All Posts Tagged With: "selling a home"
How you can increase the value of your house in this market
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Nov 30 2009 | 3 Comments
Selling a home right now is an adventure in itself. There aren’t a lot of properties moving in some areas, and in others…they are. There are still ways to get the most for your house even now though…and many of these tips are tried and true ways to get a good price for your home.
First of all, make sure your house is clean. Some buyers like to see a fully furnished house; some prefer to see a house that is bare. No matter how they feel about it, they will always agree that a clean house is what they REALLY want to see. It is extremely difficult to overlook stinky garbage and dirty floors. From experience, when I was looking at homes to purchase, there was a neighborhood right next to the college I was attending and the houses were definitely in our price range. However, most of the homes we walked into looked like they hosted an entire fraternity or some kind of natural disaster had struck them. This image never left my mind as we looked through the neighborhood; we actually ended up moving to a much quieter neighborhood 8 miles from campus.
Keeping your house clean isn’t limited to the inside. Curb appeal is very important and making sure that your lawn is groomed properly will not only attract more buyers, but will add a bit of value to your home. If buyers consider your lawn a bit more low maintenance (and less of a headache) than a weed-ridden lawn then you may be able to get a bit more money for your house.
It wouldn’t hurt to have someone inspect your home before you put it on the market. If you do this, then the inspector will find all the little things (and big things) that may be wrong with your house and you can fix them before any potential buyers’ inspectors come along and find them. A buyer will ask for whatever the cost of repair is off the price of the house (and usually a lot more) so it is just cheaper in the long run to fix the issues.
Make sure that you stay in line with other homes in your neighborhood. If your house is priced $20,000 more than all the other houses in your neighborhood because you feel like you should be getting some return on those granite countertops and stainless steel appliances you put in your house, then you likely won’t sell your house. The buyers that will be canvasing your neighborhood will look in what they consider their price range and $20,000 on a $130,000 home is a lot of money. You really want to stay in line with what is standard in your neighborhood if you were planning on upgrading anything in your home.
Finally, one of the newer ways to increase the value of your home is to make some “green” improvements. Everyone is looking for greener ways to live these days and typically when something is already put in place that is environmentally friendly, then it will save the buyers money in the future. So, you’ll also be seeing “green” when they do.
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Tags: neighborhood, headache, natural disaster
Things you can do to increase the value of your house
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Nov 10 2009 | 0 Comments
It is difficult to sell a house in normal times unless your house is “priced to sell.” With the recession and falling home prices, selling a home is an even more tedious and time consuming process.
There are little things that anyone can do to increase the value of their home to not only make the quality of life while you’re living there better, but also improve the appeal of your home to potential buyers.
More expensive projects:
1) Window Replacement – This is one of the things that will not only help you save on your utility bills, but you will also see a 77%-80% return on your investment depending on if you put vinyl or wood windows in (vinyl gets a better ROI).
2) Siding Replacement – With an 87% return on investment(on fiber-cement siding), this is a pretty good way to make your home seem more practical to potential buyers, and like putting new windows in, it will help save on your utility bills. Even when replacing your current siding with a foam backed vinyl siding you could still see up to an 80% return on your investment.
3) Major Kitchen Remodel - Remodeling a kitchen can cost a lot of money; typically with a major remodel homeowners can expect to pay up to and over $110,000. With a figure like that one must weigh how much the remodel will cost versus how much they can realistically get for their home. While some may be able to see a 71% ROI, if your home is only going to fetch $150,000 at the high end for your neighborhood, then spending over $100,000 for a kitchen probably isn’t feasible.
4) Bathroom Remodel – A bathroom remodel is another one of the things that will cost a lot depending on what all you want done to the room. Bathroom remodels often include tearing out walls and moving plumbing inside the house. This type of remodel can cost $50,000 or more, but if the neighborhood and other property values support it, it could return 71% of the cost.
A few more budget friendly suggestions:
1) The addition of a wood deck - While adding a wood deck versus a composite deck isn’t going to fetch the same ROI, it will increase the value of your home thanks to more people wanting to entertain in their own homes. Wood decks are cheaper than composite and “only” cost around $10,000. A wood deck can also fetch somewhere in the neighborhood of 81.8% return on investment.
2) Minor kitchen remodel – This is something that is far more economical and in some places, smarter. A minor kitchen remodel includes doing things such as replacing appliances and maybe counters. No walls would be torn out to do a minor remodel. Minor remodels are seeing a higher ROI than even major kitchen remodels right now at 79.5%.
3) Basement Remodel – That unfinished basement could become an entirely new set of bedrooms if you so chose. Finishing and remodeling an unfinished basement could net you a 73% ROI. Basements don’t have to be drab places either. I have family members who have a remodeled basement in their house and it is my favorite place in their whole house.
4) Attic room – Adding a bedroom will almost always increase the value of your home. Adding a bedroom in the attic could mean a 74% ROI. The only thing that I question about this (and perhaps it has to do with the attic in my own home), but if the attic is only accessible through a fold down ladder and a “trap door” then is it really possible to do this?
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Tags: fiber cement siding, return on investment, siding replacement
