Monday, February 3, 2014

Repairs That Help Sell Your Home

By Therese Goodwint


If you are preparing a house for sale, it might be necessary to spend some money on it, if you want to sell the house without delay and at your desired price. Aside from cleaning and eliminating clutter, money may need to be spent in certain areas. You might not need to spend money on every area, but some cash directed to certain spots will help sell your property.

Although it's obvious, this is a good beginning. From top to bottom, simply give the house a good cleaning. Make clutter disappear. If you haven't used something in several months, discard it. Wash ceilings, walls, woodwork, windows, and floors. Clean grout in your tiled floors, walls, and countertops. Throw rugs can be washed or replaced, and carpets should be steam cleaned. Broken items should be repaired. Fix or replace worn or broken window shades or blinds, patch or replace screens in windows, replace cracked or broken windows, replace broken light fixtures, patch holes or cracks.

Be sure to make any repair work that you have left unfinished. Not only will the buyer's home inspector find those issues anyway, but you are hindering offers if there are obvious repairs that need to be made. The overall maintenance of the home looks bad when there are unfinished repairs or projects, and are a red flag for potential purchasers. A home inspection report riddled with needed repairs and safety concerns will make a buyer pull out of a deal and run for the hills.

Be sure to paint. Begin on the ceilings. Buyers spend more time than you would think staring at ceilings. You don't want them to see stains from grease or smoke and ceiling cracks, while they are looking for signs of a leaky roof. New paint screams freshness, and it is the most cost effective renovation. Fiberglass tape covers large cracks, then is covered with joint compound and sanded. A good neutral color for paint is a light tan.

Consider replacing old or stained carpet before putting it on the market. To get it ready to show, a professional cleaning is often good enough, but it might not always be. Stained or dated carpet is a huge turnoff to potential buyers, especially if you have pets. Pet-stained carpets are not wanted by anyone, even the biggest animal lovers.

Make the most of your home's lighting. Every buyer cites good light as the one thing that that they want in a home, after location. Let in sunshine by cutting the bushes outside, remove the drapes, wash the windows, change the lampshades, and increase the wattage of your light bulbs. Your house will be more sellable if you make it bright and cheery.

Fixing up your home can be painless and inexpensive, if you do it yourself and use some creative planning and ideas. You're off to a good start with these tips.




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