Let’s say you’ve bought a house. And let’s also say that you also want to sell it some time in the future. Maybe you just want to house flip, maybe you want to move into an RV. You probably want to sell it for as much as possible, right? Let’s look at some ways you can improve the value of your house.
1. Remove excessive clutter
This may seem obvious. Make sure the house doesn’t have garbage lying around. But this tip isn’t only about cleaning your garbage bins. You should also try to remove any unimportant furniture, decorations and accessories. Go through your cabinets, your drawers and cupboards and take away anything that doesn’t need to be there. You’re going to be selling the house, no need to keep your hairdryer in there.
Simply making your house look it’s best can go an incredibly long way in improving it’s value.
If you present your potential buyers with a blank slate of a house, they will have a much easier time imagining all of their stuff in it. And, since this is task can be performed completely free, it’s probably the best way to start.
2. Give it a fresh coat of paint
Another great and fairly cheap way to make your house look better in the eyes of your buyers is to simply change the paint around. Especially if you bought an old home, it’s possible that the interior paint hasn’t been changed in a long time. Old paint can not only be quite off-putting, it can also be more easily damaged by elements. That’s why you should sometimes re-paint both your interior and exterior, even when you don’t want to sell your house.
Also, the outside walls are literally the first thing your buyers will see. So making sure the outside looks as nice as possible should be your top priority.
And you don’t have to just re-apply the same paint that the house had before. You can even paint every room exactly like you want. That, including a blank slate for the interior can really help with your potential buyers.
3. Focus on your kitchen and bathroom
Some people say that the kitchen is the hypothetical heart of your house. And while it may not seem that important, even a house’s bathroom should be your main focus. Many people want their new kitchen to be top-of-the-line, and if yours is out of date, they might just look elsewhere. Same with your bathroom. Since it is a room that everyone will visit multiple times a day, they want it to look nice.
Another big thing is space usage. If your kitchen/bathroom is cluttered and hard to work in, it might be hard for your buyers to be convinced to actually buy.
This is a process that can get quite expensive. If you want a full-blown redesign of your kitchen+bathroom, the price can quickly climb well into six figures. But even if you can’t afford that, even a simple re-design can go a long way. This price is also, ironically, why you should work on the redesign. People won’t be easily convinced that they should buy a house they will immediately have to spend even more money redesigning.
4. Switch to more efficient appliances
This point goes practically hand-in-hand with the previous one. The less your buyers will have to spend after they buy your house, the easier it will be for you to actually sell the house to them. A great way to reduce the future price of your home is to make it more energy efficient. Because, in doing that, you reduce the possibly greatest expense a homeowner will experience – the power bill.
And yes, more energy efficient appliances are more expensive than their less efficient counterparts, but the buyer won’t look at the tag-price. They will look at the fact that, in a few years, the efficiency will help them save way more money, than the cheaper first purchase would. Similar with your kitchen and bathroom, this is one of the things you should really not save on.
5. Work on your curb
As was said previously, the outside of your house is the first thing your buyers will see. Because of that, you should work on making it look as nice as possible. This could be done in many different ways. You could simply just repaint the exterior walls. Or you could also change the plants in the lawn, or even build a nice patio. As with people, the first impression is the most important part.
It probably won’t matter that your indoor section is state of the art perfect, when the outdoors look like a hurricane just swept through.
Also, if you have a nice curb, it helps to even lure in potential buyers. When someone browses available homes, the only thing they see at first is your exterior. A lot of houses might not even pass the test of first impression, simply because they aren’t that appealing on the outside.
6. Add more square footage.
Another way to improve the value of your house is to simply have there be more of it. Since houses are priced on the amount of livable space inside of them, it’s almost a no-brainer. This could be anything, from a simple added-on garage, to a full-on second house attached to the original property.
On top of that, the bigger your house is, the more people can fit inside of it. A whole family might be able to pay a bit more than an individual. Because of that, it’s in your best interest to have your house be available to as many people as possible.
7. Stage your home
When you’re all done removing the excess furniture and repainting your exterior, it’s time for the finishing touches. Home staging is simply the act of preparing your house to be sold. And although it may sound like it, it’s not just the things we talked about already. Home staging usually also includes stuff like temporarily replacing certain aspects of the house, sometimes even adding things that will be removed after the purchase.
This could be anything from hanging some temporary paintings on the wall, or maybe even changing furniture around, so that your house looks more appealing. It’s basically what the name implies. You are “setting your home like a stage”.
