1/8/2020 1:32 PM
When selling your property you need the most money you can get for it. Here are some great ideas for making sure you are on top of the REALTOR® priority list. Put together a budget for how much you would like to spend before leaving. Is it going to be a couple grand? Five hundred bucks? No matter what it is, you have to be realistic and goal oriented. What is going to be the selling point of the property? Put the most of that budget toward the goal and thin things out on the other items. Here’s a list of some lesser expensive ways to put your home first.
- Call a pro. In order to be sure on what people are looking for at the particular time you are selling, it is a great idea to contact a lisenced REALTOR® who not only knows the value of the market and how it is currently trending, but how it will be changing in the coming months. It won’t do you any good to take a few valuable months spending your price budget on the back yard in the middle of the autumn season if it’ll just be covered in snow when you’re selling. Find out what people are buying and shape your property to that market.
- Inspect. There are no inspections that are required by law before you can sell a property but this doesn’t diminsh the value of doing it. Hiring a professional general home inspector to help you with an assessment on the beneficial and trouble spots both. If you have great windows and doors throughout your home and this is rare for the current market, you want to know so you can emphasize this valuable asset! If the furnace is old but still in great shape, you may want to spend your money on other areas as old doesn’t mean bad.
- Paint. The first place most people begin to freshen up a property is with a nice paint job. If you aren’t seasoned at painting- CALL A PRO. It’s not uncommon to spend a couple hundred dollars per room getting a color change to something more neutral to increast the appearance of value. If you already have neutral colored walls, the price can go down by just painting the same color a single coat rather than two coats to change the color. Cleaning the trim is always a great idea. If you clean the doors and trim it’s likely you will see that they only need touched up with paint rather than completely repainted. This can save you several hundreds of dollars. In the end, the home can completely transform in appearance, thus value.
- Touch it up. Though there are some things in housing markets that fluctuate in and out of popularity, price, and favor, the value of some things stay the same. Everyone seems to want a nice kitchen with plenty of valuable cabinet space. Then off to the bathrooms- if the bathrooms look clean and modern, many other things won’t be questioned. Next is closet space. Is there enough room for expansion or is what they get all there is to be had? Finally, yard maintenance. Are there bare spots in the yard from the family dog repeatedly using the same spot to relieve themself? Have the kids decided to dig for gold at the end of your patio? These are valuable places to focus on. Don’t assume that just because you’ve grown used to seeing things like this, it means a prospective buyer will- because they won’t. If you don’t show you’ve put things back together on the outside, they can only assume you haven’t done proper maintenance on the inside.
- Keep it bright and light. When repainting, be sure to choose light colors that reflect light. This gives appearance of a larger space rather than a cave-like atmosphere. Clean the walls and floors and get rid of any items that aren’t completely necessary. The less there is to clutter the scene, the more open the space appears to be and the more square footage shows rather than is covered up thus not usable. Using plants to give a feeling of outdoor freshness is great because it provides a feeling of outdoor spaciousness.
- Keep it together. Starting with the curb appeal we have already touched on bare spots in the laws. What about trimming the trees? Have you really looked at the bushes lately? Is a good window cleaning in order. Making a proper checklist of items that you would like to get a handle on is always the place to begin. It’s just so easy to get sidetracked by a beautiful day or spend all of your time on one project and overlook another. The checklist will help keep things in line. If a bush or two have died- dig them up! Just remember to not leave a dirt pile in its place. Decorative rock or even mulch is an affordable way to enhance the vlaue of any part of a landscaped yard.
- Seasonal maintenance is different than weekly maintenance. Picking up doggie poop and blowing off the leaves from your air conditioner unit are completely separate priority items. Check out our nice list of winter maintenance duties you may want to see in our Winter Maintenance Time article. Be sure to think in both short and long term when completing maintenance. Wind up the hoses, clean out the fire pit, pick up the branches, what ever it takes to make the yard look like a pleasing place to spend time.
Do what you can to step outside of your daily life to see what is actually around you rather than what you’ve built your home around you to become. Everyone will see the property differently from you, to your friends and family, to professional contractors, to a prospective homebuyer. Take the help when it comes, stay positive on the experience and remember that everyone gets stressed doing this phase of property sales. It’s normal and it will all be a memory soon if it’s done right. Make the best of it!
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great ideamaintenanceproperty sellingselling propertywinter maintenanceyardvaluepricevaluablePAARPeoria Area Association of Realtorspeoria
