Increase Home Value

Before You List Your House For Sale

Ten Pro Tips to Increase My Home Value

Thinking about Listing your home for sale? Before you do, here are some helpful tips you might consider to maximize your home's value.

We're talking mainly about Single Family Homes here, but many of these tips will still apply to Condos and Townhouses.

Much depends on the architectural design of your home. Some of these tips may simply not be possible, given the size and layout of your property. In addition, we hesitate to suggest knocking down walls, adding square footage, or anything else requiring construction, which could be expensive, and may not increase your value sufficiently.

Those are business decisions which should be considered on a case by case basis.

1. The Final Frontier

Would you like to buy a dark, cramped little house? Neither would anybody else. A lot of furniture and clutter makes your home appear smaller. End tables, kitschy little cabinets and book shelves, overstuffed arm chairs nobody ever sits in, extra lamps, coat racks, umbrella stands and decorative ceramic urns should be moved out. Shelves, window sills, mantles and tables covered with knick-knacks, figurines and dust catchers should be cleared. Kitchen countertops should be cleared of small appliances. Clutter makes your house look smaller. You want your home to appear as large as possible. When we meet with clients about listing their home, making the interior seem as spacious as possible is priority number one.

2. Let There Be Light

Aside from space, the second most important factor is probably light. A lot of natural light is great, however, that often has more to do with the architecture of the house, size and placement of the windows. As the homeowner looking to maximize value you must do whatever you can to enhance and accentuate the natural light, especially when it comes time to show the property.

If you have bushes, shrubs or tree branches covering windows, blocking light, making rooms look darker, we suggest you cut them back.

Make sure window treatments, curtains and blinds, can open sufficiently to let the most light shine through. For that reason we have never liked plantation shutters. Even when you crack the slats the thick frames of plantation shutters block a lot of light. This may help to keep bedrooms dark for those who sleep in, but we would not recommend installing them in other rooms.

Skylights are certainly nice, bring in a lot of natural light. Don't know if this is true for the rest of the country, but in Florida they may raise insurance rates, since insurance companies consider them a hole in your roof. They are often the source of water leaks, since the tar around them bakes all day in the sun, dries out quicker.

As for artificial lighting, conventional thinking says bright lights make rooms look larger, and soft lighting looks warm, creates an inviting mood. Dimmer switches can help create a warm mood, and we are especially fond of indirect lighting in living areas.

3. Curb Appeal

Anything you can do to increase your curb appeal will definitely pay off, big time. Some studies suggest that curb appeal may represent 7-10% of a home's saleability. Again, however, this depends in large part upon the architecture of the house. Some simply look plain on the outside, and there may be little you can do about that. Maybe adding accents like faux shutters, painting your front door and trim, or a spiffy paver driveway might help. Otherwise consider landscaping. Fresh mulch, colorful flower beds, attractive shrubs and trees and a manicured lawn could help your home sell faster and for more money.

4. You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Rule Number One for Real Estate Agents is to always bring potential Buyers in through the Front Door. Rule Number One-A is: makes sure that's a good experience. Some Realtors say Buyers make up their minds in the first seven seconds. We may partially agree with that. Buyers might not necessarily decide to buy your home in the first couple seconds, but they may decide it's a "No" pretty quick if greeted by Red Flags.

Make sure your doorbell works. If a Buyer (or their Realtor) hits your doorbell and it does not work it suggests your home is poorly maintained. Strike One.

What's that smell? Worry A LOT about what a potential Buyer's first whiff of your home may be. That's why Listing Brokers bake chocolate chip cookies at Open Houses. Much depends on what kind of flooring you have right inside your door. In Florida most people have tile floors so we like to pour a little Pine-Sol just inside. Buyers enter, that smell of Pine-Sol hits them, they think: "Clean."

If you have carpet or wood floors you must improvise, come up with something else that smells clean, but make sure it is there to great potential Buyers when they enter.

A couple other considerations:

People prefer to have their Front Door covered by an overhang or portico, shelter from the weather as they fumble for their keys. Once again, this involves the architecture of the house and may be beyond your control. Do what you can. Building an entryway, two posts and a peaked, slanted roof may boost your property value, but that is a business decision which must be considered on a case by case basis.

Then you must think about what potential Buyers see when they step inside. Ideally it should be a gracious entry foyer opening into a clean, spacious living space. Come as close as you can. Stepping directly into a living room or a dining room table does not make a good impression.

5. Clean, Clean, Clean

One of the most important factors when trying to sell your home. Listing your house is a commitment to cleanliness. Clean it thoroughly and keep it as clean as possible. Deep clean corners and forgotten spaces. Vacuum that line of dust along baseboards. Clean behind refrigerators and appliances. Make sure your bathrooms and kitchen counters shine. Get rid of dust on ceiling fan blades. Steam clean carpets. Wash windows.

And this may seem like a no-brainer, but it is extremely important for your bathrooms to be especially clean. Nothing says slobs more than a dirty bathroom.

It's challenging, however, there is a direct correlation between how clean you keep your home and how long it takes to sell and how much money you get for it.

6. Stage Fright

Most homes are Listed by Owners who currently occupy the premises. so professional Staging is not an issue. You do what you can with what you've got.

If the property is empty, however, many people suggest Staging – renting simple, elegant furnishings to make the home seem warm and inviting.

In our experience this is usually suggested by Agents who (oddly enough) own a Staging Company. They cite statistics which are impossible to prove. Homes sell because of price, location and amenities. When you think it through it is pretty much impossible to determine whether a home sold faster due to Staging. A Staged home at a lower price in a better location which has that extra bedroom, den and/or pool will definitely sell faster. How can you say it's because of the staging?

Buyers want the biggest, most spacious home for their money, and no property looks more spacious than when it is empty.

Unless it is the exact same house, right next door to each other, at the same price, then any data concerning whether these properties sell because one's staged and the other not is simply invalid.

Besides which – doesn't that sounds like a rather boring neighborhood.

7. Care and Maintenance

We previously told you to make sure your front doorbell works, because if it doesn't potential Buyers will conclude your home is not diligently maintained. That theory does not stop there. As they go through your property, if Buyers see any other indications of poor care and maintenance it will raise Red Flags. Burned out light bulbs. Loose door handles. A cracked light switch cover. Dripping faucets. Electric blinds which will not go up. A line of dust along your baseboards. If a plumber opens a wall to fix pipes, make sure his drywall patch is painted.

Generally we don't counsel Sellers to do unnecessary repairs and remodeling. You can spend a lot of money remodeling a kitchen, but the people who buy it may not like that Blue Pearl granite, the light bamboo cabinets. If Buyers don't share your tastes, they are probably going to re-do it anyway. Still, some upgrades, especially in the bathroom, are easy and inexpensive. Consider replacing faucets, door handles and cabinet pulls that are showing age, cleaning grout and applying fresh caulk.

These may seem like little things, but if seen it will give a Buyer the impression your home has not been properly maintained. They start to worry about bigger things: the roof, the plumbing, the air-conditioner… Nobody wants major repairs on a home they just bought. So Buyers start thinking. Maybe we don't offer as much. Maybe we inspect the heck out of the place, ask for money off to do all the repairs we find. Maybe we make an offer on that other house which is in better shape.

Those Sellers replaced burned out bulbs, vacuumed their baseboards.

8. The Great Outdoors

An unkempt lawn looks like a shabby carpet. This ties into Curb Appeal, First Impressions, Care and Maintenance. Flower beds overgrown with weeds. Brown palm fronds, dead tree branches. Untrimmed hedges. A couple hundred bucks to a landscaping service, even if it's just while your property is on the market could potentially result in thousands of more dollars in purchase price.

It may not be Curb Appeal, but don't forget back and side yards. Again, neat and clean and well-kept will score points with Buyers, even if they plan to rip it out and plant something else. If you have a fence, make sure it's in good shape, that gate latches operate correctly. This speaks to the diligence and care with which you maintain your property.

9. Painting

Aside from the smell of Pine-Sol to which we have previously alluded no other odor says well-kept property more than fresh paint. Your home may not require a fresh coat throughout, but most have a wall, some doors sporting a few scuff marks. Even painting baseboards, moldings and chair rails might spruce your place up.

If you have any walls with bright, loud colors you might consider re-painting these a little more neutral. Lighter colors will make rooms seem larger, brighter, and the smell of fresh paint will help Buyers believe your home has been properly maintained.

10. Stash Any Valuables

Like – DUH! Another no-brainer, still we would be remiss if we did not include this as one of our tips. You will have potential Buyers going through your house, and your Listing Agent (if they are there) and the Buyer's Agent will not allow anything untoward to occur, assuming they see it. However you may feel about human nature these days it is still better to be safe than sorry. Jewelry and other valuables should be stashed somewhere secure.

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