When it’s time to sell your house – for whatever reason – you want to get the best possible price for it. A property is a substantial investment and getting a good return is important.
But, before you put your house on the market, should you look to spend some money on getting it ready for sale? Will investing cash on improvements bear fruit in the long term?
Fixes
There are two ways you can look to spend money on your home and these can loosely be defined as ‘fixes’ for existing issues and ‘additions’ of new items to enhance what you already have.
When selling a home it’s important to make an honest assessment of what the strengths and weaknesses of your property are. Weaknesses could eke away at the potential price your home could command.
That’s where ‘fixes’ come in. Are there any ways in which you can address these problem areas to prevent them chiseling away at its value or putting off would-be buyers? Things such as fixing leaking guttering, replacing wooden window frames and fitting replacement doors for kitchen cupboards will not add value to your home – but getting these things sorted will stop your home from losing ground and help you to achieve the full potential for your property.
These forms of expenditure are necessary to get your house ready for the market. A lot are small in scale, and many can be tackled in one weekend blitz.
Additions
As well as fixing any issues around your home, you might want to consider upgrading and improving elements of the home to add value.
Be careful when doing this. Spending £20,000 on a kitchen does not automatically add £20,000 to the value of your home.
This Is Money highlighted the differing returns that can be had on investments around the house – with conservatories recouping more than their cost in added value to a property while kitchens, bathrooms and carpets have about a 50 per cent return. That doesn’t mean they are not worth doing at all – but you do need to beware that only half of your outlay is likely to go onto the headline price of your home.
It’s important to bear this in mind and to also think about the buyer. Putting in a kitchen or bathroom that is perfect for your tastes is fine but will it suit everyone? You’d be better off going for something neutral that looks good in the estate agent photos but allows the buyer scope to stamp their own personality on it. This could cost less too.
Necessary?
If you’re on the cusp of selling your home then it’s probably only really necessary to ‘invest’ in elements that need fixing. This can be the sorts of jobs outlined above or even a lick of paint to freshen up or neutralize a room.
You want to give your house the best possible chance to sell. To do so it’s good to keep the all-important pictures in mind. Whether you want to sell your home using a traditional high street seller or utilise the new batch of experts such as House Simple online estate agents you will need to get these taken for people to pore over on Right Move and Zoopla.
Think about which rooms are your strong points and which are weakest. Look to make fixes to the weaknesses and small tweaks to enhance the strengths – and only make larger scale investments if you are sure they are necessary and will deliver a decent return.