Should I improve
my house before selling?
If you are
considering selling your home, you may also be considering doing some improvements to it
before selling it in the hope that you can get a better price, or perhaps that the sale
will happen quicker.
The answer to this
is VERY simple. As a general rule, you will NOT recover the cost of improvements, nor will
they make your house sell quicker.
Don’t you
wish your home was like a bank? For every dollar you put into improvements, you would get
a dollar out, plus interest? Sadly, it doesn’t work that way.
Imagine this. You
bought a home a few years ago, and decided to install a pool that costs you about $25,000.
You expect that this is likely to increase the value of your house by about the same
amount, right? Boy, are you in for a surprise! The addition of a pool to your home ads
only about $5,000 to $10,000 to the value of your home. You better make sure you enjoyed
it over the last couple of summers!
Home improvements
fall into two simple categories:
 |
Improvements that add
value to your home.
|
|
Improvements that
are nice for you but add little value to your home. |
As a general rule,
the type of improvement that will add value to your home are generally the lowest cost
improvements. There is a saying in the industry that goes like this “Buy a gallon of
paint and add $1000 to the sales price of your home!” This is fairly accurate. Simple
improvements like painting and minor repairs will likely add more value than anything
else.
Upgrading kitchens
and bathrooms are also good ways to add value.
Unfortunately,
swimming pools, spas and tennis courts do not add value equivalent to what you outlay.
So, if you want to
improve the value of your home… take care of the simple things. The big things will
not necessary add value to the home, nor will they necessarily improve your home’s
appeal to potential buyers.
Talk to the team
at AV HomeConsultants - we are happy to
help you with ideas as to what can be done to your home to make it more marketable. Just drop us a line or
give us a call. |
