Improvements to help sell my house
In my experience window cleaning would be the number one improvement to help you sell your home. Allow me to explain.
Many people ask should I do anything to sell your house? I have heard many realtors tell their customers “don’t bother doing any improvement to your home, I will be able to sell it”. Well, anyone can sell a house if they put a low price, but what you want is to sell your house for the highest price.
John Aust, president of National Real Estate Appraisers says: “A good first appearance on a home can add between 5 to 10 percent to the values of your home”.
This is where real estate investors make their money. They buy a beat up house, spend $20,000 to fix it up, sell it for $45,000 dollars more, and make a $25,000 profit. Most people do not have an extra $20,000 to put in new granite counter tops, new carpet and other improvements. So what can the average person afford to invest in order to sell their house for the most possible?
Money magazine listed the top improvements that have the highest return on investment. They are as follows;
1. Professionally Cleaned Window – Return on investment 769%
2. Clean and de-clutter- Return on investment 594%
3. Landscape and trim front yard and backyard – Return on investment 296%
4. Repair electrical and plumbing problems – Return on investment 169%
5. Update kitchen – Return on investment 138%
Lets us consider each one.
The first one is having the window professionally cleaned. No matter how hard people try, they do not seem to be able to get the windows as clean as a professional window cleaner. Having heard many people say “wow the whole house looks clean now the windows are clean” it really does make a difference. The cost of window cleaning is very low -only about $150-$250 for a two story house- when compared to a new kitchen for example. This means your return on investment will be around $1154-$1923. If you live in the Southern California area I would recommend a company called Watson Window Washing. They have longer lasting cleaning methods so if your house takes a number of months to sell, you will not need it re-cleaned till then. They also have great reviews.
Clean and de-clutter. This can be done using a maid service or even a day or 2 of your own time. Cleaning is very important, because even though people do not want to admit it, they are very lazy. Even the need for a little cleaning can shy them away from a potential home. Also important is de-cluttering and de-personalizing a home. Houses look bigger when they are not cluttered. When someone is looking at your home they are trying to imagine themselves living in the house, so when they see pictures of other people this disrupts their imagination, and before you know it, in their mind, this is not the home for them. If you pay a maid to clean your home it will cost about $100-$175 for a whole house clean. Your return on the investment will be around $594-$1,040.
Landscape and trim front yard and backyard. This is especially important with the front yard, some experts say potential buyers minds are made up within 5 seconds of seeing the house. The cost for this could be between $60-250 leaving your return on investment of around $178-$740
Repair electrical and plumbing problems. When people are walking through a house they tend to point out the problems. With the internet age we live in, everyone can look around a house using pictures online. So when they are doing a walk thru, they are especially focused on looking out for any problems that did not show up in the pictures. This is why fixing electrical and plumbing problems is important, you want limit the amount of negative thoughts potential buyers may have. The cost of this could be from $10 to replace a few light bulbs to hundreds of dollars, to fix major problems.
Updating the kitchen and bathroom could be very expensive but you could do simple things like replacing the knobs on the cabinet doors. This means that with a budget of around $200 you would get around $276 return on your investment.
In sort, window cleaning and many other things can and should do to sell your house for the most possible profit.
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