Selling your Home? 7 Improvements that Add Value for Resale
Home Improvements to Increase Value for Resale
Are you preparing your home for sale and wondering what home improvements add the most value? Here are seven home improvements to increase value for resale!
There are ways in which you can force equity back into your home and make it more appealing to buyers. Just be careful not to overdo it and improve your house outside of the neighborhood price range. This is especially true when deciding to list a rental property for sale.
The tips we will discuss in the article are low-cost ways to net more money on the sale of your home. If you're preparing your home for sale, you'll want to ask questions and be sure to pay attention to the tips in this article that will help you maximize the return on your investment.
Here are seven home improvements if you are selling your home
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1. Cleaning your Home Before Listing it For Sale
Would you think this is obvious? To some, this tip needs to be stressed. The two main factors a seller has control over when listing their home for sale are price and condition. Cleaning your home is the lowest cost way to ensure that you influence the condition of your home.
By cleaning your home before you list it for sale, you are improving its condition. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes when selling your house. Would you rather buy a home that is messy or a home that is clean?
Too often, I show buyers homes that are not clean, and it amazes me that people don't realize they need to clean to help the property sell and that the listing agent wouldn't assist their sellers by advising them to keep the house spotless.
Many buyers will walk in and out in a matter of seconds if the house is not clean. Hiring a cleaning team once a week or maintaining the cleanliness of your home yourself is extremely inexpensive when you consider the return on investment.
By cleaning your home and ensuring it's spotless, you give yourself the best opportunity to sell and increase its value. This will ensure you're doing what it takes to get the highest amount on the sale of your home and increase your chances of selling it.
2. Landscaping Adds to Your Home's Value
Homes with serious curb appeal make great first impressions. Your kids should help when selling your home. A well-landscaped home will improve the home's condition, directly influencing the home's price. Landscape lighting is sure to help increase the value of your home as well! You'll immediately create an emotional response by ensuring your home looks great when potential buyers pull up.
Are you looking for landscaping inspiration? Check out the types of grass you should plant in Raleigh.
There are a lot of different things you can do to improve your landscaping. Mowing your lawn and cleaning the yard are two great places to start. You want to be wary of the neighborhood price range since that is one of the first things buyer's agents will look at. If you are already on the high end of the price range, investing 20 grand into your outdoor space doesn't make sense.
When you invest money into your landscaping, gather expert opinions from as many real estate professionals as possible.
Imagine you're going on a first date. Are you more likely to be excited about the date with someone who shows up looking nice or someone who is looking disheveled?
The same goes for real estate. Pretend like your home is going on a date, and the landscaping is the outfit you're dressing it in. The clothes matter, and so do the colors.
One experience I had when listing a home for sale in Raleigh was an investment in landscaping. It took a few shrubs to add a lot of privacy to the neighborhood, making the home much more appealing.
3. Painting Your Home
A great way to improve the value of your home is by adding a fresh coat of paint. Both the interior and exterior add a great look for buyers. The smell is another benefit that registers with the sensory cortex inside the brain of buyers. It registers as 'new'.
Painting your home to improve its value is a low-cost way to increase the return on the sale. It's one of the first things you should consider when selling. If you paint your home's exterior, you'll want to make sure you keep it a neutral color. In a recent real estate survey, 40 percent of buyers liked a house with a white exterior.
If you want a home improvement tip to help you make more on your net, you should consider a fresh coat of paint. Many real estate industry professionals highly recommend it, and painting with a neutral color is the favorite of many buyers.
Did you know that the number one most recommended and beneficial tip is a fresh coat of paint? This tip is affordable and raises the property value significantly. Some people's websites claim a fresh coat of paint can add anywhere from a 100-500% return on investment.
4. Adding a Deck
There are a few seasons a year where you may want to add key features. One of these key features would be a deck or outdoor patio. Seasonality allows you to succeed more with an addition like this if you plan to sell during the spring/summer and even the fall here in Raleigh.
Adding a deck/outdoor patio does several things. It adds value by giving you an outdoor living space. Something other homes you're competing against may not have.
One of the first additions to my house in Downtown Raleigh was an outdoor living space because I enjoy being outside. The outdoor living space ran me $2,450 ($2,950 - $500 discount), and my conservative guess is it added $5,000 to the price of my house. One of my current real estate clients helped me build the deck.
You'll want to be careful of a few things when building an outdoor living space to add value to your home. Like the other tips, you do not want to price your home outside of its neighborhood value, so consult a top local Real Estate Agent for advice.
Secondly, you are going to want privacy in your outdoor living space. If you feel like you can be seen by everyone, you're a lot less likely to use the deck.
Lastly, you will want to be sure the patio you design is not too small or too big. The right-sized patio will maximize the return on your investment and give you a great opportunity to sell your home for more money.
Know your local neighborhoods and real estate markets. Homes for sale in Cary often come with great outdoor living spaces that improve their value.
At the very least, an outdoor living space will make your home more desirable and allow you to recoup the cost, if nothing else. The neighborhood will dictate just whether or not a patio makes sense.
5. Remodeling Rooms
You can do several different remodeling projects to add value to your home before selling it—some of the remodeling that Real Estate Agents will recommend involves addressing the house's weaknesses. You want to put yourself in the mind of your buyers and understand that they're also looking at your neighbor's house for sale.
Its typical remodels will happen in the focal rooms, including the kitchen, bathrooms, and even the family room, especially if you want to make your home handicap accessible. Sometimes, a remodel will include adding a bathroom to the master suite. Many homes in Raleigh already have that, which could cause a weakness you will want to address if the quoted price from your contractor is right.
Homes with an open floor plan have the advantage of increased home value. To increase your home's value, we recommend remodeling the kitchen, family area, and bathrooms.
The most important part of any home is the kitchen and the family area. Mainly because a lot of time is spent in these two rooms. When you are entertaining guests, they are most likely to be in your kitchen and family room while inside the house.
One thing to be wary of is pricing your home outside of the neighborhood. Don't go crazy with your remodels if it doesn't make sense for your area. You wouldn't want to start adding square footage to your home if you're already in the higher price range.
6. Bathroom Addition
Adding a bathroom can add serious convenience for your buyers. Other than the kitchen, the bathrooms have become important to buyers, especially the location inside the home. A bathroom addition can increase your home value between 10 and 40%, depending on the quality, size, and type of updates.
A few things to be careful of when doing a bathroom addition is to know where the plumbing is. This is probably the main factor in determining what the cost is going to be to add a bath. You don't want a plumber spending hours inside of your home working on pipes, or your bill will run up fast.
Also, don't go crazy on your home compared to your neighbor's. Know the value of your neighborhood and where your home stands when compared to others. Listen to your local experts and determine if a bathroom addition makes sense for your home sale.
If you cannot afford a new bathroom, the best thing to do is give your current baths a facelift with paint and freshen them up in any way possible. It will certainly help the home show better.
7. Energy Efficient Improvements
Remodeling for energy efficiency can make a big difference in resale value as more and more people are asking for clean power sources and green features in their homes, and it is not just a great choice for luxury homes. From solar panel installation to HVAC conversion, which involves changing a fossil-fuel-burning furnace to an electric heat pump, there are plenty of ways to lower monthly utility bills and increase the overall sustainability of your home.
Home Improvements - Final Thoughts
The first three tips can be executed at a relatively low cost, and it makes sense for every home. Cleaning is 100% the best thing you can do to sell your home because it's not only the cheapest, it's the most important. It shows buyers a sense of pride in caring for their home compared to others who are left a mess.
If you have kids or pets and are trying to sell your home, cleaning may be more difficult, but it is still an absolute must. Mowing the lawn and painting the house are two other ways to guarantee your home is ready to impress buyers. Pretend like your home is going on a date. How would you want it to look if it was meeting someone for the first time?
Buyers care more about the kitchen and bathrooms than anything else inside the home. Personally, I would much prefer a great family room. This also seems to be the general opinion among most of my clients.
Consult with your local Real Estate Agents and Contractors to determine if an outdoor patio, a remodel, or an additional bathroom is the right move for you. When you're preparing to sell your home, it also makes. sense to consult with a local mortgage lender if you plan to buy.
If you want sure-fire ways to improve your home's value when you list it for sale or host an open house, there you have it. These home improvements will surely please buyers and benefit you on the return, especially in a low inventory market. If you're considering remodeling your home to improve its value, be careful not to overspend.
Ryan Fitzgerald
Hi there! Nice to 'meet' you and thanks for visiting our Raleigh Real Estate Blog! My name is Ryan Fitzgerald, and I'm a REALTOR® in Raleigh-Durham, NC, the owner of Raleigh Realty. I work alongside some of the best Realtors in Raleigh. You can find more of my real estate content on Forbes, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and more. Realtor Magazine named me a top 30 under 30 Realtor in the country (it was a long time ago haha). Any way, that's enough about me. I'd love to learn more about you if you'd like to connect with me on Facebook and Instagram or connect with our team at Raleigh Realty. Looking forward to connecting!
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