Wo-Built Inc: Clients' Advocate for making their Dream Home happen: Renovations for the Resale Market

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Renovations for the Resale Market

Collage: Home Renovations for the Resale Market
Credits: MS Office ClipArt - j0435995

Which ones will work for you to get that sale!

The most recent economic forecasts are telling us that home sales are starting to be on the upswing. So when thinking about putting your house on the market, which renovation measures would be the most effective in getting you that sale?

The television airwaves have inundated us with renovation reality shows. Several are about renovating your home for resale and making it more appealing to a prospective buyer. Having watched a few of these shows (in the name of research of course) it seems there are three reoccurring themes:
spruce up the kitchen,
de-clutter, clean and remove home owner’s personal influences, and
consistent color scheme throughout the main rooms.
Since the main objective is to sell your home for the best possible price, the home owner’s personal tastes are often a major obstacle to selling. Remember that when you are selling your home, it has to be appealing to the buyer and not to yourself. Once you’ve made that decision to sell your home, your mental attitude should be that of detachment since it will no longer be "your" home. You should be looking forward to your new home.

When you renovate your home for resale it is important to keep your costs down. The main purpose of this renovation is to increase the home’s appeal to the potential buyer, therefore attaching the value to the house. If you plan to stay in your home, the main renovations that will increase the value of your home should you decide to sell further down the line are; extra bathrooms, new kitchens and of course extra space. These can run into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and should only be considered if you want to enjoy the home yourself.

For resale, a kitchen upgrade should focus mainly on upgrading the cabinets with paint and perhaps new hardware, painting the walls a more neutral color and removing all clutter. All these measure are designed to give the kitchen a more contemporary look, and to make it appear larger and more inviting. The rest of the house might also benefit from a fresh color scheme. The best return for your investment when selling your home is painting and accessorizing your space. On average the renovation should not cost you more than $10,000 for an average sized home. This may mean that you have to purchase some of the items and do some of the renovations yourself. But this should be considered a job that will bring a larger reward down the road.

Another significant measure is to eliminate the "gross out" factor, especially in the bathrooms. Nothing is more off-putting than grimy, dirty bathrooms. Cleaning the tiles and grout, re-caulking, a fresh coat of paint and perhaps some new vanity units will go a long way to giving the bathrooms a fresher appeal.

Regular maintenance and upkeep of your home should have been a priority all along, however we all get busy with life. Usually the costs and aggravation are the main factors why necessary maintenance is left to the last minute. However, before you sell, some easily fixable external maintenance issues should be attended to. They would include fixing any loose boards, attending to flaky walls, filling holes in the walkways and painting wherever possible to give your property a well maintained look. If you are thinking of putting your home on the market sometime in the future, remember that a regularly well maintained home will need much less work when the time is right for you to sell.

The more appealing you can make your home, the easier and faster it will be to sell it.

Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built Inc.