Tips to Increase Your Home’s Value
Need tips to boost your home’s value and sell your home quicker? Prospective buyers want to see that you took initiative so that they don’t have to. Here’s how to WOW to your potential buyers!
Marketing to sell your home faster
- In the digital sphere, list your home on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Craigslist, Yahoo! Real Estate, and your real estate agent’s website and Facebook page. Scout those websites’ listings for popular details to include in your own description.
- For traditional curb appeal, put out a sign on your lawn and brochures at your open house. Both should detail the number of bedrooms and bathrooms for easy interest.
- Have professional photos taken for both old and new world marketing. It’s important to not only stage your home so it looks its best, but also showcase your neighborhood’s dining, nature trails, etc. You’re selling a way of life, so homebuyers need the full picture.
Magic Words to Sell Your Home
Small updates for big returns
Intentional upgrades will give your home a fresh and contemporary look. Here’s an achievable checklist for your sale’s budget and timeline.
1. Create a more open layout.
A decluttered space does not mean a cold one. Always add homey touches for an open house, such as attractive dishware to set the table or fresh fruit and flowers for color and softness. To make your home more inviting, here are a few more tips to open up your space.
- Create a welcoming conversation space by pulling seating off of the walls and onto a rug. Furniture should be warmly lit and facing each other.
- Swap out drapes for shutters, and reflect natural light with mirrors. Both brighten a room, which creates the illusion of more space.
- Corral your personal things. Decorative baskets can be used to remove any indication of politics or religion, and take down family photos. Getting too personal can feel territorial.
- No pets, kids, or toys belonging to either should be present at a house showing.
- Be inventive with storage. Transforming nooks and crannies into shelving for wine, cookware, or shoes helps prospective buyers envision their own items in your home.
Easy Home-Staging Tips
2. Balance improving vs. upgrading
Room by room, analyze how each addition you are considering will earn back its investment. This can pin down who the upgrade is really for. You or the buyer?
- Know when to make the call for hired workers or DIY. How big is the job? How long have you put off repairs? What is your level of expertise? All answers will influence cost.
- Inside and out, a fresh coat of paint makes a home look clean and well cared for, especially when neutral colors are applied. But consider whether you just need to tackle spots with a magic eraser or a power wash.
- The kitchen and bathroom are notoriously the areas of biggest return. You might transition appliances, or install granite or marble countertops, but restoring cabinetry in either space can give each space a quick, easy facelift.
- Tile improves your home’s air quality because unlike carpet, it doesn’t hold odor, doesn’t stain, and spills and pet hair come up as easily as they came down. If retiling sounds like a pain, you can simply bring an old-fashioned carpet color into this century.
- It may be that all a room needs is a more clearly defined role. Inexpensive or borrowed furniture can help shape a prospective buyer’s vision of your home as their home.
3. Spick and span maintenance
Your job is not only to point to the positive but also show how your home’s features counteract the negative. Give the impression of luxury by resolving common household issues. Caulk, grout, mulch. Shampoo, scrub, strip. Vacuum, dust, wipe. These are your new mantras.