Tips to Improve Your Home's Value

Planning to put your home for sale? Do you want the best possible price for your priceless asset? Read on to know ways to improve your home's value.
Tips to Improve Your Home's Value
Tips to Improve Your Home's Value
  • Paint your house. This will give your house a brand new look. Paint has the least expensive, largest and quickest impact on your house. Otherwise you can use attractive wallpaper.
  • Clean and organize your home properly. Everything should have a specific place. A clean and organized house leaves a good impression. Make sure all the dishes are washed, as dirty dishes leave a very bad impression. Vacuum the carpets. The kitchen should be thoroughly clean since it is the most important room for many buyers. Bathroom is the second-most important room and should look neat and clean.
  • Buy some paintings to hang in the rooms. This will add to the attractiveness.
  • A visitor’s first impression would be of the front part of the house. You can have an attractive lawn and plants there.
  • Rearrange the furniture to make the house look spacious.
  • Pull the curtains so that natural light comes in.
  • You can fix or paint fences.
  • Replacing locks and knobs is also an inexpensive home improvement method.
  • Mirrors will help make the most of the light in a room. You can brighten up dark rooms and areas with floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
  • You can resurface asphalt driveways.
  • You can plant new flowers in the garden.
  • Make sure the doors and windows open smoothly. You can use paraffin wax for lubrication.
  • Nothing can beat the glow of a real fire. Installing a fireplace in your home will add both value and warmth.
  • Lighting will make your house appear bigger, fresher and decidedly more chic, as well as adding more value.
  • Update yourself with home values in your neighborhood. Realtors use home sales information on comparable sales to put a value on a home. The best way to assess the value of your home is to look at the home sales of properties that are similar to yours in your area. For example, if you know that 17 Park Avenue is comparable to yours and it sold for $825,000 with a new kitchen, you can get an idea of what the value of your home would be with a new kitchen.
  • We face the issues of where to store our stuff. Closet systems, garage organizers, cabinet installations and shelving are a few of the ways we can solve these issues.
  • The kitchen is one of the important areas to address in your efforts to increase your home’s worth. Buyers are looking for spacious kitchens that are clean, in good repair and have the necessary furnishings for working. To make the kitchen look more spacious, try installing lights, which will make it look brighter.
  • Make sure the living room is airy; a coating of light colored paint, installation of good lamps, and cleanliness of the living room will contribute much to this effect.
  • You can use fluorescent lighting instead of incandescent lighting to provide your bathrooms with a refreshing feel. Installing inexpensive amenities to your bathroom like towel holders, racks, shower curtains, shower fixtures, etc. would enhance both the appearance and appeal of your home.
  • Make sure your home has no unpleasant odors. You could use an air freshener.
  • Like the other rooms, the bedroom has to be very spacious, airy and bright. Mirrors are particularly effective at giving this effect. Most hotels have to project an impression of space, and they employ this technique. The rooms should have a sufficient number of electrical outlets. The flexibility this offers will add very much to the value of your home. If you plan to install new surfaces or flooring, consider using natural materials such as stone, marble, quality wood, and others. They also add an impression of cleanliness to the rooms. Make the cabinets and closets as large as possible without making the rooms look cramped, you may have to use a few illusionary tricks here but the results are amazing.
  • If you can afford it, hire an interior decorator to do up your house.

By Prabhakar Pillai
Published: 7/11/2008
 
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