Selling your home can be quite a scary process. There is a fear of not knowing whether you will sell your home or not, what price it will be sold, when someone will buy it. In addition to selling, you might also worry about your new home, how to finance the relocation, pay long distance movers if needed, get another mortgage, and so on. As you can see, there is a lot of things to think about with buying and selling homes.
In order to be less anxious about the whole ordeal, you can renovate your home prior to selling. A large-scale renovation will certainly raise the value of your home and shorten the selling period, but it will also take a toll on your budget. For this reason, here are a couple of low-cost pre-sale home improvement tricks.
Pre-sale home improvement from the outside in
People usually say, “don’t judge a book by its covers”, and most occasions you should not. However, when you are selling your home, you need to have a wow effect on the first look. For this reason, impressive landscaping and exterior details can leave a good first impression to a potential buyer. When a potential buyer sees a house with a clean and neat garden, they will likely get excited about the inside of the house as well. Therefore, it is your job to give your house a curb appeal. In addition to this, make your front garden and backyard something to die for, and here is how. Plant a few trees, remove weeds from your yard, and make sure your grass looks alive, green, and healthy. Lastly, add seasonal flowers and shrubs. Your buyers will want to say to their moving company to deliver their items to the beautiful house with a lovely garden. Make your house attractive from the outside in.
Paint the walls inside and outside
As mentioned, you must give your house some curb appeal to attract the right buyers. Fixing up your garden and backyard is the first step. However, a beautiful garden will not distract buyers from dirty walls. For this reason, you should paint/update or power wash your exterior walls if they look old and dirty. Additionally, your interior walls could use the same TLC. You can scrub the interior walls with proper tools. Once the interior walls are clean, it is important to choose the correct color for your walls. People are usually drawn to neutral colors such as light shades of blue and gray. The same thing applies to your walls outside the house. Take a tour around your house to see which room is the most critical. Usually, it would be either the kitchen or the bathroom that require new paint. Let’s not forget that buyers mostly pay attention to these rooms as they are deemed high traffic areas of a house.
Pre-sale home improvement with upgraded lighting
No one wants to live in a dark house with horrible lighting. Having said this, not every house has a large source of natural light. If your house lacks natural light, do not let this discourage you. You can make your house irresistible with proper lighting fixtures around your house. Invest in lamps and place them around your dark rooms. You will see the upgrade almost immediately. Your once dark and dull room will appear much lighter and spacious. In addition to this, you should change the old light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs. This is a smart investment as it will attract many potential buyers. Pay attention to your curtains and blinds as well, especially when people come to check your house. Make sure they don’t overpower the rooms and let the natural light in as much as possible. Lastly, do not forget about exterior lighting and make a lighting path to further entice buyers on their first look.
The ultimate makeover: the kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of every house. For this reason, make your kitchen shine to potential buyers! First, clean your kitchen. It is important to declutter your home, especially the kitchen, as home buyers prioritize it over other parts of the house. Additionally, if you upgrade your kitchen, the selling price will be higher. Here are some suggestions for your kitchen remodel.
- Depersonalize the space– take down all your photographs, artwork, political and religious posters, etc. Instead, place neutral decorations, such as flowers, landscapes, or similar. This will help the buyer to fully envision the space how they imagine.
- Refresh the paint – paint kitchen cabinets, baseboard, entryways, and anything else you deem paint-worthy. Remember, choose a neutral color for your kitchen. If you wish to add some color, do it with decorations.
- Kitchen appliances – replace old kitchen appliances if able.
- Replace kitchen cabinets – or upgrade door hinges on your kitchen cabinets to make them pop.
Pre-sale home improvement for floors and carpets
If you plan to have your home purely vacant when selling your house, home buyers will pay close attention to the flooring. Your floor will start to look old and beaten up over the years. For this reason, you should make it look fresh and new when selling your home. Luckily, flooring stores and home centers have a solution. Small updates can easily elevate your home. In addition to updating any wood flooring, you should also look at your old carpeting. Again, choose any new carpeting in neutral colors. Lastly, make sure to clean your home. If your schedule doesn’t allow that, hire a professional cleaning company to do the job and factor this into your overall home renovation budget. This will drastically reduce stress and ensure your house is in tip top shape for buyers.
Renovate your bathroom
The last important room in your home is the bathroom. Many home buyers are looking for a beautiful bathroom where they can relax and escape from everyday chores and problems. For this reason, make your bathroom relaxing getaway for potential buyers. For example, any easy solution could be to change your faucets and hardware. If you’re updating counter tops, choose granite or marble countertops over other types as these are attractive to buyers and buy a mirror with lighting. When focusing on your bath area, it would be best if you can have a shower and a bathtub.
All in all, make sure your house is clean and tidy before any showings. Change the critical parts of your house that will attract home buyers.
If you are in the Northeast Pennsylvania counties of Monroe, Carbon, Pike, or Northampton, then give us a call here at Vision Construction and Remediation to help coordinate your renovation efforts. Contact us or give us a call at (855) 324-5330 to get a consultation on how we can help to increase the value of your home with key home improvements.
