As the real estate market gains momentum and people start thinking about selling in the spring, a common question is: "What’s the payoff on fixing things around the house before we put it on the
market?"
The last thing you want to do is undergo extensive repairs
that cost you money – and valuable time, only to find you don’t recoup that
cost once the house sells. Then again,
leaving obvious fixes left undone can turn buyers off, and drastically reduce
the price of any offers that come in. So
what’s the happy medium? Here is our
expert opinion on what fixes will add bang for the buck once you sell – and
what to leave off your To Do list.
The reality is that a declining market in the period between
2007 and 2012 drove all housing prices down.
As a function of increased inventory – including plenty of foreclosures
and short sales – people got less money back from remodels and repairs they put
into their homes, too. The good news is
that remodeling costs have dropped 10-15% in the last 5 years, too, even as the
cost of building materials has risen 17%.
But there are smart ways to “spit shine” the look of your
house, focusing on signature and most-viewed areas that will yield you the most
money back when offers come in.
Try to understand it from a buyer’s eye; when they first
walk in, their eye takes it all in as their mind categorizes each detail into
positive, neutral, and negative features.
If you have a woefully outdated bathroom, for instance, that may trigger
the thought that it needs to be updated – causing them work, and taking money
off their offer price. If they walk in
and that same bathroom is newly remodeled with high-end tile, fixtures, and
decorations, that would be a positive factor that might put you ahead of the
competition, and if it was clean and new but with nothing fancy, a neutral
factor.
At the very least, you want to eliminate the negative
factors that will ding your asking price.
Those include health and safety items – like a leaky roof, overburdened
electrical panel, or bad smoke detectors, which will all be flagged in a home
inspection, anyway.
So what repairs will
yield you the best return on investment?
That’s easy - focus
on the kitchen and bathrooms as your remodeling priority.
Kitchen:
-Fix any broken doors or tracks on cabinets and drawers. If they are outdated but functional, consider
having them painted. Lay down new wax
paper in the bottoms.
-Modernizing lighting by installing a cool new fixture over
the sink doesn’t cost much.
-Replace old tile or cheap linoleum countertops, possibly
with granite (ask your realtor if that surface is recommended.)
-Add a nice new sink faucet and fixtures.
-A hanging pot rack or wine rack is a great signature piece.
-Retile the floor with nice, big, earth tone tiles to get rid
of old 6” tiles or linoleum. Laying them
down in a diamond formation – instead of square – looks great, too.
-Paint the walls a neutral color with satin or eggshell
paint.
Bathrooms:
-If the toilet works fine, just put a new seat and lid on it.
-Replace your shower curtain with a nice new one.
-Install a new mirror and medicine cabinet and also replace
your sink with a new, modern sink and vanity set. The sink area is where people look first and
spend the most time in the bathroom, and they have great deals on sets that come
with a nice faucet and fixtures as well.
-Install new earth tone large tiles on the floor. This is especially easy since the bathroom
floor doesn’t cover a lot of surface area.
-While you’re at it, take down your towel racks and TP
holders and replace them with nice new ones.
-Pop in a cool signature lighting fixture over the sink.
-Paint the walls in a soft, neutral color with satin or semi-gloss,
and your bathroom is ready!
Here are a few ideas for
other areas of the house that won’t cost much:
-Add new high wattage light bulbs to illuminate the house
well, especially dim areas.
-Take down old wallpaper, that’s always a no-no.
-Take down paintings or decorations (except for a mirror or
two) and fill the nail holes with spackle, sand to smooth, and paint over them.
-You don’t need to paint the whole inside of the house, but
do cover any brightly-colored rooms or high-traffic areas with a new coat of
paint in a light, neutral color.
-If the outside doesn’t need new paint, a good power washing
is a great way to make it look better.
-Paint your front door with a shiny, traditional color –
like red or black – and remove any screen doors over it.
-The garage door also looks better with a coat of paint, and
if it needs it, think about painting the trim only (if you can get away with
it) just on the front of the house.
-Clean your windows well, inside and out. This is a great alternative to replacing
them, which can be very expensive.
-Hire a stager if your realtor recommends. Usually this pays off the best with high-end
listings.
-Sprucing up the landscaping is one of the best and cost-efficient
ways to improve the curb appeal of your home.
Make sure to weed, prune, lay down some fresh stone or mulch in beds,
and plant nice flowers in the front yard, especially on the way to the front
door.
-Pools, hot tubs, decks, garage additions, or trying to
enclose and winterize patios and sunrooms never pays off when selling a home.
- Get your carpets professionally steam cleaned unless they
are really bad and in need to replacement.
-Same thing, you can have someone refinish real hardwood
floors, which will make them sparkle.
The repairs that give
you the best % payback:
-Exterior siding – adding nice fiber-cement siding to the
exterior of a home instead of repainting pays back 78% of the cost. However, this may differ depending on what
part of the country you live in and you never want to stick out in the
neighborhood (have siding when everyone else has stucco, etc.)
-Replacing an old or shabby front door pays by 73% of the
cost.
-A reasonable kitchen remodel yields a 72.1% return on
investment.
-Putting in a new garage door will pay back around 71.9% of
the cost.
***
We hope the information helps! Remember to call us if you have any questions about selling your home or what to fix up before it goes on the market.
