When you come to sell your home, you obviously want to get the best possible price for it. There are a number of ways to do this – some are cheap, easy and quick to implement, while others can be more expensive but will give you a good return on your investment.
Add a Bedroom
The number of bedrooms in a property has a significant effect on the price it sells for. Converting your two-bedroom home by adding another bedroom is almost always worth the effort and expense involved. Typically, an extra bedroom adds around ten per cent to the value of a home.
There are a number of ways to do this. You can sometimes – depending on the layout of the building – simply steal space from one room by adding a partition wall. This is a quick solution, but it does depend on having a sufficiently large room to begin with. Don’t be tempted to convert an existing room into two very small ones – this will not appeal to most buyers.
Another way to add a bedroom is to go up into the roof. A loft conversion will be more expensive and time-consuming but will usually more than pay for itself when you sell your home. If you can manage to include an en-suite bathroom in the conversion, then so much the better – it will be another selling point and add value.
Kitchen
Kitchens and bathrooms are the rooms that really sell a home. If your kitchen is looking a bit tired, you can spruce it up relatively cheaply. Rather than buying and installing new units and appliances, you could just repaint the existing cabinets and other units. It’s also very easy to improve their appearance by attaching new handles or knobs.
The worktops in your kitchen will be the first things that most potential buyers notice. If yours are scratched, faded or peeling, you can replace them without having to remove the units they sit on. This will give you a new-looking kitchen for a very modest investment.
Gardens
Whether you have a large garden or just a small outside space, try to make it as appealing as possible to buyers. Do the basics first, such as cutting the grass, pulling up weeds and trimming any hedges. You should also repair or replace any fencing that needs it. It depends on the time of year, of course, but try to have some attractive plants and flowers on show if you can.
If you only have a small outside space, you can make it look better very easily by adding some pots filled with flowering plants – or you could fill some pots with herbs and position them just outside the back door near the kitchen. You can also make the most of a small space by attaching a trellis to a fence or wall and putting in some climbing plants to grow up it.
Fix Obvious Problems
You can always sell a home that has some very obvious faults, such as a damaged roof, cracks in the walls or damp patches in the bathroom. However, you are going to get a much lower price for it. Something that would cost a few hundred to fix could well cost you a few thousand in terms of the money you lose from the sale. If you can possibly afford it, get these faults fixed – and by professionals. A temporary fix that just seeks to hide the problem is not going to fool anyone.
You may not see your home as an investment, but it is. When you decide to sell it, you should look at it with the eyes of a potential buyer and try to make changes – major or minor – that will ensure you achieve the best possible price.