5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Home Sellability for the Spring Market
Spring is when many of us decide to sell our homes — and even better, maybe you found your dream home or dream builder during this Spring’s Parade of Homes. In either case, here are some great tips to prepare your home for sale from our guest blogger, Lee Flynn.
With Spring rapidly approaching, a lot of homeowners are getting ready to put their homes up for sale. Spring is one of the busiest times of year for real estate, and it’s important for sellers to make sure that their homes are in prime shape to draw their maximum value. Hoping to achieve a huge price boost, many homeowners will focus on huge projects like full bathroom renovations or even building additional rooms. Such projects can be pricey, though, and there is no guarantee that they will increase a home’s value enough to offset the costs.
If you or someone you know are putting your home up on the market in the coming months, here are a few affordable suggestions of projects you can try in order to increase your home’s value without putting your family in the poorhouse.
Spruce Up the Lawn
One of the most important parts of showing a home is presentation. As soon as people pull up to the house for a showing, they are assessing the property and deciding how much it is worth to them. In fact, 74 percent of buyersreport that they do a drive-by before they decide whether or not to take a closer look at a home, and 22 percent report that they will make a decision on whether or not to buy a house on curb appeal alone.
A neat expanse of lawn with modest shrubs and a couple of pots with flowers at the front porch sets the tone from the get-go. A great example is the Gonyea Homes and Remodeling #R13 from our Spring Remodelers Showcase.
While some exterior improvements require major landscaping projects, a significant amount of curb appeal is simple maintenance. Before you hire a contractor to put in a new flowerbed or install a water feature, consider just calling a lawn care service to cut the grass and trim the hedges from time to time. A visit from a team of lawn experts can be particularly helpful if your area is just coming out of a harsh winter. They can help you with some restorative projects before spring, such as reseeding the lawn to fix new dead patches or aerating the lawn to promote growth.
Apply a New Coat of Paint
Gray is neutral but trending hot right now, as shown in the kitchen from Structural Dimensions (#R58) from our Spring Remodelers Showcase.
It’s not necessary to completely redo a kitchen or bathroom before selling your home when a simple coat of paint can have just as big of an effect. Neutral colors are appealing to a wider audience, so try to avoid any loud or unusual colors. An accent wall in a bold color can make a statement and speak to someone strongly, but it can also be off-putting to others, so use your judgment.
Give Your Cabinets a Face Lift
Trendy new pulls and knobs can strike just the right note, like in the renovated laundry from Michels Homes #R1.
If you want to update your kitchen a bit without breaking the bank, consider cabinet refacing rather than replacing the entire cabinet setup. You can hire a professional to refinish the exteriors of your cabinet, or you can simply replace the doors—though if you do so, you will probably want to stain the doors so they closely match the rest of the cabinet. Even replacing the knobs and handles can have a major impact on the look of the cabinets while staying within a reasonable budget.
Remove the Clutter
Clutter-free spaces seem bigger, too, like the beautiful living area in #R53 from College City Design/Build.
We realize that if you’re selling your home, you’ve probably got a million tasks to keep track of. Preparing for a new job, handling paperwork for children who need to be registered for new schools and doctors, and actually packing up home furnishings can be a messy process. Leaving clutter about when potential buyers come to view your house can significantly damage their impression of the home, so make sure that everything is tidy.
Set the Stage
Once the clutter is gone, take the next step and stage your home. What does that mean? According to Barb Schwarz, president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, staging is “the preparation of the home for sale so that buyers can mentally move in.” In other words, it means arranging the home in a way that buyers will feel comfortable, imagining themselves living in this space. Remove your personal items from the property during a viewing. This allows the buyer to more easily picture themselves living there, rather than feeling like an intruder. Additionally, sticking with soothing color palettes, finding the best arrangement for the furniture, and setting emotional cues like floral decorations or candles can all help. A lot of people are familiar with the tactic of having fresh cookies baking to give the home a welcoming smell, but it really works. Any little touches you can add to make the home more appealing to visitors has the potential to boost your home’s value and get it off the market quickly.