Increasing Curb Appeal: Four Tips for Sellers
When you’re preparing to sell your home, you’re responsible for maintaining a home while it’s on the market, and sometimes you need to put a little extra TLC into your home before it’s ready to show. However, you can’t put an entire investment into a home, so what are some quick fixes you can do to spruce up your home and give it a little more curb appeal?
repaint the exterior
Nothing adds an extra touch like a fresh coat of paint, and repainting the exterior of your home will give it a crisp, clean look that will entice buyers to take a closer look. Painting exteriors is much faster and less time consuming than painting interiors because you have fewer small features (exits, mantles, etc.) to worry about painting. In fact, if you cover your windows with masking tape and brown paper, you can use a paint sprayer to cover your entire house quickly and without much trouble. Check with your local hardware store to see if you can rent the sprayer to save even more money by doing it yourself instead of hiring a crew.
Restore hardwood floors
Hardwood floors are hot sellers these days, so if your home has them, be sure to take care of them and make them stand out as a home selling point. Touching up your floors is a fairly simple task and should take anywhere from a weekend to a week, depending on the surface you need to refinish.
Install an IKEA kitchen
That’s right, the Swedish furniture store known for its reasonable prices and meatballs offers an online program to help you design and implement the perfect affordable kitchen. The kitchen is one place that should always look presentable to potential buyers, as a good kitchen always ranks high on home buyers’ lists. Add new cabinets, drawers, and a fresh coat of paint and your kitchen will give your prospects something to look forward to in their potential new home.
Do some Xeriscape
Increase curb appeal and decrease the maintenance factor by xeriscaping part of your property’s front yard. Xeriscaping adds beauty to a lawn, but the plants used require little watering and maintenance. This is a definite selling point for homebuyers, who want a lawn that is already beautiful and doesn’t require a lot of work.
Of course, as with any home improvement or remodel, talk to your real estate broker to make sure you’re targeting the right areas of your home and the return on investment you’re hoping to get before you start spending. money on improvements. If you’re going to have a successful marketing strategy to sell your home, you need to work with your real estate agent to make sure you’re doing the right thing for your home.