Are you hoping to sell your house? There are a lot of houses for sale: how do you make yours stand out from all the homes and condos out there, especially if the market is full in your area? Here are a couple ideas for making your place stand out from the crowd of houses everywhere else:
- Don’t forget to put it up online. Take the time to take good, attractive pictures, and make sure the house is clean when you do! Put these up online with an engaging description. Nearly 44% of homebuyers of any age looked online at some point in their house or condo search; and nearly all millenials do so these days. Google reports that real estate searches online increased by 253% between 2009 and 2013, so make sure you’re one of the people with houses easy to find for internet search.
- Do the little things that make your place more attractive. This means fixing the small stuff, like that broken doorknob. No one wants to spend a lot of money on a big ticket item like a house, only to feel they have to do a lot of repairs. The buyers’ home inspection is when a lot of deals fall through or get re-negotiated, so make sure there aren’t any big surprises. Your place will also be far more attractive it’s clean and de-cluttered, so take some stuff to grandma’s and make sure the home looks like a place someone wants to live whenever a buyer might come buy.
- De-personalize the place. Buyers are looking at houses to find a place to infuse with their own sense of style: not yours. The whole point of selling is to get someone to see themselves living in your home, so while you might adore your model train collection or covering your walls in commissioned paintings like that one of great-grandpa Judson, take them down to ready the place for sale. This also means applying some neutral paint if your place is a riot of color. Beige and other earth tones give a place a homey look; bright colors will attract some buyers, but will send others screaming away.
- Get your pets out of the way. Many people love their pets, but some people definitely don’t want to live in a place where animals have been. And even if a buyer loves his or her own pets, they may not want anything to do with your stinky beasts. Make sure that there are no stains or odors in the house, deep clean the furniture, re-sod the backyard if a lot of grass has been killed, and keep Fifi at a relatives’ till the place is sold.
- Upgrade to increase your home’s appeal. This applies especially to the look from the curb, which is the first impression your home will make. Improving curb appeal by taking care of yard clutter, trimming the bushes, touching up the paint, and weeding has a return on investment (ROI) of 100%. Kitchen and bathroom remodels can be very valuable, too. Even a minor kitchen remodel has an average ROI of 82.7%, and bathroom additions are worth 86.4%.
Your home is a valuable investment, so make sure you’re getting the right return on that investment.
