops in your kitchen will instantly make it worth more. If you want to invest a lot in your kitchen, consider getting sturdy wooden cabinetry. It will be an expensive project, but that sleek wooden style is both durable and very popular in today’s housing market.
Once you’re satisfied with your kitchen, the second place you will want to consider upgrading are the bathrooms. If you kept your bathrooms clean while you were living in your home, the fixes should be fairly inexpensive. A simple coat of gloss paint or new grout can transform your bathrooms to looking brand new. If a granite countertop in your kitchen was too expensive, consider putting one in a bathroom. Bathroom countertops have a smaller area, requiring a smaller piece of granite. Another bonus is that the granite is water proof!
Buyers love the feel of open space in a home, which is why we recommend visually increasing the size of your home. You can achieve this by knocking down an unnecessary wall that separates two rooms that could be connected. You can also replace curtains with vertical blinds to bring in more light, or invest in a shelving unit that will organize your clutter.
After you’ve taken care of these big projects, you’ll be left with all the little things, which still end up having a huge pay-off. You will be surprised how great a room looks after a fresh coat of paint or a thorough window washing. Don’t forget to ensure every light bulb works and that every piece of furniture is dusted. Once you’ve finished these minor tasks, your home will be glowing with cleanliness.
According to HGTV, “Home improvement projects cost about 20 to 25 cents on the dollar. The other 75 to 80 cents spent go directly back into the home through increased value.” There’s likely going to be a point where the fixes seem never-ending, but keep in mind how much you will profit in the long-run.
Finding ways to make your home more marketable is only one step of several that go into selling your home. For all your real estate questions and needs, check out http://azrealestatechannel.com/. You can also tune into the Real Estate Channel, Cox Channel 22, for shows 8 hours a day, or you can tune into YurView, Cox Channel 7, for a show on Monday-Saturday from 5-6pm and Sunday from 1-2pm. You’ll have the exclusive opportunity to hear advice from professionals and endless tips on how to effectively sell your home in today’s market.
You can also check out the AZ Real Estate Channel on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/azrealestatechannel/
