Deciding to sell your home is just the first step of a journey that you can successfully navigate with the right advice. The trick is to do as much as possible to increase your home’s value while keeping preparation costs down to a minimum. Right off the bat, you’ll need to get rid of any clutter because this will make the interior of your house seem more spacious.
There are many other clever ways to improve your home’s attractiveness to buyers, including interior painting, taking care of minor repairs in advance, and paying special attention to the kitchen and baths. Here are 8 easy — and cheap! — home improvement tips to increase the value of your home before you sell it.
1. Repaint with Neutral Colors
Do any of your rooms have trendy wall colors like brick red or eggplant? Your house reflects your family’s personality, but — while you may like certain styles — your decor won’t help when it comes to luring a buyer. The idea is to offer a blank slate upon which a possible buyer can visualize their own furniture and decorating choices.
In that spirit, it’s a great idea to add a fresh coat of neutral paint to the interior. As long as you do the painting yourself, this can be a cost-effective way to brighten and open up all of the rooms. Eggshell and antique white are examples of colors that add warmth to a space without overpowering it.
2. Ensure No Minor Repairs are Needed
While you’re painting, keep a sharp eye out for any signs of water damage. If you find any splotches on the ceiling or walls that remain from former leaks, be sure to touch them up as well. Naturally, if you find a current leak, now is the time to be proactive and take care of it.
Every part of your home’s infrastructure should appear well-maintained and clean to prospective buyers. It’s a good idea to check all the air conditioning filters to make sure they’re clean; go ahead and vacuum the vents while you’re at it. Outside, check rain gutters, garage doors and screens to make sure that everything is clean and in good shape.
3. Cheap Replacements
The bathrooms and kitchen are often the main selling points for a home buyer. Let’s take a close look at inexpensive ways to improve these rooms.
Is the commode chipped and out of date? Switching it out is a relatively inexpensive upgrade and it could lend the entire bathroom a newer feel. Replace worn rugs and faded shower curtains with fresh new ones in neutral colors. In the kitchen, it’s time to clean out the pantry, fridge and oven and give everything else a deep cleaning too.
4. Staging Your Home
Preparing your home in this way will not only make it more appealing to walk-through buyers, but it will also help you take the best photographs possible for buyers that are browsing online. This is called ‘staging’ your home and the professionals have some tips for the decluttering phase. Instead of shoving things into drawers and closets, go through everything and give what you don’t need to charity or sell it in a garage sale. Then pull out the things that are rarely used and pack them up for storage. Renting a storage unit will help declutter your house and, as a bonus, it will also make moving easier.
5. Use Aroma to Your Advantage
All of these tips will help your home look better to a prospective buyer, but it’s also a good idea to make sure the house has an appealing smell. When you live in a house it’s natural to get used to cooking or pet odors, but someone walking in from outside will immediately be able to detect any unpleasant smells. A common suggestion is to bake chocolate chip cookies right before showing your home. Some other fragrances that many people enjoy are citrus, peppermint and lavender. Also, make sure that the indoor environment is pleasantly warm or cool, depending on the time of year.
6. Don’t Cause Damage While Cleaning
There are a few things to watch out for when you’re in home improvement mode. Make sure that you use the right cleaners for each job: stainless steel cleaner for stainless steel appliances, ceramic cooktop cleaner for the stove top, and appropriate cleaners for wood and vinyl floors. The last thing you want to do is ruin the fixtures or flooring through overzealous cleaning.
Also, take a look at the lighting in your home, and replace any harsh lighting with softer light that will flatter the rooms. You can also brighten up dark areas with a strategically placed lamp or two.
7. Remove Family Photos
One common tip for sellers is to remove family photos from the walls. Remember, the idea is to encourage prospective buyers to see the house as their own. You can eliminate bare spots by adding a decorative mirror and one or two small paintings instead.
Also, if you’re used to parking your car in the garage, you may need to give that up for awhile. Now is the time to do a garage cleaning and reorganization. You want to make this space look multi-purpose and roomy. A parked car will definitely detract from that goal. And no, you can’t use the garage as temporary storage for the clutter you removed from the rest of the house!
8. Cheap Home Improvement Fixes; Big Return
These are ways you can prepare your home for sale without spending a ton of money or going into full renovation mode. Big renovations generally don’t pay back more than 80 percent of the cost when selling, if that much. And there’s always a chance that the changes won’t match the tastes of prospective buyers. Better to start with cleaning and decluttering home improvement tasks, move on to depersonalizing the environment, and include repairing any minor problems with the home. If you do get an offer, any problems found after the fact are likely to cost more to resolve, and they may even cost you the sale.
The advice to ‘clean and declutter’ may seem all too simple when it comes to getting a house in shape to sell. But once you weed out unnecessary belongings and make the home sparkling clean, spacious and fresh, it will immediately become more saleable. For the exterior of your home, don’t consider painting because it won’t add much to the selling price and may be the wrong color for a prospective buyer anyway. Instead, just make sure that your lawn is mowed, edged and weeded. With determination and some elbow grease, you can make changes that will greatly improve the chances of a quick sale!
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