One of the most common questions we hear from our home owners is whether or not they should renovate or remodel their homes prior to putting them on the market.
Whether your goal is to make more money off the sale of Your home or to help it to sell faster, part of our services to our clients is to help You figure out where to focus Your time, energy and money.
Make repairs first
Concentrate first on fixing things that will be obvious to the Buyers and likely to be found when a Builders Report is carried out by the Buyer . The Buyer will most likely ask for these things to be fixed, so making them before listing Your home For Sale helps avoid delays during the transaction.
Being proactive is always a smart move in real estate
Some of these tasks include fixing peeling paint, broken windows, torn screens, dripping taps and loose or missing handrails.
Any problems that affect health and safety should be addressed first. Then, use what’s left of your budget to make the cosmetic fixes that are attractive to home buyers in your home’s price range.
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Consider minor upgrades
“Don’t spend money that won’t give You a return on the investment. The best expenditures for most markets are paint, carpet, light and plumbing fixtures.”
Decide which room or rooms require the most updating and start with those. Minor upgrades, such as new appliances or kitchen and bathroom countertops will do more to change Your sales price compared to redoing the kitchen or bathroom entirely.
In fact, a major kitchen or bathroom remodel can be a money pit and You’ll need to be very careful when deciding how much you want to invest in the remodelling of a kitchen or bathroom. It’s easy to over capitalise and not get Your money back . The repair or renovation task that returns the most is a new garage door .
Save money or time?
In a real estate transaction, time is most definitely money. The longer a home sits on the market, the better the chances that the homeowner will end up taking less than planned to get it sold.
The most common reason a home doesn’t sell is that it’s overpriced. Second to that, however, are homes that aren’t in decent condition.
Keep in mind that the first week that the home is on the market is known in the industry as “the honeymoon period.” This is when new listings receive the most attention and the more people that view the home, the quicker it will sell.
It’s not unusual for homes that are new to the market to get up to four times as many visitors in the first week they’re on the market than they do one month after listing.
With repairs and cosmetic fixes out of the way, your home may be the “shining light” of the real estate market during that first week.
We’re happy to meet with You and to offer suggestions on which repairs to make first and on which tasks to focus on after that.
Do you have a question on the local Real Estate market, or should you spend money on a renovation of your home before you sell, just call Matt Wineera on 0274 951 536 who is always on hand to answer your query.
Work with Matt Wineera who lists and sells in the Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Papamoa areas.
