As per a research carried out in the U.S., 6 million houses were sold in the year 2019, while in India, the number of residential properties sold marked was 245000 and above in the same year.
This means, every year, several families move from one property to another which has increased the value of the residential properties. But even with the increasing values and reducing inventory, selling your residential property surely has been challenging. The primary reason behind this is the mind-set of the buyers.
Ready To Move In House
The buyers widely look for houses that are ready for move-in. A house that needs too much fixing and has an incomplete appearance is surely not going to be liked by the buyers and this would also reduce the value of the property.
Are you also thinking to sell your house at an ideal value? The first thing you need to do is ask yourself if your house ready for sale or it needs some improvement before placing your house in the real estate market.
Let us see some quick tips that will help you to fix your house for sale.
Easy Tips To Sell Your House Fast
To help you to sell your house fast and with good value, here are some simple inexpensive and repair updates that would help you attract prospective buyers.
01. Start With Exteriors of Your House
It is well said that the first impression never has a second chance. And that’s why, when you think to upgrade your house, start with the exteriors as it needs to be tempting. Trim the trees and bushes, to give a perfect view from the entrance gate or even the windows. This would also make your property visible from the street. Other improvements in the list include placing the lawn diagonally, washing the windows and doors, replace any front door or paint it new, look for a new welcome mat, replace the mailbox, give your house a new color, replace the porch lights, etc. Making improvements in the exteriors would surely help you attract the buyers to your house.
02. Think of Upgrading The Flooring And Carpets Before Selling Your House
The flooring and the carpets are equally essential when upgrading your house. Of course, no one would like to buy a house with stinky carpets and stained floorings. So, when looking to sell the house, either clean the carpets and floorings or upgrade them with a new one, whichever is possible for you. Give more attention to areas with heavy traffic like family rooms, dining rooms, and living rooms, where carpets are more prone to get stained. Clean the floors in wood or look for a wood floor buffer machine to clean it properly. If the floor is stained, scratched, or having marker and pencil stains, repair them with wood stain markers available at your near hardware store.
For carpet cleaning tips you need to refer here –
03. Check If All The Utilities in Home are in Working Condition
Just imagine a buyer checking on your house suddenly finds out water issues at your place. This is surely going to have a negative mark on his mind regarding other utilities too. Before you place your house in the market, it is widely recommended to check on all the utilities at your place and check if they are working properly or not. The list of utilities here includes the lights, electricity supply to every room, additional electricity ports if any, water supply, sewage facilities, garbage disposal, update the internet and other essential wirings, etc. All these might be minor issues on your side, but they surely come great importance in terms of the buyers.
Making all these changes and updates both interiorly and exteriorly would add to your efforts of selling the house at the best possible value. However, apart from working on the property, there are other important things to consider as well to remove the hurdles while selling your house.
04. Opt to have a New Paint Coatto Fix your Home for Sale
Giving your house a new paint freshens up your house turning it attractive for the buyers. Freshly coating your house with some new paint color helps in covering all the stained areas, minor scratches if any, and unpleasant odors with ease. Go for some warm and neutral color for a contemporary look to your house. For this, you can also seek the help of your local hardware store for selecting the latest range of colors. Get a catalog from various painters or hardware stores and depending on the house size, select the best volunteer painter for painting your interiors and exteriors that give the house a novel look.
05. Update The Fixtures And Lights to Every Room if Needed!
Updating the lights and fixtures helps to a great extent while selling your property, specifically, if they are scratched, faded, or dented. Check on the wall candelabrums of your bathroom, pendants of the dining hall, lighting in the entrance, etc. and update them if needed. You can easily give your house a modernized touch by merely changing the entrance lights, planting some indoor plants, and much more. Changing to brighter lights, swapping the bulbs, adding some floor lamps or table lamps, etc. would merriment the dark corners and give a complete look to your house.
For different types of lights for the interior of the house, refer to here –
06. Insulate The Garrets
The buyers today are giving more importance to insulation when looking for a new house. For this, they might also demand utility bills to work on the heating costs. Look for double-paned windows, programmable thermostats, energy-efficient appliances, compact and LED fluorescent lights, smart irrigation boxes, etc. as this would leave a good impact on the minds of the purchaser when analyzing the energy consumption at home. If possible, look to add a green manual to your house by adding new indoor plants for some natural look to your property.
07. Add Some Greenery To The Lawns of Your House
As mentioned above, giving the exteriors a new appearance is helpful, but giving it a green shade with attractive flowers, trees, shrubs, etc. would add to your efforts. Depending on the season, look for some small and colorful plants in the front garden area. For instance, if you check out houses for sale in Los Angeles, you will find beautiful houses with lush green lawns that would amaze the viewers at first glance. Worried about the maintenance cost? To keep it down, look for some vegetation that is popular or innate to your area, requires minimum pruning and watering, and much more. For those who don’t have any lawns in the front, giving a corner some greenery or placing a small plant stand near the door would be effective.
See here for some helpful gardening tips that will enhance the value of your home –
08. Objectify Or Depersonalize The House
Everyone gives their house a personalized touch, especially if the stay is longer. But when it comes to selling the house, you need to work to depersonalize the house so that the buyers can imagine their stay and feel at home. For objectifying the house, and giving the potential buyers a warm welcome, remove your family photographs from the tabletops, shelves, and walls, remove any artwork from grandchildren or children, box all your ribbons, trophies, and memorabilia, store the bathroom toiletries in linen closets or vanity drawers, clear the tables beside the bed except the clock and night lamp, etc. However, while depersonalizing the house, make sure you don’t damage the walls.
09. Change Appliance Panels In The Kitchen
The kitchen is believed to be the heart of the house. It is an area where delicious memories are cooked, families eat together, and entertain with mere words. And there are many buyers who focus on the kitchen more while purchasing their next house. Hence, it is essential to give the kitchen a new and reorganized look. But this doesn’t mean to remodel the kitchen and invest all your savings there. Merely making changes in the appliance panels, cabinets, countertops, etc. can make a simple yet remarkable impact on the buyers looking for a customized kitchen. Match your old dishwasher with a new one to match it with the fridge and stove in stainless. Match the fridge panels with the cabinets. Making such changes would cost you less but give your kitchen a completely new appearance.
10. Keep Your Title Papers And Documents Ready And Updated
Just as it is important to work on the property structure when selling the house, it is equally important to have the documents and property papers updated and ready before you invite buyers to your house. The documents and other essential papers would be scrutinized at the time of making a contract, and if they are not clear, well-managed or checked, it can lead to problem. So, check all the documents when selling your property like land documents, the letter of allotment, sale deed, sanctioned plan, society documents, encumbrance certificate, and sale agreement and keep them in order to make the process easy for both of you. If there are any updates to be made, work on it at the earliest to avoid any delay in the future. If titles are not in place, most buyer will run away in spite of the house being looking good and impressive.
11. Pay Any Outstanding Bills If Any
Do you have any outstanding EMI or mortgage amount on the house? If yes, make sure you clear everything before selling the house. Along with the EMI and mortgage amount, also check if there is any outstanding payment against the local taxes, utility liens, electricity bills, maintenance charges, phone or water bills, unpaid property bills, etc. It is better to clear any unpaid amount before starting the sale proceeds of the house to any potential buyer for a clear deal.
12. Eliminate All Unwanted Furniture From The Room
Too much furniture reduces the empty space and makes the area look smaller. So, make sure you work to remove unwanted or unnecessary furniture from your house when planning to sell the house. Removing the furniture would make your room look bigger and brighter. If you are thinking to shift the furniture to your next house, you can store it temporarily in your storeroom or garage. Clean the closets well and remove the non-essential items from them. Remove the unwanted books from the bookcases to give it a tidy look. Rearrange the furniture, kitchen cabinets, and other essential orderly for a neat and clean look.
13. Declutter Your Closets
When looking for a house, the buyer widely looks for the bulk of closet space. This doesn’t mean to add new closets, but give the existing closets a bigger appearance by removing everything that is unwanted from it. To keep the closets clean, store the unwanted or seasonal clothes and shoes in boxes that can be placed out of sight, or donate them if unwanted. This would give the closets additional space and make it functional. Not only the closets, make similar changes with the pantry in the kitchen too. Remove all the items holding an expiry date, remove all the bulky pasta or flour packages, etc. Store the excess items in containers and rearrange the shelves neatly.
Conclusion
So, what do you think? Are all these changes expensive? Well some of them are but not definitely all! Making all such small yet infinite changes in your house helps in adding good value to your property for getting good returns. Again, it is not necessary to work on all these in a single day. You can plan everything in advance with a small budget and go step by step with the improvements. Making minor changes in the house like wall trimming, tray ceiling, etc. would help you place your house against the new properties in the market and increase your profitable selling chances.
So, are you ready to add an inexpensive and subtle architectural idea to your house for a huge and lucrative impact? Give your valuable answer in the comment box.
You will like the following article as well which is already published by Gharpedia –
Author Bio
Sai Charan Gundreddi – Sai Charan Gundreddy is an author and a freelance content writing specialist with over 3 years of experience in the field. A writer by day and a reader by night, he is loathe to discuss Hinderer in the third person, but can be persuaded to do so from time to time.