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Home Improvements That Sell Homes

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By: Ryan Li
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When real estate conditions are tough, and there are more sellers than buyers in your area, home improvements can be made on your part to help you stand apart from the crowd and beef up your home’s appeal. It’s hard to know where to start, and what improvements will be worth your time and money, so we’ve laid out a few indoor and outdoor projects that get you the best bang for your buck and help boost your home’s appeal if you’re looking to put it on the market.

Indoor Projects

Kitchen

Kitchens are a great place to start when it comes to home improvement projects as they are an area when people convene and spend quality time together, and they are quite often the first room that home buyers visit when touring a home. Adding a fresh coat of paint to the cabinets or improving the hardware on them can give the kitchen a much improved appearance at a small cost to you. When it comes to appliances, completely replacing them looks nice for home buyers, but it often doesn’t provide much value for you. A much smarter option is to put all major appliances that you plan on leaving behind, like a refrigerator or washing machine under warranty. They are much less costly, and ensure the new home buyers will have a functioning appliance for the next ten or fifteen years.

Bathroom

Simple bathroom renovations, such as upgrades to faucets and shower heads, repairing cracking wallpaper, and adding new floor tiles can all have a positive impact on the bathroom and the rest of your home. If you happen to have a colorful or unique bathroom, consider toning things down a bit and make the bathroom more inviting to a larger number of buyers. Finally, if you have any leaking faucets or moldy wallpaper, repair or replace them. Home buyers hate seeing things that need to be fixed, as it makes them wonder about other lurking repairs that have yet to be discovered.

Outdoor Projects

Lucky for home sellers, improvements made to the exterior of the home are less costly than interior improvements, and will often result on a greater return on investment than interior renovations. Home prices are all about curb appeal, and boosting the curb appeal of a home attracts more buyers and helps drive up the price of the home.

Clean Up the Vegetation

No one wants to approach a house with an overgrown lawn and bushes and trees that haven’t been maintained in years. Mow and water the lawn a day or two before the home showing and make sure tree branches are not covering or hiding the house. It never hurts to add a few hanging baskets around the house or planting a few flowers where appropriate. It may be best to hire a professional landscaper for some of these projects and ask them for their opinion on what you can do to boost the outward appearance of the home.

Exterior Painting

Any exterior project that requires painting is typically a great return on investment. Paint supplies are low cost, and quite often you won’t need the help of a contractor to do the job properly. If your home has outdated siding, or unappealing siding to a large number of home seekers, then it may be a good time to replace that as well.

Use Neutral Colors

When making home improvements with the intention of selling your home, always have an idea of the cost to benefit ratio of your work, and always keep the home seekers in mind when making decisions. Typically, home improvements should be neutral and appealing to all, even if it isn’t your ideal choice of color or style. It may be in your best interests to get the opinion of a real estate agent and ask them what improvements can be made to your home to give it a better bang for its buck.

This article was contributed by Lucy Gallagher, who blogs about helpful tips for home buyers and home sellers. Visit Coldwell Banker Valley Brokers for more real estate information.

 

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