Are you selling your house? Do you like money? What if we said you can sell your house … for more money?
That’s right! There are many ways to bump your home’s market value up before listing it. Some cost nothing at all. Some do cost money, but not as much as you stand to gain by using them. You have nothing to lose by making your greatest investment more valuable!
1. Replace Garage Door
Is your garage door already in good condition, and complementary to your home’s surrounding exterior? Then leave it be. There’s no sense in replacing it. But if your garage door is badly worn out, then you can profit by replacing it. When you replace a beat up garage door with a modern, attractive one, you can reasonably anticipate a 102.7% return on investment (ROI).
Replacing exterior doors before selling is also usually profitable. So too is HVAC conversion (electrification) and manufactured stone veneer installation. In fact, so long as it’s well thought out and genuinely enhances the home’s appeal, any improvement can bear a profitable ROI.
2. Paint Interior
How’s your interior paint looking? Chipped? Stained? Faded? Otherwise tired? Sounds like you can help your own cause by giving your walls a fresh coat. Choose neutral tones such as white, gray, beige and taupe. They’re not exactly “exciting,” but they’re least likely to turn people off. Do that and you can fairly expect an ROI of around 107%.
Painting the exterior? That’s usually an ROI closer to 55%. It can be higher if the home’s exterior was noticeably shabby beforehand, but exterior painting isn’t a “money maker” per se.
3. Add Usable Square Footage
Its age, location, and condition all bear heavily on your home’s market value. For example, a beautifully preserved and well-situated 1,000 sq ft house built in 1950 will probably sell for more than a 3,000 sq ft dump from the 1980s.
With all other things being equal, a house sells for more when it has more usable square footage. Naturally, this doesn’t mean you should start building expensive additions. The ROI on a three- or four-season room is substantially less than 100%. But if any existing part of your home is unfinished – including its basement or its attic – then making it fully habitable can also make you just a little bit richer.
4. Boost Curb Appeal
It’s difficult to assign a price tag to good curb appeal. You may break even (or even wind up losing money) after prettying up your home’s surroundings. Even so, attractive landscaping, hardscaping and outdoor lighting can do much more than increase your closing price. They also create favorable first impressions that may ultimately produce a signed purchase agreement faster. Less time on the market means spending less on maintenance and upkeep. It also means spending less time in suspense!
Are you selling your home during winter? Then there’s still plenty you can do to enhance its curb appeal. Keep all walkable surfaces shoveled and safe. Put away toys, tools and snow removal equipment before showings. Add some potted evergreens to either side of the doorway. Finally, compensate for early sunsets by installing some outdoor lighting.
5. Declutter & Clean
This is the very last step to preparing a home for the market, but also one of the most important. Buyers don’t like seeing piles of clutter lying around. A dirty kitchen, unkempt bathroom, and even an untidy basement can similarly snap them out of the homebuying spirit. Once again, we can’t estimate just how great an ROI cleaning and decluttering would net you, but it’s well worth your time and effort all the same.
Are you planning on selling your lake home or other residential property in the greater Detroit Lakes, MN area? Contact Action Realty of Detroit Lakes today to make it happen quickly, and for the best price the market has to offer!