Let’s try to keep the cost of repairs down while trying to repair or prepare your house for sale.
Do not do anything expensive, such as remodeling the entire house, bathrooms, or kitchen, unless it is essential to secure the sale. If possible, use funds from your savings or checking account to pay for any repairs and home improvements – do not go charging up credit cards or obtaining new loans. Remember that part of selling a house is also preparing to buy your next home. You do not want to do anything that will affect your credit scores or hurt your ability to qualify for your next home mortgage.
Many variables will dictate how much you should actually spend on getting your house ready to sell. The repair costs should be well weighed with the possibilities of a quicker and higher sales price. In the following articles we will further discuss making homes repairs prior to selling the house.
One of the most important thing, is also the cheapest. CLEAN the house. Make sure you thoroughly go through the house and wipe down, scrub, and touch up paint every where that it is needed. This will reduce repair costs and provide a more presentable home for the buyers. Remember that brighter natural colors are acceptable by the majority of homebuyers.
Kitchen Repairs – After you have removed all the clutter from your kitchen, take a good look at it, or maybe take a picture of it and then look at. Does it look like something you would like to have for a kitchen? Open up under the sink, are there stains or damaged paneling? The big question here it, will making repairs to the kitchen provide for a quicker and more profitable sale? Can you get away with just changing the countertops? If you still are not sure, ask one of our agents when we meet.
Bathrooms – Are your bathrooms outdated, or can they just use a little clean up? Generally it’s a good idea to clean the grout lines in the shower or around the bathtub. Make sure the bathrooms are clean, specially around the toilet and sink.
Flooring – Does the flooring look worn out or outdated? Are the carpets worn, or can they just use a good cleaning? These are all things to consider when you are selling your house.
Roof – How does the roof look? Is it past it’s life expectancy? All roofing materials have a life expectancy; for the average shingle it’s 15-25 years, tile roofs are 15-25 years, and flat roofs are between 5-15 years. Take a good look at the condition of you roof, can you just have it cleaned and treated or does it need to be replaced? Sure a shingle re-roof could cost between 10-20k for an average 2000 sqft home, but will the current condition of your roof scare off a buyer?
Basically go around the house and look at all the things you had put in the back of your list for repairs on the house. Remember one thing, just like you will inspect a home when you buy, the buyers for your house will also perform home inspections. All those little things will show up then, so you might as well fix them now. Waiting until these repairs are found by a home inspector will only have cause the loss of several other great buyers! A lot of these repairs you can do yourself or you might need to hire a contractor. Either ways, spending some time and money on the preparing your house will bring better returns.
