4 Ways to Prepare Your Home for Sale
What do you imagine when you’re buying something? You always think about how you will put it to use. Similarly, when visiting, home buyers imagine how their family will adjust to the house and whether it is homely enough to call a home.
In an ideal world, people want a home that looks like it has come out of a movie. However, in a world where housing is expensive, people compromise on the house, especially if it comes cheap. If you’re a seller, that’s bad news because a compromising buyer will not offer a good price.
But if you’re in Lansing, Michigan, you’re in luck. The median sale price of a home rose a whopping 20.6% in the past year, bringing up median house prices to a staggering $140k. While this is good news for people wanting to put up their properties for sale, it’s also a bit troublesome. For such an inflated price, buyers want to get a home that ticks all the boxes on their dream house list – no compromises.
Lucky for you, we have a list of things you can do that will elevate the look of the house and tick all the boxes on the buyer’s dream house checklist.
- Inspect and Repair Your Roof
Do you know the first thing any visitor notices about your house? It is your home’s overall look. And your exterior walls and roofing make up most of this external look. Signs of damage to your roof, like cracking and missing shingles age your home’s look. And unfortunately, no amount of prepping and investment in the interiors can cover this.
So the first step is to search online with the keywords Lansing, MI Roofing Company near me to find professionals in your area to carry out a thorough inspection of your roof. This inspection can reveal a lot about your roof. You’ll know if your shingles need to be replaced and what is the state of the insulation. Most importantly, this inspection can tell you how much you need to spend to get it looking as good as new again.
- Work on your Curb Appeal
We’ve discussed how bad roofing can affect the property’s price. Now, let’s discuss what projects can elevate the price.
Start with something like a well-tended garden, work on the pathways and driveways, redo the exterior paint, and invest in some outdoor lighting. Also, add a freshly painted mailbox at the front, new house numbers, and colorful plants to balance out the colors in the place.
Remember, when buyers are visiting, they are imagining themselves living in the house. So, a well-tended garden, flowers or fresh plants lining the walkway, and clean siding means they can imagine themselves and their family enjoying themselves in a beautiful space.
Mother’s Day gifts can include flowers, jewelry, personalized items, spa treatments, and heartfelt cards to show love and appreciation.
Pro Tip: The Magic of Symmetry
A pro tip is to make everything look symmetrical to appeal to the unconscious mind of the buyer. Here are some tips:
- Place the plants symmetrically.
- Balance the look of the front door with lights or plants on either side.
- Light the pathway to the front door with symmetrically placed solar lights.
- Refresh the Interiors
Your walls make up 50% of the look of your home’s interior. But rather than getting on a wall improvement frenzy, think strategically. You don’t need to cover every wall with wallpaper. Go for simple things like a fresh coat of paint, well-kept curtains and sofas, and clean flooring.
However, one problem that most home sellers face is worn-down flooring. Getting new flooring for your entire house might run too expensive. But, if your floor has peeling tiles and a damaged look, you have no option but to get it replaced to get a good price for your property. Here is an estimated cost comparison of some flooring options for you:
- Install hardwood flooring: The hardwood flooring project will cost you around $600 to $2,300 for a small, 100 square foot room. Although expensive, it’s a must if your flooring is too outdated and damaged.
- Vinyl flooring: To get your house a revamp, vinyl flooring is a great, inexpensive choice. The cost: $250 to $1,300 for a 100 square foot room.
- Tiling: Your house can give a neat, well-maintained look with tiling. The cost for tiling a 100-square-foot room runs anywhere between $100 to $3,000 for materials and $800 to $4,400 for labor costs.
Pro Tip: Utilize Carpets
If your flooring is damaged in areas that get high foot traffic (most probably the entrance of your house), cover it up with strategically placed carpets. This is a great fix if your floor is not looking bad overall but has some damage.
- Revamp the Kitchen
Here’s a secret: a poor kitchen makes your home look more aged than it is. On the other hand, a clean, well-kept kitchen signifies how well you have maintained your home over the years.
While a full-scale kitchen remodel can be very expensive and is not necessary if your aim is just to sell, some minor tweaking can give your kitchen a new look.
Here are some projects you can take up to improve your kitchen:
- Get the broken cabinets fixed.
- Resurface and polish the countertops.
- Freshen up the backsplash with paint or tiling.
If your budget allows and your kitchen needs it, go for a countertop replacement project. Combine this with a cabinet polishing project and it will look as if you’ve remodeled your kitchen.
Conclusion
Preparing your home for sale in a competitive and booming market like Lansing means prepping your house in the best way possible. Small efforts to make your house look good can get you a great price in this market. Start with major upgrades like repairing your roof and working on your curb appeal, and then shift to minor upgrades in the kitchen and around the house.
In this guide, we’ve discussed some ways you can prepare your home for a resale. While there are a lot of other home improvement projects that you can invest in, these four are easy and not too heavy on the pocket.
