Putting a house up for sale is a lot more complicated than putting a ‘For Sale’ sign outside your house and phoning up a few real estate agents to manage the property. For one, there’s the task of finding another place to stay while the house is being put up for listing. Then there’s the task of negotiating for a higher resale price for the house.
While dictating factors like location and house age are things that you won’t be able to control, there are a few improvements you can make to your house that will help it reach a higher price point. With that in mind, the following tips will help you spruce up your place so you can get more money for your house:
Plant some trees
Yes, you read that right. Planting trees isn’t just good for the environment; it’s also good for your house’s market value. Planting mature trees can increase property value up to 10 percent. This is because homes with trees are deemed more attractive to home buyers; they offer a good deal of shade and aesthetic value to a lawn.
When putting your house up for sale, make sure to remove any dead or rotting trees, and trim dead branches from your healthy ones. If your house doesn’t have any trees by the time you do put it up for sale, you can invest in earth-balling one to your property. Even though you’ll be spending some coin to beautify your landscape, the return on investment by improving your home’s curb appeal will almost certainly result in a higher price.
Renovate that kitchen
Nowadays, people are becoming more conscious of the food that they eat. Coupled with the growing popularity of the zero waste movement, more and more families are opting to cook and prepare their meals at home. This has led to the demand for better kitchens when house shopping. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recommends complete renovations to the kitchen, and kitchen upgrades to increase the resale value and appeal of a house to potential buyers. You can get started on improving the look of your kitchen by doing a deep clean, repainting your kitchen walls and replacing old kitchen fixtures with brand new ones. Then when you get closer to your planned sale date, you can go ahead and complete the rest of the renovations.
Refinish the floors
If you’re not willing to shell out at least $35,000 to upgrade your kitchen, then consider refinishing your flooring. Hardwood floors contribute to a better resale price for your house, and hold better ROI stats than kitchen renovations. The NAR projects that refurbishing hardwood floors — which usually cost an average value of $3000 — usually results in a net a return of the same amount or more in resale value. Given these statistics, you may want to consider replacing your carpeted or vinyl floors with hardwood flooring. This is because most home buyers generally prefer houses with hardwood flooring as it is easier to clean and longer-lasting than wood laminates, carpets, or vinyl floors.
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Interesting article. The problem might be that sellers customize a kitchen remodel to what they like and the potential buyers have a totally different idea of what they want in a kitchen. This latter would mean that the potential buyers move on without making an offer, or make an offer taking into consideration that they have to rip out the newly installed kitchen anyway. A big house near here was to be put on the market. The owner, a widower in his 70s, installed a brand new, very expensive, EXTREMELY 1970s looking kitchen which cost a lot of money. Then he put a whopping price on the house because of the new kitchen which had bright yellow walls, bright yellow counter tops and very dark stained cabinets. Everyone who came through talked about how they would have to remove that dated (1970s) kitchen! The house sat for a couple of years until the owner slashed the price so the eventual buyers could rip out that monstrosity of a kitchen and put in one they wanted. Between paying for the new kitchen and having the house on the market for so long, he lost more money on the sale than if he had put it up with the original kitchen and a more modest price.