Selling the house - Tips to update your house before a sale
We're in the process of moving to Colorado - see other posts for more information on our process so far. This post is about what we did to get our house ready for the sale.
Freshen up the bathrooms. Ideally "they" say for top value in selling your house you should do more than we did. I would have liked to re-do the tile and paint the trim white, but instead we decided to replace the light fixtures, freshen up the paint and replace the faucet and counter top in one of the bathrooms. It cost around $300 and about 8 hours of my husbands time.
Drywall and painting. We went ahead and painted the kitchen, fixed any nail pops or loose tape on the cathedral ceiling in the living/family room and painted the whole basement, basement bathroom, and basement stairway. This all took some time, but gave it a great fresh look. $250 and 4 days of work. This also included repairing the drywall where the crack was repaired.
We've lived here for (2) years and already made some improvements. We painted the deck, painted the interior of the house, partitioned the (3) car garage to a (2) car with a (1) car heated shop side. We added a gym in the basement and a home Theater. Those were just things we wanted to do while we lived here to more fully enjoy it.
When we decided to move we decided that, while functional some of the things in the house were a little "out dated" We didn't have time to do everything that we probably SHOULD have, but here are the small improvements and their associated costs that we feel will help the sale of our home.
Freshen up the bathrooms. Ideally "they" say for top value in selling your house you should do more than we did. I would have liked to re-do the tile and paint the trim white, but instead we decided to replace the light fixtures, freshen up the paint and replace the faucet and counter top in one of the bathrooms. It cost around $300 and about 8 hours of my husbands time.
Fix issues you will have to disclose anyway.
We fixed our basement issue. We noticed that when we got a really hard rain the basement would seep in one area. After investigating we discovered a crack. To make sure we solved the problem permanently we opted to have Permaseal install drain board and a type of interior drain tile from the crack to the sump pump, that way, if water came in it would go right where it belonged. That ran us $3,500 - but was worth it for the peace of mind and knowing that we did everything we could to prevent future problems down the road.
We fixed our basement issue. We noticed that when we got a really hard rain the basement would seep in one area. After investigating we discovered a crack. To make sure we solved the problem permanently we opted to have Permaseal install drain board and a type of interior drain tile from the crack to the sump pump, that way, if water came in it would go right where it belonged. That ran us $3,500 - but was worth it for the peace of mind and knowing that we did everything we could to prevent future problems down the road.
Drywall and painting. We went ahead and painted the kitchen, fixed any nail pops or loose tape on the cathedral ceiling in the living/family room and painted the whole basement, basement bathroom, and basement stairway. This all took some time, but gave it a great fresh look. $250 and 4 days of work. This also included repairing the drywall where the crack was repaired.
Shampoo the carpet. For about $40 I rented a carpet shampooer from Home Depot and purchased the carpet cleaner. This gave me 4 hours to clean the carpets, leaving me with cleaner better smelling carpets.
The little details. Make a list of little things like missing trim rings around can lights, missing or damaged sink plugs, any cleaning supplies that would help brighten something up, air freshers, candles, maybe a new entry rug, or a new throw blanket. Anything to make the space show better, then head to the store to purchase your final touches.
Cleaning and cluttering. I started sorting through my things months before the open house, but really hit it hard as we got closer to our target date. people don't want to see your moving process, they want to be able to picture what the house would look like with their things, and them living there, and that is harder to do with someone else moving boxes and clutter.
Next up - how to prepare for your open house, list your house FSBO (for sale by owner), and how to handle documents and closing procedures (or how I did anyway)
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