3 upgrades that are inexpensive but make a dramatic difference to the selling price
Whether your home is currently on the market or you are making plans for a future sale, upgrades that you make now can dramatically increase the value of your home. Long-lasting improvements that can be done inexpensively can pay for themselves many times over during the sale.
Improvements, not maintenance
A fresh coat of paint, fixing any broken windows or doors and making sure that the plumbing and electrical systems are up to code and working are maintenance issues. Prior to putting your house on the market, these issues need to be addressed and any deficiencies corrected. You won’t increase your selling price with maintenance.
To make your home more valuable, improvements to the house and property must appeal to your potential buyers and create an added value. Modernizing the kitchen, replacing old windows with modern, energy efficient ones and adding or upgrading a deck are just a couple examples of how you relatively inexpensive projects can improve the value of your home.
Kitchen modernization
In too many cases, we take the kitchens in our homes for granted. As long as the appliances work, they can be relied on without really being noticed. A refrigerator is a refrigerator no matter how new it is. If it keeps the contents cold, it works.
However, styles and functionality of appliances – as well as cabinets, pots, pans and utensils – do change over time. Even though these older appliances might work as well as the new ones, potential buyers will see the age of the appliances, and their lack of modern functions, as a negative.
Compared to the cost of a home, upgrading appliances or modernizing cabinets is a minimal expense that can reap large dividends when it comes time to sell your house.
Energy efficient windows and features
Although a twenty-year-old house is not particularly old, the innovations in energy efficient building and fixtures can make an enormous difference in the market price. Energy efficient windows and doors have become much more common and affordable over the last two decades. Building a home with these features has become standard and prospective home buyers will be looking for them.
Water efficient toilets, showers and sinks also fall into this category, as well as water heaters and central heat and air. As Americans become more conscious of the benefits of energy efficiency for the environment, as well as their monthly utility bills, it becomes more difficult to sell homes without these features.
Much like modernizing a kitchen, the cost of making your home energy efficient has gotten substantially less expensive over the last couple of decades.
Decks and patios
The major difference between a deck and a patio is the material used to construct it. A patio is usually made from concrete, bricks or stone while a deck is usually made from wood or composites, but they both have a similar function which is to extend the living space of a house and make it convenient and comfortable to spend time out of doors relaxing, entertaining or eating.
Generally, decks also have some sort of railing surrounding the space while most patios lack this feature. Popular cable railing is becoming more common on decks and will give this feature an added air of modernity lacking in older homes.
Putting it all together
Balancing actual cost versus potential gains can be difficult without a solid idea of where the housing market currently is and what trends are rising. The new home market has still not rebounded completely from the Great Recession during the early 2010s which gives current homeowners an incentive to keep their houses market ready.
