It’s only natural to want to get as much money as possible for your home when you decide to sell it. Luckily, there are things big and small you can do to influence the resale value of your home, which is what this guide is all about.
Just make sure you keep track of your expenses and your budget when making improvements. Otherwise, your renovations might end up costing more money than you’ll get back in increased home value, at which point you’d be better off contacting a company that helps people looking to sell house fast Birmingham like FavorHomeSolutions.com.
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1. Expand the usable space
One quick way to increase the value of your home is to turn unfinished spaces into usable square footage. Good examples of this include renovating old basements and attics so they can work as guest rooms or game rooms, or even work as spaces the new homeowner can rent out to tenants for some extra income.
If a full-on renovation isn’t an option, making sure these areas are free of rot and humidity is still a good idea. You don’t want buyers to be wondering just how much time they’ll have to spend fixing issues in these spaces before they have even bought the house.
2. Landscape the garden
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Curb appeal plays a big role in the overall sale price of a home. And a great garden can have a huge impact on how good our house looks from the curb. So get your garden professionally landscaped, add some flowerbeds if you still don’t have any, and get a professional photographer to take some beautiful pictures of the garden and the house as soon as that’s done. It’s worth the investment.
3. Touch up the paint
Painting the inside and the outside of the house can accomplish a lot of things. A new paint job will look better than an old one, especially if the old paint was fading, and inside the house, a paint job can cover up minor scuffs, marks, and other flaws that catch the eye when a buyer is inspecting the house.
On top of that, changing the color of the house itself can improve its curb appeal, and changing the color of interior rooms can make it look more neutral. This is a good time to invest in quality paint if you can, as it will look better and stay vivid for longer after you’re done painting.
It’s worth keeping in mind that different colors can totally change the atmosphere of a room, and can even make a room look bigger or smaller. So while it can be tempting to go for an eye-catching paint job, neutral colors make the home feel more welcoming and spacious, creating more of a showroom effect.
4. Energy efficiency
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Investing in new and energy-efficient appliances can also help drive up the house’s cost while also making it more appealing to environmentally conscious buyers. The same goes for installing renewable energy solutions, such as solar panels on the roof and solar water heaters.
On top of being energy efficient, shiny new appliances can also make the house a lot more appealing to potential buyers. Of course, since appeal has a direct impact on how much you can ask for the home’s sale price, it is possible to invest in renovating your kitchen and still turn a profit on the final sale. In other words, a brand new kitchen and laundry room might increase the sale price of the house enough to cover the cost of the renovation.
Of course, the devil is in the details, and there’s no way to know for certain if doing this will turn a profit. Check with your real estate agent to see if this type of renovation is worth the money and effort. Or do your research by checking the listings and asking prices of similar properties in your area.
5. Clean and polish
There are plenty of companies that specialize in cleaning homes for sale, and you should consider hiring one. These specialists can clean and polish areas of your home that you might not even realize needed work. They can take care of things big and small, such as cleaning and polishing doorknobs and counters, getting grime from between tiles in the kitchen, pressure washing your garden’s walkways, and more.
And while each of these individual services might not make a difference on their own, combined they can do wonders towards making the house feel fresh, clean, and welcoming.
6. Sell in the right place
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Many complex factors can influence the final sale price of a home. And while you can’t control all of those factors, you can at least control the medium through which you decide to advertise and sell your home. A bit of research may reveal that the most profitable way to sell a home worth over $1 million is through a real estate agent, but that listing a home online may lead to better prices for houses around the $300k price point in your area.
For some homes the best deal available is the one offered by home buying companies. Especially since selling the home as-is means you don’t have to spend time fixing it.
Keep in mind that different venues will offer you different deals. Some real estate agents are much more expensive than others, for example, and home buying companies are a lot more generous than others.
7. Renovate the bathroom
Usually, the two types of renovation that have the biggest impact on the sale value of a home are kitchen and bathroom renovations. It isn’t quite clear why this is the case; it may be because these rooms are the closest to “done” before the new owner moves in. While homebuyers bring their own beds and sofas for comfort in other rooms, few people buy homes intending to immediately change, the bathtub or the kitchen sink.
Regardless of why home buyers value these areas above others, the fact is that they do. So if you have the budget for it, consider renovating and modernizing the bathrooms of the house to make them more modern and attractive.
