How to Make Your Home More Attractive to the Market

Investing loads of money on remodeling your home isn’t a sure path to making it attractive to buyers, but there are several easy alterations you can do to make it more desirable and boost its market value.

So, how do you do this?

Typical touches can vary from high cost upgrades to small, and some of the most common ones include:

• Landscaping touches to yard
• Renovating the kitchen
• Painting the house
• Planting some new flowers and grass
• Installing new shower heads

The answer as to whether to implement these changes isn’t so cut and dry. In fact, it is rather often the little things like maintenance, cleanliness and preparedness that can have the greatest and most immediate impact on your bottom line.

Before placing the on-sale sign on your door, you should assess your home. Make a constructive plan of what you need to change, how you intend to go about it and the cost involved. Remember, your aim is to become more attractive and stand out in a sluggish real estate market. To boost your home’s market value, pay heed to the following items.

1. Consider Your Neighborhood and Go for the Curb Appeal

The list price is the single most important element to the entire home selling process. You should consider the value of the houses in your neighborhood and weigh heavily the most recent sales in order to gauge your area’s interest to buyers. If you over-inflate the price, potential buyers will look elsewhere for other choices. 

Remember, buyers nowadays are increasingly well informed and are probably using the same data you are using. If they have a good agent, they will know what to expect from any given neighborhood.

The trick to creating a positive buzz around your home is to enhance its curb appeal by paying extra attention on getting the yard and the exterior in tip top shape. You want it to catch people’s eyes as they pass by. Humans are visual creatures and first impressions are key, so make the outside of your home as attractive as can be.

Emulate your neighbors’ landscape and manicure designs. This isn’t the time to introduce a flashy landscape – you aren’t sure if a new design will appeal to the buyers or not. Go ahead and fix that broken driveway. Blend in with your neighborhood so that potential buyers can envision themselves smoothly slotting into the community. 

Employ simple creativity and use good quality materials when making changes to your outdoors. Make sure your entry is clean. Ensure your front door is in perfect condition, not chipped or faded. Free the walkway of debris.

These simple changes will all help to make the home more irresistible and attract the attention of potential buyers. Invest your time and money on the outer part of your home to win the buyer’s attention and first impression.

2. Stand Out from the Crowd

It is highly likely that you aren’t the only sellers around your area. Therefore, the little things you do to stand out matter. The main question is: how do you stand out?

• First, think like a buyer

Sellers too often neglect to put themselves in the position of whom they are trying to attract – and so they will spend months on end inefficiently trying to sell their house. Instead, take beautiful pictures of the key aspects of the property that will interest buyers – i.e. the kitchen, master bedroom, any notable or custom features, the surrounding street, and the exterior. Get them professionally done and post them online for increased market visibility.

• Use the help of your realtor

Don’t do everything yourself! Not only will it almost surely take longer than anticipated, but it ultimately be exhausting to you and it probably won’t turn out as perfectly as imagined in your head. It’s useful to have a second set of experienced eyes to input some advice, so use the help of a Realtor with a good track record and listen carefully to their advice. Remember: your Realtor knows what makes the home appealing to the buyers. 

• Think outside the box

Make sure your house is spotlessly clean, then find ways to add life to it. Declutter the space and open up interiors. You can showcase beautiful flowers in a vase on tables within the rooms. Find and create a focal point in every room. Capture them in the images you take while ensuring they are noticeable. Give people a reason to remember the place. 

3. Enliven Your Kitchen and Bath

As two of the most used rooms in a house, the kitchen and bathroom are among the most immediately visceral aspects of a house. People judge them on gut feelings – either they can see themselves in them or they cannot.  Painting the cabinets fresh and utilizing an eye-catching lighting system is a powerful strategy to enhance the kitchen.

Take your time here to make any renovations. Also, focus on making a perfect finishing to the sinks, working surfaces, and all areas of the kitchen. 

The bathroom is the other room of consideration. You can increase the lighting to enhance the space or install new showerheads. Consider the status of your toilet as well. You may install the best toilet on the market that fits into your bathroom design.

4. Concentrate on the Home Maintenance

Houses that require less renovation and maintenance attract buyers. Nobody wants to move into a home that feels half-finished or under repair. Buyers are already busy dealing with the exhaustive moving process – the last thing they want is for their new place to feel not so new! 

If your house has a leaking roof or gutter, the buyers will go for other alternatives to reduce the renovation cost. If the paint is chipping away, it will look dull and uninviting.

Paint your house anew as this will make it attractive. Take time to declutter and clean your home. Realtors say that if you invest in renovation yet your house is still dirty and full of clutter, buyers will shy away. Clutter will make your house look as though it has limited space and who wants a small, closed space? People are more amenable to overlooking minor issues if the overall house appears tidy, livable and well-maintained.

5. Go for Neutral Paints but Avoid Over-Personalizing

The walls of a home are also their attractive points. The paint you use on the walls will either appeal to buyers or not. But don’t assume the colors you love are another person’s favorite. Selling a home is not the time to deck your walls with an audacious color scheme. To make your home attractive to the widest audience, use neutral colors that will permit them to personalize it if they wish.

Don’t worry – neutral doesn’t necessarily mean boring. You can use light earth tones or beige colors to produce a warm, homey feel, and let the natural light interplay with the hues to create a dynamic effect. When your desire is to sell the house, you need to minimize certain elements that make it so personalized. This is to avoid pushing the clients away. You need to make the home appear personable, but you also need to remove some of yourself from the house in order to allow potential buyers to see themselves in it. 

Take down your photos and artwork from the wall, and remove other personal artifacts of yours. Better yet, get it professional staged from a third party vendor recommended to you by your Realtor – they will know best what will attract others’ attention.

The list of things you may do to make your house attractive is endless but some of the major ones are covered above. Always do your due diligence and conduct research to know what’s currently working in your market.

Remember to use an experienced Realtor if you want your home to not only be attractive but also sell for most money. Keri Shull and her Team are so confident in their ability to sell your home for more, that if you are not 100% satisfied with the transaction – we’ll waive our commission!

Click here to learn more about how you can take advantage of our Guaranteed Sale Program.

About The Author

Sophie Elise is a passionate cyclist, author, and blogger. She is very passionate about writing on different types of women’s bikes, accessories, health, fitness and more. She regularly writes on sportsly.net