Attract Buyers and Improve Home Value All at Once

You have had enough and want to upgrade to a new home.  You have looked online and know exactly what you want and all you need to do now is sell your old home.  You start the process and that’s when the bad news comes.  Your home is not worth what you thought it would be worth and without a little help; your listing agent does not think that it will sell without some real help.  Sure, you had heard about how home values have dropped over the years but you never realized just how much.  Also, you have lived in your home for ages and made it a place that is extremely comfortable to you. Now, of course, you can’t afford the new home you wanted if you can’t sell your existing home.  What do you do now?  You can either forget your dreams of a new home or you can do things to help the value of your existing home in order to make the sale easier.  Time to fix up the property so that it today’s buyers will be interested and will offer you the amount of money you need to move on.  

  

When getting your home ready to sell, there are five key things to look at that will help the value and make buyers take notice and luckily these improvements will not break the bank.  First and foremost, you need to think of first impressions.  You can’t get people to look at the inside of your home if your landscaping is scaring buyers from even stopping at your home.  Buyers might think that if you ignore your yard, you are more likely to ignore other areas of upkeep of your home, thus lowering the overall value.  Curb appeal makes a difference, so make sure your landscaping is tidy and not overgrown.  If necessary, spruce up your tired yard by planting some bright flowers and create a welcoming atmosphere around your home.  The second area to look at improving is your bathroom.  If you can’t remodel your whole home, just improving the bathroom can entice more buyers than you think.  But if you can’t afford a complete remodel, minor improvements, such as paint, new light or plumbing fixtures, or even replacing old shower curtains, can go a long way to changing the look and appearance of an outdated bathroom.  After, the bathroom, the kitchen is third most essential room to improve.  Cabinets play a major role in a buyer’s decision about the kitchen, so if you can afford it, replace old and tired cabinets when you can.  If not, either paint or clean and polish existing cabinets to improve the overall look of the room.  Replacing outdated appliances is another way to add value to your home and the return on investment is pretty high.  The fourth thing to think about is lighting.  Unfortunately, most homes in America are not lit properly.  Bright lighting makes rooms look more spacious, so for every 50 square feet you should aim for a total of 100 watts.  There should also be at least three different fixtures in each area. You need ambient light (overhead), task light (pendant, under cabinet, reading, etc.), and accent light (table lamps or on walls).  The last area to consider is Going Green.  Today’s buyers are extremely interested in ways to improve a home’s energy efficiency by lowering their carbon footprint, and thus decreasing high energy costs.  Small things like programmable thermostats, water-saving faucets or toilets, tankless water heaters, energy efficient appliances, to solar panels are definitely things to think about to attract energy conscious buyers to your home.  Besides, energy efficiency is something that will never go out of style.  So before your dreams of a new home go up in smoke, consider these areas to attract new buyers to your home as well as increase its value at the same time.