Are you bored? Top 9 tips to add value to your home.
Are you stuck inside and running out of things to do & considering selling once this is over?
Use this time to starts looking around your home and see what simple improvements you could make to add overall when it comes to selling. beercocks have put together this Handy List of 9 ways you can make home improvements to add value to your home
#1. Clean deeply
- From top to bottom, inside and out.
- Then do your best to keep it clean and tidy until sold.
- Cleaning costs nothing but if the carpets and curtains could do with a professional deep clean, it’s well worth the money.
- Cleaning your house is possibly the biggest chore you’ll face when selling, lots of people do it half-heartedly – all the better for you!
- If your house stands head and shoulders above your competition, you’ll sell faster and get more interest.
#2. De-clutter
Get rid of the clutter and your house will look bigger.
It will feel to buyers like a tidy, well-ordered place to live – Just what they want!
It is one of the best ways to mentally prepare for your move.
The act of de-cluttering helps you to:
Start looking at your house as a commodity for sale
Manage the emotional bond with your house that in extreme cases can cloud ones judgment and stop you from selling fast.
Focus on the new life you’ll create when you move.
Unless experienced first-hand, this emotional side of selling is easy to underestimate.
Look at your cupboards and other storage areas – Are they full to bursting?
If they are, you need to consider thinning down your house further (possibly even consider renting a personal self-storage unit).
Ideally, cupboards and storage areas should not be more than 75% full.
Serious buyers will look inside your cupboards. If there isn’t enough storage for you, they’ll assume there isn’t enough for them.
Don’t let buyers pass on your house because of this!
#3. Fix anything broken
It’s really important to finish any DIY and catch-up on routine maintenance.
A well maintained house screams out that it’s ‘well cared for’ (a desirable attribute that buyers will pick-up on).
Buyers mentally reduce the max offer they’d make on your house every time they see a problem that needs fixing.
They rarely just reduce their offer by the cost of the repair…
They also price-in the additional hassle-factor of getting the work done. Or simple overestimate the costs!
Bodged (or unfinished) DIY projects need to be made good (preferably by a professional).
#4. Make a good 1st impression
1st impressions really do count and buyers are judging your home well before they step over the threshold.
Your house may be stunning inside, but if the outside doesn’t look great you jeopardise your sale.
Look at your property from the road? How does it compare to other houses in your street?
As you walk from the pavement to your front door, does every element of your property look cared for and well maintained?
#5. Depersonalise
This is one of the secrets behind why house builder show homes are such effective sales tools.
It’s a very powerful selling tip.
Buyers will fall in love with your house when they can imagine themselves living there…
When they can imagine your ‘house’ as their ‘home’.
It can’t be done with evidence of you or your family everywhere.
That’s why show homes are always anonymous. You’ll never see a family portrait or anything personal.
To make your house look lived-in without looking like anyone actually lives there, pack away into storage:
All family photos
Holiday souvenirs
Trophies & certificates
Collectible items
Children’s artwork
#6. Go neutral
This continues the idea of ‘depersonalising‘ your house.
Colour is a personal thing – one person’s harmonious colour scheme is another’s crime against humanity.
Don’t let differences in personal taste affect your sale. Take colour out of the equation all together.
It’s cheap to do, just paint your walls a neutral colour (something like Timeless from Dulux works well).
Repainting boldly coloured or highly individualised interiors to something blander is the most cost-effective way to add value to your property.
Rooms will immediately appear bigger and brighter (major selling points).
You’ll also create a blank canvas which helps buyers to project positive visions of what their life could be like in the house – part of the process of ‘falling for’ a property.
#7. Define the use of each room
While living in a house the use of certain rooms can become blurred over time, for example:
The lounge becomes part office.
The spare bedroom becomes a storage room.
The dining room becomes the kids play area.
If this has happened in your house, think about converting these rooms back to their original use.
This makes sound financial sense and helps you sell for more because certain rooms hold a greater perceived value than others, for example:
Buyers perceive bedrooms to be worth more than offices.
Buyers perceive dining rooms to be worth more than playrooms.
This is now also a good opportunity to make your house look bigger.
Remove all the furniture (and other items) that isn’t essential to the function of the room.
This will free up a lot of valuable floor space.
#8. Eliminate bad odours
The following all produce odours that are a major turn-off for buyers:
Cooking
Smoking
Pets
Damp
Blocked drains
Full bins
On the flip side of this coin, pleasant odours can enhance the appeal of your property.
We would stop short of the common clichés of baking bread bread or brewing coffee before each viewing.
Instead, consider introducing fresh flowers or a single scent across the home (either by candle or reed diffuser).
Good choices of scent are:
orange
lemon
jasmin
cedar
pine
vanilla
cinnamon
Finally, don’t forget to air your house often while it’s on the market.
#9. Get creative
The 8 steps above will make sure your house is saleable however, if you want to go further and get creative, you need to understand an important concept:
“
Buyers are not looking to buy property! What they’re really looking to buy is a better life (property just happens to be the way they’ll get it).
For the presentation of your house to really attract buyers (and the highest offers), you need to make buyers want what you’ve got – give them a glimpse of a better life.
More: Room-by-room home staging guide
Should I fix up my home or sell it as is?
TV programs about property make great entertainment but few are truly educational.
The problem with many is that they ‘over-egg’ the myth that any:
Modernisation
Renovation
Decoration
Restoration
….Will automatically add £££’s on to the price you sell your house for.
This myth has led many homeowners to choose unprofitable home improvement projects.
We won’t let that happen to you.
Improvements that DON’T make sense
Think carefully before replacing your:
Kitchens
Bathrooms-suites
Double glazing
Or installing:
Decking
A conservatory
These are not automatic profit making projects.
They may well make selling a house easier but after fitting costs, you’re lucky to re-coup even 90% of the money you spent.
Most buyers want to stamp their own taste and personality onto the property they buy.
Save your money and give buyers the opportunity to do that.