If you’ve been dreaming of a bigger home in a new neighborhood for a while, you may be starting to think about how you can make the move. Buying another house will cost you a lot of money. And there is always the worry that the home you are in now won’t be able to reach a good enough sale value. Before you give up hope, why not try out some of these great ideas to increase the value of your home so you can buy something better:
Plan – Before you call out the valuation expert, grab yourself a notebook and pen. Start to make a list of everything that is less than immaculate in your home. You are looking for reasons why a prospective buyer wouldn’t want to choose your place over the other houses on the market.
Make three columns in your notebook. The first is to detail the problem. The second is to list the things that can be done to fix it. The final column is for you to put a rough estimate about the cost of putting it right. You may find a stain on the living room carpet and that the kitchen worktop is a bit tired looking. The fixes could be hiring a carpet washer and replacing the kitchen worktops.
Tidy – To give the appearance of space and function in your current home, you may have to empty the place out. Dress every room for its purpose, so take the XBox out of the dining room and set up the table and chairs. Remove personal items from sight. This may involve hiring storage or donating items to charity.
If the furniture isn’t right for the room, consider putting it in storage and hiring pieces that work. You want to create the right style and look for each room. If the spare bedroom doesn’t look like a bedroom, consider painting it and furnishing it. Wall art and sofa throws can help freshen the esthetic appeal in the room.
Style – You want to create the impression of a particular quality of life and lifestyle in your home to gain maximum interest. Make the place flow by coordinating colors, materials and fabrics through the house. If you have an oak dresser, put out an oak table and TV stand too. If you have leather sofas, use the same color leather for your dining chairs.
Have a look at some show homes from the new build estates. New houses like the ones sold by Riverstone are dressed impeccably with no clutter at all. You want to emulate that with your house. Make sure the colors progress around the house. You may have reds in the dining room and purples in the kitchen. It may be a little too much contrast to use yellow in the living room. Go for a lavender or pale pink instead.
Once you have dressed your house to impress and brought the style up to date, your trendy pad is going to be as desirable as it can be. This will maximize its value and hopefully gain you enough capital to buy your new house. Happy house hunting!
Rebecca x
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Really useful; we did most of this and sold our old house for asking price in three days as a result. I just wished it always looked showhome perfect! We also took the kids and dog out once the place was immaculate before the people came to view 😉 #hometc
We are not thinking of moving, but the first tip is a great one. I think I’ll do that anyway. There are several niggly little problem areas in the house that need sorting out.
#HomeEtc
Fionnuala from http://www.threesonslater.blogspot.com
Such good tips, it’s small things often that can make such a big difference. Hopefully we’re not moving any time soon but great for future reference! #HomeEtc
I think it’s extraordinary that people don’t do this as a matter of course!! We’ve sold all our houses really quickly as they’ve all been dressed to sell.
Sometimes you see houses sat on the market for ages and it’s often because they’re so cluttered, buyers can’t see past it. I remember someone looking at our first house and saying how much they loved all our furniture — I had to point out that it wasn’t going to be there once the house was sold!!! 😉 Thanks so much for linking up with #HomeEtc — hope to see you again next week! x
Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk
Totally agree!! I too have made our houses as sellable as possible (like a show home) and therefore very appealing! We have even redecorated rooms. Great tips and advice 🙂
Thanks for linking up, much appreciated – Jess x #HomeEtc
Really useful post lovely! I hope I am far off selling but maybe one to bookmark for the future 🙂 xx
true, it can be such a stressful time – hope it helps if you need it
It really is the small things that make the difference. We have no plans to sell our house but will be using a few of the tips anyway #HomeEtc
ah, great! Thanks for your comment x