The median price for a home in the US in 2022 is $428,700.
Selling a home is a lengthy process, and there’s a lot involved. Ultimately, the goal is to get as much for your home as possible, and several factors can affect this.
Certain things are outside of your control, such as the appeal of the town/city your home is in or the weather in the area. There are, however, various things that you can do to get a higher price for your home.
For a rundown of some of the key things, you can do to increase your home value before selling, keep reading.
Clean and Declutter
If you’re wondering how to increase home value, the first thing is pretty simple – clean up. When potential buyers are viewing your home, the overall appearance will make a huge difference. If you have clutter everywhere, it can distract from the better features of a home and will make it less appealing overall.
Dirt is even worse. It will quickly put people off, resulting in fewer offers and more time on the market.
If people see a dirty home, they might also consider it a bit of a red flag. An unclean home indicates it hasn’t been looked after properly. As such, people are likely to assume there are other elements of the house that they can’t see that are in poor condition.
You can do a deep clean of your home yourself to save some money. Alternatively, you can hire a cleaner, and for an average-sized house, this generally won’t cost more than $200-$300. For how much difference it can make when it comes to selling your home, it is often well worth it.
Add More Usable Space
Size is one of the most important factors that determine the value of a home. The bigger a property is, the more it will be worth. This can be especially true in areas where real estate land is limited.
To increase the value of your home, you can add more usable square footage in a range of ways. If you have the space, adding a garage or a conservatory can make your home much more desirable. This will take time and money but can help your house stand out, especially if most other homes in the area don’t have such features.
In a larger house with several bedrooms, an additional bathroom can be ideal. One bathroom between a large family can cause difficulties, so adding a second can make your home much more appealing to buyers with multiple children.
Before doing this, it’s important to crunch the numbers. Adding a room can be quite expensive, and depending on the type of room, and how large it is, the price can range from under $10,000 all the way up to $100,000.
Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
In today’s world, almost everyone is more environmentally aware than we used to be. This is especially true among younger generations, who are starting to make up a larger portion of new buyers.
A home that’s more energy efficient will use less energy and is more sustainable. This can be a huge factor that will make your home much easier to sell.
On top of the environmental factor, it’s a more financially responsible option for buyers. Less energy usage means lower utility bills. These savings each month can be very useful, even for buyers who aren’t as concerned about the environmental aspect.
The importance of this can vary based on location. In areas that have warmer summers and colder winters, for example, HVAC systems are used more to keep homes at a comfortable temperature. These use a lot of power, so making things more efficient can result in bigger potential savings, leading to an easier home sale.
Improve the Curb Appeal
First impressions are key, so you want people to like your home from the second they see it. While the inside of a home is where people will spend most of their time, they’ll still want it to look good on the outside.
Ensuring the exterior is in a good state will make selling a house much easier. As such, you want to make sure things are taken care of.
You can pressure wash the driveway and footpath so that they’re clean. Landscaping can also be very helpful. Mowing the lawn and adding some plants will make a house more appealing to anyone.
If the paint on the outside is faded or patchy, going over it again can make a huge difference. All of this comes at a cost, but the value it provides in terms of better first impressions and increased value is worthwhile.
Upgrade the Exterior Doors
This ties in with the curb appeal factor, as the external doors can have a big impact on the appearance of the outside of your home. Doors seem to age faster than other aspects, so an old door can easily bring down the overall look and feel of a home.
This is also true for the garage door (if you have one). Garage doors make up a large portion of the surface area of the front of your home, so if yours is in a sorry state, it will really stand out. Conversely, a new, modern one will immediately catch people’s attention and impress them.
A garage door replacement provides a better ROI than many other home improvements, making it one of the best upgrades you can make before selling a home. Window and door replacements don’t provide such a good ROI, but will still make selling your home much easier.
Renovate Your Kitchen
Home renovations are one of the best ways to increase the value of your home. You can renovate any room, but the kitchen is often the most effective. This is because buyers tend to treat kitchens as a focal point when looking at different homes.
An outdated and old-fashioned kitchen isn’t likely to appeal to many people – especially young buyers. A modern, sleek kitchen is far more ideal.
You also need to consider how the space in your kitchen is used. A bad layout can result in poor use of the space available. Many modern kitchens use innovative designs to get the most out of the space, so think about this when renovating your kitchen.
It’s worth noting that it’s quite uncommon for a kitchen renovation to add as much value to a home as it costs to have done. As such, this might not be a good idea if you’re only thinking of renovations to help sell the home immediately after. It makes more sense to get renovations that you want to use yourself while keeping in mind how the renovations will appear to potential buyers in the future.
Consider how you should coordinate the cabinets and appliances to keep things convenient and efficient. A real estate agent will be able to give you some advice on this if you want some assistance planning things out.
You should also look into what modern appliances are available. There are always new items entering the market with improved features and functionality, and getting the best products available will make your kitchen (and therefore your home) a lot more desirable.
Stage Your Home
When selling a home, one of the most effective things you can do to get more offers, a higher price, and less time on the market is to stage your house. This is something you can do yourself, or you can hire a home staging service to take care of it.
Home staging is a process that’s designed to make a home more appealing to potential buyers. One key aspect of this is depersonalizing a home. Removing personal items like family photos or pet products will make it easier for potential buyers to visualize themselves and their families living there.
Another part of this is making things more Generic. If you’ve decorated your home with bold colors and unique features, it will make it harder for people to see the potential of the home. Things like neutral colors and generic decor can make it much easier to get more offers.
Selling After You Increase Your Home Value
If you want to get as much for your home as possible, you need to increase your home value before you start the selling journey. Making your house look good, fixing any issues, and making upgrades can all make your home worth more.
The selling process can be longwinded and often difficult, which you might want to avoid. You can use a platform like We Buy Houses to get a quick cash offer on your home, saving you a lot of hassle. Click here to head to our site and enter your details today so we can give you an offer on your home.
