When Selling Your Home; You have to make the Right Remodeling Investments.
Selling your house is stressful, even in a seller's market. You want the most money you can get and you want the house to be on the market for as short as possible. For every dollar you invest, you need to know you'll be getting that dollar back with significant dividends. (or why bother, right?)
I'm not an expert, I'm not a licensed real estate agent (I haven't been licensed since 1998!). What I do have to share is my recent experience in selling our home. I did a lot of research and it paid off! If we sold our house as it was it would have sat on the market while we paid the mortgage and it would have sold for significantly less. Instead, we remodeled and we got $4 back for every $1 we spent.
How?
You have to make the right remodeling decisions. Some pay off but some aren't a good return on your investment.
Set the Right Budget; Understand the Limits; Be Realistic.
Homes in a particular area will sell within a certain range. You might get your home to the top of the range, but you aren't going to rocket through it and sell a $650,000 house in a neighborhood full of $350,000 houses. Be realistic. Use your house appraisal and look at other homes in the area that are on the market and have upgrades to try to determine how much you can raise your asking price by doing work on the house.
The Kitchen. Selling a Home is all about the Kitchen.
Nice kitchens sell houses and "fixer upper" kitchens kill deals, my real estate agent told me. Are you going to get 100% of what you put into the kitchen back out? No. According to HGTV, kitchen remodels recoup about 93% of your investment.
All this means is you really should remodel your kitchen NOW if you feel you might be selling in a few years. You'll get to enjoy it so that 7% "loss" won't sting.
Why do I have loss in quotations? Because ...
... a beautiful kitchen is the difference between selling your home in 3 days and selling it in 90. That's many months of mortgage you are paying and your home sells for less when it finally is sold.
Paint Everything
This is the single biggest return on investment, if done properly.
Every single room has to be painted. Leave no walls or ceiling untouched. Leave no popcorn ceiling behind. Paint the inside of closets, too.
Your real estate agent will know the current "hot" neutral color for your walls. If she's hot herself, she'll also know the bathroom color that is raising prices. In June of 2017 it was blue and it raised prices by $5,440. Sometimes there is a hot color for living rooms and master bedrooms, too.
Curb Appeal is More Important than you Think!
The second largest return on investment is power washing the outside of your home and doing some light landscaping. People drive by homes before making an appointment to see the inside. Don't let your ability to envision what it will look like when the work is done blind you to the fact that most people only see what is there. Plus, most people buy at their max price and they don't have anything left over to do a "little work", so it's important that you don't discount how a "little work" can kill the deal. Think that the inside is so great that the outside doesn't matter? My real estate agent said that many times prospective buyers will do a drive-by viewing before they will commit time to tour the inside.
Remodeling sold my home faster
The biggest take away from my recent home selling experience is that I won't wait for remodeling anymore. My old house looked so amazing once I invested in it. It was like a whole new home and I felt a cheated that I didn't get to enjoy any of it. It did sell before it went on the market, though! My agent did pre-open house "sneak peaks" the week before it hit the market and ... it sold!
Get No Hassle Help on Your Remodeling Project
- Remodel or Buy a New House? - October 26, 2018
- Remodeling to Resell? Read This! - August 24, 2018
- Life Changing Closet Design - December 20, 2017