THINGS TO DO THAT CAN HELP SELL YOUR HOME QUICKER AND FOR MORE

  1. Paint
    • The clean look of fresh, neutral paint can increase your property value and make your house more appealing to a wide range of buyers. A good paint job helps show buyers that you care about your property and that it will serve them well in the years to come. Professional painters will likely charge anywhere from $300 to $500 to paint each room, but with a little patience, you can paint the rooms yourself.
      • Choose a soft color in a light brown tone (never white) and paint every room the same color.
      • The painting will go faster if you paint the ceilings the same color, but ceilings really pop if they are a lighter color than the color of the walls. Lighter colors also make the ceilings appear higher. If you go that route, choose 2 shades lighter or white.
      • For a 10-foot x 10-foot room, you will need two, one-gallon cans of eggshell finish paint. For the amount of money a professional painter will charge you to paint one room, you can probably paint the entire house yourself.
  2. CARPET
    • Carpet is one of the cheapest upgrades that will help increase the market value of a house. If the carpet is stained, worn, or the wrong color, the vast majority of buyers will perceive the house to, “Need work.” Carpets show more damage than almost any part of your home. If the carpets are not stained and are newer, you can get away with simply getting a deep clean from a professional carpet cleaning company. If cleaning will not restore them, you’ll need to replace them.
  3. REPLACE FRONT DOOR
    • The first impression is a lasting impression so make it count. A dated front door makes a house look cheap, and a worn front door makes a house uncared for or old. If you cannot afford to replace your front door consider painting it a bold color, maybe using high-gloss paint.
  4. REPLACE OUTDATED FIXTURES
    • This is an easy fix that can have a huge impact. If you have brass door handles and brass chandeliers, you should replace them. It makes your home look dated. You can buy a contractor pack of brushed nickel door handles for $5 a piece at home improvement stores. If you are appealing to higher end buyers, spend some money for designer door handles. If you have old outdated light switch covers, replace them all. You’ll be surprised by how much of a difference it will make. Walk through your house and try to identify every fixture that reveals the date of the home. Replace as many of them as possible.
  5. NEW DOOR HANDLES & TRIM
    • Newer, modern custom homes typically come with beige or light brown walls and bright-white trim. Use a semi-gloss bright white on all the trim in your houses. If the floor trim is worn, cracked or just plain ugly, replace it! Lowes and Home Depot carry a new foam trim that is pre-painted in several finishes and costs less than 50 cents per linear foot. If you really want to create a great first impression, add crown molding in the entry way and living room.
  6. KITCHEN
    • If new granite is out of your budget, consider either re-grouting the kitchen counter tiles, which is often surprisingly cost-effective, or covering them with granite tiles instead of granite slab.
      • For wood cabinets, stripping the finish and re-staining or painting will save you more money than re-surfacing the cabinets.
      • You can also buy new knobs or pulls for the cabinet doors. If you have 40 or so knobs on your kitchen cabinets, at a cost of about $5 per knob, your total outlay for new hardware will be about $200. New hardware will often transform the appearance of your cabinets.
      • You can replace a worn kitchen faucet for around $100 to $200.
      • Consider buying new kitchen sink basket strainers, which usually cost less than $25 each.
      • Consider installing kitchen pendant lights over the sink.
  7. FRESHEN UP LANDSCAPING
    • We’ve all heard about the importance of “curb appeal” and know that first impressions are HUGE in real estate. The fastest way to freshen up your landscaping is new mulch. Spread a layer of it all throughout your landscaped areas. This is inexpensive and requires very little time commitment. If you’d like to make an even better first impression, plant some colorful flowers which will make your new mulch stand out even more. Trim any overgrown plants and bushes and clean up your outdoor spaces to look new again. In a city with weather as beautiful as ours we spend a lot of time outside, so it’s likely to have a big impact on your buyer’s decision to purchase your home.