5 Inexpensive Home Updates to Complete before Listing Your Home | RISMedia

Most of the time it’s worthwhile to invest money in the right areas before marketing your home. If spent wisely it will be returned to you with an increased sales price and lesser home inspection problems.

5 Inexpensive Home Updates to Complete before Listing Your Home | RISMedia.

Great article to save money on energy costs….

So we can all have more money to go out to dinner!!
Please click on link below to read.

Daily Real Estate News.

Good information for Sellers!!

Getting the House Ready to Sell – Make Your Home “Anonymous”

If there is a new home sales tract near your home, go visit. It doesn’t matter what size the homes are. What you will find are some wonderfully (but sparsely) furnished homes that anyone could live in — with the emphasis on “anyone.” They are anonymous. There may be a baseball glove in the boy’s room, but no family photos on the walls.

There may be “personality” – but no person.

The reason you want to make your home “anonymous” is because you want buyers to view it as their potential home. When a potential homebuyer sees your family photos hanging on the wall, it puts your own brand on the home and momentarily shatters their illusions about living in the house themselves.

Put away family photos, sports trophies, collectible items, knick-knacks, and souvenirs. Put them in a box. Rent a storage area for a few months and put the box in the storage unit.

Do not just put the box in the attic, basement, garage or a closet. Part of preparing a house for sale is to remove “clutter,” and that is the next step in preparing your house for sale.

Ceilings, Walls and Painting

Check all the ceilings for water stains, whether the leak is caused by plumbing or a faulty roof. Find the leak and repair it and make sure a proper job is done. Nothing irritates a buyer more than finding out – after the fact – about plumbing or roofing leaks. They will be talking about calling a lawyer faster than your car engine starts when you turn the ignition key.

If a water stain is left after something you have already repaired, do the cosmetic work necessary to improve the desirability of your home. That means painting.

You may have to paint anyway, especially if dirt has accumulated in spots or you have an outdated color scheme. Painting makes a home look fresh and new on the inside and never fails to impress.

Painting can be your best investment when selling your home. It is not a very expensive operation and often you can do it yourself. Do not choose colors based on your own preferences, but based on what would appeal to the widest possible number of buyers. You should almost always choose an off-white color because white helps your rooms appear bright and spacious.

Carpets and Floors

Unless your carpet appears old and worn, or it is definitely an outdated style or color, you probably should do nothing more than hire a good carpet cleaner. If you do choose to replace it, do so with something inexpensive in a fairly neutral color.

Odor Control

For those who smoke, you might want to minimize smoking indoors while trying to sell your home.  Actually, it is best to move smoking outside.  You could also purchase an ozone spray that helps to remove odors without creating a masking odor.

Apologies to pet owners, but pets come with odors.  You may have become used to them, but they are immediately noticeable to those with more finely tuned olfactory senses.

For those with cats, be sure to empty kitty litter boxes daily and use plenty of baking soda.  For dog owners, keep the dog outdoors as much as possible, even those adorable lovable little dogs. You might also try sprinkling carpet freshener on the carpet on a periodic basis.

Kitchen Clutter

The kitchen is a good place to start removing clutter, because it is an easy place to start.

First, get everything off the counters. Everything. Even the toaster. Put the toaster in a cabinet and take it out when you use it. Find a place where you can store everything in cabinets and drawers. Of course, you may notice that you do not have cabinet space to put everything. Clean them out. The dishes, pots and pans that rarely get used? Put them in a box and put that box in storage.

You see, homebuyers will open all your cabinets and drawers, especially in the kitchen. They want to be sure there is enough room for their “stuff.” If your kitchen cabinets, pantries, and drawers look jammed full, it sends a negative message to the buyer and does not promote an image of plentiful storage space. The best way to do that is to have as much “empty space” as possible.

For that reason, if you have a “junk drawer,” get rid of the junk. If you have a rarely used crock pot, put it in storage. Do this with every cabinet and drawer. Create open space.

If you have a large amount of foodstuffs crammed into the shelves or pantry, begin using them – especially canned goods. Canned goods are heavy and you don’t want to be lugging them to a new house, anyway – or paying a mover to do so. Let what you have on the shelves determine your menus and use up as much as you can.

Beneath the sink is very critical, too. Make sure the area beneath the sink is as empty as possible, removing all extra cleaning supplies. You should scrub the area down as well, and determine if there are any tell-tale signs of water leaks that may cause a homebuyer to hesitate in buying your home.

Stay Warm From the Ground Up

This winter, everybody is energy conscious due to high monthly heating bills.  Basements are a huge source of heat loss.  It can account for over one-third (1/3) of a home’s heat loss.

It is amazing how many people have never insulated their basement walls, just by adding the correct type insulation for your particular home, it can make your basement nice and toasty and save you big bucks.

This will also add to your resale value!  Click here to read complete article.

Top 5 Home Improvement Projects vs Return on Investment

The following improvements may help you sell your home easier, quicker and with a higher return;

1)     Cleaning and De-Cluttering – Avg cost $290 vs Avg return of $1,990

2)     Lightening and Brightening – Avg cost $375 vs Avg return of $1,550

3)     Home Staging – Avg cost $550 vs Avg return of $2,194

4)     Landscaping – Avg cost $540 vs Avg return of $1,932

5)     Repairing Electrical and/or Plumbing – Avg cost $ 535 vs Avg return of $1,505

Cleaning and De-Cluttering continues to rank as the top suggested home improvement recommended by 99% of Real Estate Professionals, costing less than $300 and returning a value of nearly $2,000 to the Sales Price.