Avoid doing these three things when preparing your home for sale.
If you’re preparing your home to sell, here are the top three mistakes you must avoid:
1. Update other levels. As we talked about in our previous video, the main level (i.e., the one with the kitchen) is the most important place to invest your money when selling, so forget about updating the other levels of your home. If you plan on living in your home for a long time and building equity, then feel free to update these levels, but if you’re getting ready to sell, don’t spend too much money on secondary bedrooms and bathrooms.
“Someone will buy your home because they like its location and layout, not because of the furnace.”
2. Go crazy with interior renovations. We get asked about materials all the time (e.g., Should I do hardwood floors?), but replacing your carpet and repainting everything a neutral color are the only things you should focus on. Leave everything else as it is. Don’t start wainscoting, installing crown molding in the bedrooms, making accent walls, etc., because these things won’t give you a good return on your investment. If you want to install tile flooring, luxury vinyl tile is a less expensive material that still looks fantastic.
3. Buy new appliances. If your furnace is old, for example, don’t buy a new one unless it actually breaks. Someone will buy your home because they like its location and layout, not because of the furnace. A new furnace is a fantastic perk, but you don’t have to buy one. Our team, for instance, has a warranty plan we use to negotiate with during inspections should issues arise regarding the age of one of our seller’s appliances. This warranty covers them for the first 13 months the buyer owns their home.
Stay tuned for our next video where we’ll interview our team’s home stager and ask her to explain the benefits of staging your home for sale. If you have questions about this or any real estate topic in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.
