Are You Hurting Your Home’s Value?
If you think there’s even a slim chance you might one day sell your current home, you owe it to yourself to know how you might accidentally hurt its resale value. While you can always turn to the advice and expertise of a real estate agent like Laura Lahti, below are a few items to get you started and make you more knowledgeable.
Be Careful of the Colors You Choose
For both your home’s interior and its exterior, you’re better off choosing neutral colors. Something you’d expect to see in an apartment. The reason white, neutral and beige shades are the best when putting your home on the market is because they’re easier to match with the hues of furniture and decorations. Can you imagine the trouble you’d have trying to match your decor to neon pink walls?
Take Care of Obvious Damage
The overall state of your property will impact your home value. Make sure you take care of damage to your residential property before putting it on the market. All nicks, stains and scratches might be all but invisible to you if you’ve lived with them for a while. But they’re sure to become glaring issues to potential buyers giving your home a deep examination. Before open house, go through your home and address minor issues like leaking faucets, chipped paint and the like.
Do a Deep Cleaning of Your Home
Once you’ve taken care of damage to your home, it’s time to give it a deep cleaning from top to bottom. Even a home that’s free of damage won’t be terribly appealing to potential buyers if it’s cluttered. Or covered with spiderwebs and looks as if you’ve just had a wild party. No matter the season when you decide to put your home on the market, give it a thorough spring cleaning.
Leave Mature Trees on Your Property
Take a look at a home buying guide and you might notice that properties with mature trees are more desirable and often have a higher asking price. This is because older trees can reduce energy bills thanks to the shade they cast. That being said, you have to be careful of where more mature trees are located. For instance, the roots of trees can harm a home’s foundation if planted too close to the property. They can also become serious fire hazards.
Don’t Combine Bedrooms
Depending on the size of your family, you might be tempted to combine two smaller bedrooms into a larger one. Your home’s value is better off if you don’t do this. This is because you don’t know the size of the buyer’s family or how buyers will use bedrooms. Remember, more bedrooms equal more opportunities, so keep your options as open as possible.
Leave the Garage As Is
You might be tempted to convert your garage to an extra bedroom, man cave or workstation, but it’s best that you don’t. Even if you use your garage more for storing items rather than storing cars, it’s still better that you don’t remodel it. Having a home with a garage is especially essential because you live in an area in which it snows, and the same is true if your neighborhood isn’t known for having an abundance of parking.
For more ways to avoid accidentally harming your home’s value, turn to Laura Lahti.
