3 Steps to Choosing Projects that Sell Your Home Quickly
Who doesn’t want to sell their home quickly and for top dollar? Unfortunately, though, these are often mutually exclusive. If you want to sell your house quickly, you’re usually advised to price it low to attract potential buyers. If you’re set on selling your home for top dollar, it’s expected that your house could sit on the market for months.
How can you achieve both? By upgrading and revitalizing your home. While it might seem like a huge commitment to start a couple of home projects, especially when you’re thinking about selling your home, giving your house a facelift can increase its value and attract a buyer, which can lead to both a higher selling price and less time on the market. But, every house is not the same, and not all projects will pay off in the long run. Follow these preparation steps to ensure that you pick the appropriate plans for your home:
Get a Comparative Market Analysis
A comparative market analysis is a report that compares your home to others in your area that are currently on the market or have recently sold. This report allows you to compare your home’s features against others and see what projects might increase your home’s value the most. For example, if houses with large patios are selling at a substantially higher price than other homes, it might be a good idea to add on to your current patio before putting your house on the market. Similarly, an excellent comparative market analysis will also provide information on how long each house has been sitting on the market. By looking at homes that were on the market for the least amount of time before selling, you can see what caused a home to sell quickly and plan your house projects accordingly. According to realtor.com, a report like this can go back as far as only a couple of months to as long as a year.
A comparative market analysis can also be used to calculate how much you should list your house for. After all, setting your house at an appropriate price is one of the essential steps to selling your home. If your price is too high, your home could sit on the market for several months. If it is too low, you could lose out on getting your home’s full value. One of these reports can usually be obtained by a real estate professional before you put your house up for sale. Often, they are free of charge as long as you list with that agent when you put your home up for sale.
Consider Cost vs. Value
Home projects cost money. Of course, how much they cost depends a lot on the scope of the projects. Redoing your whole kitchen, for example, will cost a lot more than merely painting your cabinets. When you’re doing home projects before putting your house on the market, the hope is that you will at least get your money back when you sell your home. Preferably, you would make money back on your investment. However, not all projects are seen as equally valuable in the eyes of potential buyers. Simple, lower-cost projects tend to have a higher return. Before moving forward with a home project, you should double-check that the project will pay off. A cost vs. value report can come in handy here.
Sell Your Home!
After you figure out which projects will sell your home faster and get down to business, it’s time to sell your home. Be sure to calculate how much you can get from your home’s sale before you begin looking for your next house. This can be done by taking your listing price and subtracting your outstanding mortgage and other fees, including your real estate agent fee, staging costs, seller concessions, taxes, and additional expenses that might apply.
Selling your home can be extremely exciting, but it is not uncommon for home projects to be necessary to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to selling your house. “As is” is often not good enough. Performing some simple home projects can significantly increase your home’s value and decrease the time it sits on the market.
Author
Suzie Wilson is an interior designer with more than 20 years experience. What started as a hobby (and often, a favor to friends) turned into a passion for creating soothing spaces in homes of every size and style. While her goal always includes making homes look beautiful, her true focus is on fashioning them into serene, stress-free environments that inspire tranquility in all who enter. The Ultimate Guide to Prepping Your Home for an Open House is filled with tips, tricks and other advice based on Suzie’s years of experience in interior home design that will set you up for success.
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