When your home’s for sale, you want it to sell quickly—and preferably, above the asking price.
Even in a seller’s market, there are things you need to do in advance to position your home to receive the highest price possible. These are upgrades that return 2 to 3 times the investment. That is a 200% and more return on investment in 90 days or less. Who doesn’t want to earn that kind of return on their money!
We listed some of the best home improvement projects we recommend to our clients that increase the selling price before putting their homes on the market.
Apply a fresh coat of paint
Unless you’ve recently painted your home, it could probably use a fresh coat of paint. Over time, walls experience a lot of wear and tear and can also get faded from sunlight, and dingy from dust. If you have lived in your home for 10 years, have children, and you expect to sell your home at top market price, we nearly always recommend fresh paint. Painting your home makes it stand out from other properties and can help to reduce the time on the market. Since you see your house every day, it’s easy to overlook problems that may jump out to buyers. Often, a wall can be scraped or peeling, and sometimes, previous water damage was left unattended that will be a red flag to potential buyers. And we don’t want the best potential buyer to get distracted by being concerned about the cost of repainting for their new home.
We work with professional painting companies that are local and affordable. We can provide their contact information to you. Just give us a call.
Wash the windows
Another part of your home that is often overlooked because you’re accustomed to seeing it every day is your windows. Cleaning your windows can make an amazing difference in the light that reaches the interior of your home, and gives a potential buyer a feeling of your home being clean and fresh. If you’ve ever replaced the windshield in your car after driving for a decade viewing through a dirty, pitted windshield, that new glass makes it seem like you are driving a new car, and the same applies to the windows in your home.
You may need a power cleaner for the window exteriors. In fact, we often recommend calling in professional window cleaners. We can recommend affordable professional window cleaners.
Do a deep clean
You know how to clean your house; you may not enjoy it, but you know how to do it right. A true deep clean means grabbing a ladder to remove the dust collected on ceiling fan blades and on hanging picture frames, all the way down to the baseboards. Clean the interior and surroundings of your oven, and your refrigerator should sparkle. Lastly, replace the filters for your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system.
We can recommend professional cleaning people to help you. Feel free to call us anytime, and we can share their contact information with you.
Declutter, declutter, declutter
Another project that costs nothing (except some time) but pays big dividends is doing a room-by-room decluttering, suggests Dalzell. Every buyer loves going into model homes because they are perfectly staged, and while that’s a tough standard to meet, just clearing off countertops, boxing up extra picture frames and decorations, and thinning out some furniture will make rooms appear bigger and allow the buyer to imagine their own furniture in the living spaces.
We have professional packing and declutter specialists that can help you choose what to save, and what to get rid of.
Pump up the curb appeal
Landscaping is the first impression a potential buyer has of your home. Your local garden center can provide expert advice for inexpensive seasonal plants and ground cover ideas. Your front yard can be transformed to create that “wow” factor for not a lot of effort. Specialists agree, that home sellers put fresh mulch around plants, reseed the bare patches on the lawn, and add some colorful flowers to the garden beds to really brighten up the look of the house. Remember: curb appeal sets the buyers’ expectations for what they’ll see inside the home. Buyers often formulate a decision within seconds of pulling up to a home. If they like the front of the home, they enter with a positive attitude and look for features and finishes to like, to reinforce their original decision.
We can provide local gardeners to help update your landscape to proper show condition.
Address pesky pests
A project that sellers sometimes overlook is pest control. Are there signs of pests in your home? If so, clean up those signs and call a pest control company to take care of the issues. Sellers should want to know where the major pest issues are in their home and continue to monitor them for any ongoing activity.
We can recommend a good pest control company, in addition to a local respected and affordable termite company.
Minimize pet paraphernalia
Just as sellers would be advised to minimize the effect of young children’s toys strewn about the home, they should do the same with pets and their toys, accessories, and furniture. Before potential buyers view the property, it is smart to make an effort to declutter the pet items, and keep them out of sight whenever possible.
Upgrade your cabinets
Since the most visible component in a kitchen is the cabinets, refreshing them is a great way to update your space. Options range from simply painting cabinets, to replacing the doors and drawers with a new style. For a very budget-friendly refresh, scrub your cabinets and polish them with a cabinet restorer. Finish them off with new hardware to update your look. Refreshing kitchen and bath cabinets can give your home a new look without a major remodel. By just repainting cabinet fronts and replacing hardware, the kitchen can look largely remodeled without any real construction. We have helped many of our clients prepare their kitchens to show substantially better and attract the best offers.
Add a backsplash
Adding a new backsplash is a smart way to update a dated kitchen. A backsplash is often overlooked, but can be a very impactful part of the design for a kitchen. The average backsplash is 30 square feet and new up to date tile can be had for only a few bucks a foot. For just a few hundred dollars plus installation, this can provide a huge aesthetic upgrade to an older kitchen.
If you are considering updating your home to possibly sell in the near future, give me a call. I have sold over 1,000 homes in the area, and we often help our clients update and remodel their homes to sell for the highest prices. We know what improvements to make to insure you receive double to triple profit on your update investment. And we have the people to do the work. We can make it easy and substantially more profitable for you when selling your home. Just give me a call, and I can come by to take a quick look, and review the best options.
Receive Even More Profit by taking advantage of our exclusive “Free Loan” to update your home when selling
Cary Concierge Service
Cary will Fully Front the Cost to Prepare Your Home for the market to insure you receive the Highest Price.
This includes, Staging, Repairs, and Cosmetic Improvements.
No Hidden Loan Fees – No Interest Charged – Ever.
Quick: Our concierge process is designed for speed. Work can begin now – and your home will sell fast.
Affordable: Eliminates stress. No loan fees, No appraisal fee, and No interest – No kidding!
Intelligent: Cary will help determine the best updates and repairs that bring you the most profit.
Easy: Cary is personally involved throughout the process, providing the best advice from start to finish.
We currently have buyers right now looking to purchase a Cypress home from $800,000 to $1.8 million.
Call Cary direct at 800-944-2441 or email Cary at: Cary@SoCal.rr.com. We can review your best options to insure you receive the most profit when selling.
The call, like our Concierge loan service costs you nothing. And of course our conversations are always confidential. Let’s talk soon.
Cary Hairabedian
Broker-Associate
Re/Max College Park Realty
Direct: 800-944-2441
DRE: #00876519
Experience you can trust:
Real Estate licensed in California since 1984
Over $35 million in home sales in 2021
Over $750 Million in career real estate sales
#13 of 6,100 Remax agents in California 2019
#42 of 62,000 Remax agents Nationwide in 2019
#99 of 130,000 Remax agents in the World in 2019