When preparing to sell a home, many people tend to stress out about renovations — and understandably so! After all, it can be worrisome to think about spending more money on a house that you are trying to sell, especially if you don’t know what to fix when selling a home!
The thing is, these renovations are often very important if you want to maximize your home sale. Not only will fixing the right issues lead to a faster and more valuable home sale, but it will also ensure that whoever purchases the home feels safe and secure! However, there are some financial incentives for you, too…
Why Is it Important to Renovate Before Selling?
Simply put — time and money.
Recent market updates reveal that the housing situation is very competitive right now, even in seller’s markets like DC where owners have a lot of leverage. If you want to have the best home sale possible, you need to put in some work up front to maximize what your home is worth. Here are the two ways that putting the effort into fixing up your home will pay off when you get ready to sell:
Sell Your Home Faster
As you might know, speed is incredibly important when it comes to selling your home. This is true everywhere, but doubly so in fast-moving markets like DC’s hottest neighborhoods, for homeowners living in Alexandria VA, and elsewhere in the DMV.
If you are looking for ways to sell your home fast, then the first step is to take a look at what you have (and haven’t) fixed. It’s hard to quickly sell a home if it isn’t appealing to buyers, after all!
Sell Your Home For More
Selling for more goes hand-in-hand with selling fast! When you do the right renovations and maintenance, you can raise your home’s value in buyers’ eyes and get the most out of your home sale!
Make Sure You Are Working with An Agent
A good real estate agent or is going to be invaluable when it comes to both fixing up and selling your home. Not only will they be able to help guide you through the process of selling your home, but they can offer hyper-specific suggestions on what you need to fix in your home.
There is no better way to make sure you are maintaining the right things and avoiding costly renovations that won’t pay off than to get expert advice from a great real estate agent!
If you want to get a free consultation on your home from DC’s top-selling real estate team, just click here and contact the Keri Shull Team today!
Before you grab a wrench or call your contractor, however, you need to consider one more thing — how you are going to sell the home.
Decide How to Sell Before You Decide How to Fix
The fact of the matter is that there is more than one way to sell your house. Depending on what is important to you in the sale, you’ll want to take different strategies to get the home sold — and accordingly, you will be able to forgo certain fixes and renovations around the home.
1. Selling on the Open Market
This is what most people think of when they think of selling their house. The advantage of selling your home on the market is that — if you have good marketing on your side — you can attract a lot of buyers and drive a bidding war on your home. To this end, you will likely want to make a lot of smart renovations if you take this approach.
Because the main goal of listing your home publicly on the MLS is to bring in the most number of driven buyers, you’ll want to do some handiwork to make sure that everyone who steps through the door falls in love with your home!
TIP: Make sure to speak with your real estate agent and find out what they suggest you fix — a good agent will know what buyers are looking for!
2. Selling Off-Market
Of course, not everyone wants to put their home for sale on the open market — and that’s where off-market sales come into play! Selling a home off-market is a great way to reduce the stress of showings and make your home sale pleasant.
As another benefit, you might not need to fix the same things if you are selling off-market. Because you aren’t trying to necessarily appeal to a wide audience of buyers, you can be more tactical with your renovations — which can save you time and money!
The secret to successfully selling off-market is to have a real estate agent with a large database of interested buyers. So once you have found that agent (like the Keri Shull Team, for instance) work with them to create a maintenance plan that will maximize your off-market sale!
3. Instant Offer
But what if you want to sell a home now and don’t want to spend any time and money fixing things up? Luckily, there’s a great option — an Instant Offer program!
When you sell your home instantly with programs like ours, you can entirely skip the hassle and stresses of renovations, stagings, showings, and Open Houses. You simply fill out a form, have one of our Home Value Specialists come to take a look at your house, and we will put an offer on your property in less than 48 hours!
Key Things to Fix Before Selling
Although a lot of renovations that people make are largely aesthetic, there are some items to fix around your home that will almost always increase your chances of successfully selling.
1. Electrical Issues
There’s a reason that this is the #1 thing to take care of — it’s a matter of safety! Faulty wiring and other electrical concerns can be a real deal-breaker for a lot of buyers. These issues can be expensive to fix (and home buyers are already dropping a huge down payment!) and — more importantly — can be very dangerous if left alone!
According to fixr.com, a total re-wiring of your home could be nearly $10k. However, odds are that you will not need to rewire the whole house…make sure you speak to your agent and their recommended electrician about the cost!
2. Drainage
No one wants to move into a house that’s about to flood! Luckily for you, there are some things that you can do to reduce the chances of water build-up and avoid scaring buyers.
- First, make sure that you are cleaning your gutters —- which you should be doing to prepare your home for Fall anyway!
- Check the grade of your yard: If your yard is improperly sloped, it can lead to serious draining issues down the road!
- Ensure that there isn’t larger water damage: poor drainage can also cause problems with your foundation or roofing, so work with an inspector or contractor to be certain that there aren’t deeper problems to take care of!
3. Plumbing
Can you imagine anything more frustrating than buying a home and immediately having the pipes give out? Plumbing problems can cause serious water damage, funky smells, and issues with mold — do a favor to yourself and the future owner and take care of your plumbing problems now!
4. Cosmetic Fixes
Scratches, peeled paint, old carpets, dated tiling — these cosmetic issues might not be dangerous, but they can certainly be unsightly!
Taking care of these cosmetic concerns is a lot like staging your home. If you are trying to get the most money for your home, why wouldn’t you put your best foot forward?
No matter what you decide to fix (or not to fix) it’s key that you have the right team behind you in your home sale! At the Keri Shull Team, our mission is to make sure that you are able to sell your home for the best price, in your ideal time frame, and with absolutely 0 stress!
If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you with your home sale, then simply click here and schedule a time to speak with one of our Home Value Experts in a free Consultation!
