Should You Renovate Your House Before Selling It?

When someone considers selling their house, they usually want to get rid of it as fast as possible in order to accelerate their movement to another location or because they see an investment opportunity that requires funding or whatever may be the reason!

However, there’s one question that may make this entire process a lot slower – namely, should you renovate your house before selling it? Of course, when we say renovate or clean we imply more than just properly with a powerful handheld carpet cleaner, for example.

As such, in the following lines, we’ll tell you what you will have to take into account when considering of renovating your house before selling it!

Low Return on Investment

A couple of years ago, a survey showed that the average return on remodeling projects dropped rather significantly compared to previous years – 56% in 2018, compared with 64% in 2017.

It was also discovered that only some house upgrades come with a high return on investment and that major overhauls tend to not experience the same thing. For example, something as small as installing a new entry door or touching up exterior paint may increase your home value compared with an overhaul of the interior.

Overall, you should keep in mind that not every upgrade or overhaul will impress all of your possible buyers. It goes without saying that you will be taking a small to medium risk if you choose to renovate your house, as you may have a hard time finding a buyer that likes it just the way it is. Click on below link to read a few best written articles by us on Home renovation:

Home Renovation: Important Things to Know!

20 Things You Should Know Before Planning an Old House Renovation

Consider Basic Features Before Renovating Your House

In addition to what we mentioned above, it is also worth stating that several studies showed that home buyers would prefer a laundry room rather than a glamorous upgrade or project.

Things to consider before selling the house

In short, buyers are impressed with basic features and, in most cases, would rather engage any potential upgrades themselves. On the other hand, attic insulation – for example -, like any other practical upgrade, ranks a lot higher in terms of costs, return on investment, and new buyer appreciation.

According to the ‘Washington Federal’ (Published in Remodeling Your Home-Everything you need to know about remodeling) “Talk to a local real estate agent to determine which features add the most value to homes in your neighborhood. Replace outdated fixtures and put on a fresh coat of paint. Determine where you can have the most impact with the least effort and experience.”

Do Buyers Really Want “Move-In Ready Homes”?

Naturally, the majority of people prefer move-in ready homes. This is mainly because they do not want to engage any major renovations, even if this implies spending more time searching for the perfect house.

On the other hand, there’s a study which shows that roughly 80% of the home buyers actually do home improvement projects in the first year after they purchase a house. Therefore, as a seller, you shouldn’t think that the future owners won’t get to work and upgrade or remodel something that they don’t like.

Consider Audience (Buyers) while Selling House!

You should also think about your possible buyers when considering renovations. Several studies show that younger couples enjoy remodeling and/ or upgrading and prefer moving into an older house that has seen little to no major changes.

If this is your target audience, then you may want to skip any major remodeling or renovations.

However, older couples or families may not be so keen when it comes to fixing, upgrading, repairing, or renovating things around the house.

When Should You Not Renovate?

Obviously, if you want to make as much money as possible from your house for sale, then you will most likely pick up any sort of renovations and hope that they’ll increase the value of the house.

Still, depending on the circumstances, you may not have enough time for renovations. In this case, you’ll probably have time only for general cleaning and for pressure washing of the exterior. Naturally, you’ll end up reducing the price of the house in order to compensate for the lack of renovations.

Before and after pressure washing the house

Then, homeowners may not have enough money to renovate the house. Most real estate agents say that 9 out of 10 people wouldn’t spend money on renovations for a profit of $15,000 – either because they can’t afford it or simply because they don’t want to do so.

Tackle Necessary Repairs and Deep Cleaning Before Selling House

Even if you have your mind on renovations, you shouldn’t forget about any necessary repairs or, worse, about the deep cleaning of the entire house.

Instead of considering only high-budget repairs and renovations, you should tackle the cheap but necessary ones – such as flaking drywall, popcorn ceiling, moisture, and so on.

In many cases, the repairs that wouldn’t have cost you much end up breaking the price that you have on your house. This is because cleaning every single inch of the house will definitely make a strong impact on any possible buyer.

They may overlook an old staircase – for example – but they will worry about the presence of mold in bathrooms or in the kitchen.

Low to Medium Renovations that You Can Tackle Before Selling House

If you have enough time to renovate, but still don’t want to spend too much money on such a thing, you should aim for some low to medium renovations. These can weather market changes, as well as several personal tastes – thus having a chance of increasing the value of your house.

Kitchen countertops are a great investment for a seller, mainly because kitchens – as well as bathrooms – basically sell houses.
You could also replace the vanity tops of the bathroom, as well as the fixtures.
You may also tackle the landscaping of your house as it is one of the main things that spark interest for buyers.

The Bottom Line

Overall, it is safe to say that there are a lot of things that you should take into account when thinking of renovations or remodeling!

As mentioned above, it is worth thinking about your target audience too, at your house’s current value, and at minor repairs that you could do without breaking the bank.

In short, if you want to sell your house as it is, then you have to make sure that it doesn’t lack something that would drastically decrease its value. Naturally, if you don’t want to invest any money, then you shouldn’t worry about renovations.

On the other hand, if you want to renovate and hopefully increase its value, then you should research the market and make sure that you’d get a decent return on investment!