With April upon us, we are now officially in the home selling season. As homeowners seek to list their property for sale, search for their new home, or both, it’s also a common time for many home repairs. When you’re putting your home up for sale, it’s important to make sure you’re getting a fair price, and you would often be surprised by how much of a difference a few small repairs or maintenance project can make in the final offer you receive. We wanted to prepare a short list of some of the projects you might be overlooking, and how they can help.
Spruce up your landscaping: Your lawn is one of the first things a prospective buyer will notice when approaching your home. A lush, green, and well maintained lawn will go a long way to ensuring a positive impression. You may not always give it a lot of thought, but the condition of a lawn can make a subconscious impact on the opinion you have of a home you’ve visited. You may not walk away specifically saying “the yellowed and patchy grass turned me off on that home” but a poorly maintained lawn will nevertheless leave possible buyers walking away from your home with a less than glowing impression.
Pressure wash the driveway and siding: You rarely walk away from a meeting with a coworker saying to yourself, “oh I’m so glad they brushed their teeth and washed their hair” but you’d still definitely notice if they were skipping such vital practices of personal hygiene. In the same way, it’s not often that someone would walk past your house and think, “I am so glad my neighbor has pressure washed their driveway and siding” but they definitely notice when these crucial parts of home hygiene are missed. Cleaning stains off your driveway and sidewalk, as well as removing the mold and algae growth from your home’s walls or siding is a project that may not get noticed by a visitor to your next open house, but if you skip this work and leave those unsightly blemishes, it will definitely make an impact on how someone feels about your home.
Gutter cleaning and inspection: Again, this is a project that’s not likely to get you much credit from your real estate agent, but if you skip it, you’ll certainly get an uncomfortable conversation. Cleaning out debris from your gutters, and making sure they’re in good working order, helps to give a well maintained look to your home. In particular, making sure the gutters are properly mounted and not sagging at any points is important for making sure prospective buyers think of your home in a positive light. Sagging gutters not only hurts your home’s curb appeal, it can leave a buyer wondering what other important issues may not have received prompt attention.
Get a Roof Inspection: Getting a roof inspection will make sure you catch any possible issues and address them before they’re discovered by a buyer. Being able to show your roof has a clean bill of health can have a huge impact on how your price negotiation proceeds, and ensures you have the confidence to give an asking price you deserve.
As you prepare your home for sale, we hope you give us a call so we can help make sure your home is in its absolute best of shape. We work with a variety of partners, so we can take care of all of these issues for you with just one call! We can save you time and money, and give you a home you’ll be proud to list for sale!