How to increase the value of your home

If you are wondering how to increase your home’s value, following these ten tips will help add value to your home and increase your chances for a quick sale.

The Top 10: Tips to Add Value to Your Home

1. Clean, Organize, and Neutralize Your Space: Unclutter your house to make it look bigger and cleaner. Buyers must be able to envision themselves in the home. Avoid using bold or bright colors, wallpaper, or borders, or other personalized effects that aren’t easily changed.
   
2.  Flooring and Paint. When preparing your home, the single best return is by replacing dated flooring (especially carpet) and a fresh coat of paint for rooms with dated or taste specific paint colors. Neither are tremendously expensive and both provide a great return on your investment.

3.  Update Old Light Fixtures & Door Knobs.  Again, these are simple and easy updates that don’t cost a lot but can bring a tremendous investment return. Purchasing simple flush mount ceiling lights in 2-pack’s from any big box store for less than $30 can change a room’s look and feel, especially in older homes.

4.  Finish the Basement: Instead of adding room to your home’s main level, it’s more cost-efficient to finish a basement where lower level square footage is less expensive to complete. This update adds value and usable space (not to mention an occasional extra bedroom or bath). Just don’t finish the entire storage area as buyers will always still want storage space!

5.  Keep Your Lawn Green and Mowed: A patchy or poorly maintained lawn detracts from the home’s overall appearance. Your local hardware store has supplies to re-seed those unhealthy areas of your lawn, or there are plenty of local landscaping firms to choose from – but start this process early b/c if you wait until you’re ready to list, you’re probably too late.

6.  Update Kitchen Appliances & Paint the Cabinets: The kitchen is often the room buyers gravitate towards first, and an updated kitchen can help sell your home. You don’t have to do a full remodel to give your kitchen a fresh new look. Updating your appliances to the current standard, replacing or painting cabinet doors, and installing cabinet pulls can make a huge impact at a relatively low cost.

7.  Update Bathroom Fixtures: Small changes can go a long way when it comes to the look of your bathroom. Updating simple fixtures such as your sink, faucet, mirrors, cabinet pulls, or light fixtures can give an outdated bathroom a fresh new look.

8.  Clean / Stain the Deck. One of the most common deferred maintenance items are poorly maintained decks. A good pressure wash and deck stain can bring an eyesore of a deck back to life; plus, a quality stain can help cover otherwise apparent signs of age in an older deck.

9.  Store and organize: Ample storage space is a feature, especially for garages, closets, and basements. Efficient closet structures can keep the closet organized and display spaciousness (a widespread concern for buyers). Basement or garage shelving, properly organized, can also be an excellent selling feature.

10.  Install a Fence: If you’re selling a house, a fence’s appearance adds value to the home overall. Buyers with children or pets will appreciate the privacy and security of an enclosed backyard.

If you would like more information, contact Ted Weaver, and he can help you prepare your home to add the most value when you are ready to sell. 

Helpful Tips For Adding Value To Your Home