Steps to Home Resale Success

Seth Murphy at www.papadiy.com contributed today’s tips. If you like the post, check out his site.

 If out on your horizon of upcoming life events, you see the listing of your home for sale, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on increasing its resale value and boosting its chances on the real estate market. Such a task may appear overwhelming, but when broken down into doable parts based on your personal budget, it’s a simple process.

First, determine both the current listing price potential of your home and an achievable goal for resale price by seeking the advice of a local agent. Based on the difference between each number, strategically decide, then, upon a budget for home improvement spending and which portions of your home. If renovated, your home will deliver the most return for your money.

Even small changes can go a long way toward increasing the resale price of your home. Examine the following potential renovations, listed by budget capability to plan your approach to home improvement.

Under $100

• Hire someone to conduct a thorough inspection of your home. They may discover hidden issues with basic structures and systems that could negatively impact its resale value.
• Update interior paint. This is one of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements you can make. Freshly painted rooms appear clean and up-to-date, indicating value.
  • Zillow conducted research to find which paint colors yield the highest monetary return upon home resale. From the outside in, choose these colors in order to appeal to the broadest audience of home buyers:
    • Front door: Navy blue to dark grey or charcoal
    • Home exterior: Mix of grey and beige
    • Kitchen: Light blue to soft grey-blue
    • Living room: Light beige, pale taupe or oatmeal
    • Bedrooms: Light cerulean to cadet blue
    • Bathrooms: Powder blue to periwinkle
  • Avoid these color placements, as they were found to yield negative returns:
    • Home exterior: Medium brown, taupe or stucco
    • Kitchen: Yellow
    • Living room: Blue
    • Dining room: Red
    • Bathrooms: White
  • Trim your lawn and shape your hedges. Curb appeal is of utmost importance–if potential buyers don’t like what they see when driving by, they won’t be coming inside.
  • Conduct a top-to-bottom cleaning of your home, especially of those nooks and crannies you tend to overlook as time passes. You get one chance at a first impression–make your home sparkle.
  • Visually increase the square footage of your home. Rid yourself of unnecessary clutter or chunky pieces of furniture that create obstacles to maneuvering through the space. Let in more natural light (sunny = spacious) and consider adding a large mirror to a small room to make it feel bigger.

Under $200

• Ditch the popcorn ceilings, as few structural elements date a house more. Find a solution to soften the texture, and then simply scrape the popcorn away.
• Make simple repairs to your roof, the most common being replacing broken or missing tiles. Cut wooden shingles with a saw, asphalt shingles with a utility knife and clay or concrete tiles with an angle grinder. Position the new tile, hooking its nibs over the furring strip and ensuring that it’s securely attached. Remove the wedges from the adjoining tiles, and check that the new tile is sitting flush with its neighbors.

Under $400

• Replace outdated lighting and cooling fixtures with new, more energy efficient options.

More expensive, higher returns

• Renovate the master bathroom, or add an entirely new bathroom if your home features a limited number.
• Replace old appliances with updated, commercial-style versions.
• Add insulation to the attic to reduce utility costs.
• Replace the garage door, an improvement option from which sellers can expect to recoup 85 percent of the cost, according to Remodeling Magazine.
• Replace the front door, adding functionality, safety and curb appeal. Sellers usually regain 91 percent of the cost of a steel entry door and nearly 78 percent of the cost of a fiberglass door.

With some budget examination, strategic thought and goal-oriented planning, the renovation of your home will pay off by improving its resale appeal and price potential.

Photo Credit: Pixabay