basics of increasing home value

Three inexpensive ways of increasing land value is:

1) Painting
2) Carpeting
3) Landscaping

Short and simple!

What about an inside toilet?

lol - that would help..................as long as it's the flushing type and not just a bucket of water

I know this is an old thread, but I think it’s worth pulling back up.

The quote blow is pretty good. But I have learnt from working in carpet retail that putting new carpet down is not always a good option.

The people who maybe looking to by your house may not like your taste in carpet and will rip it back up as soon as they move in… shocking I know! But it happens. Unless the carpet is thread bare, leave it down and offer to make a reduction on the price of your home. After all you didn’t have to spend that money.

Your best move is to repaint in a very neutral colour throughout, yes fix up the gardens a bit, again remember the next buyer may not be into gardening so don’t spend a lot in this area, they may see it as lots of work for them and could put off potential buyers.

Your best approach is to utilise what you have, spruce it up, de-cluttering is essential!
Nothing like viewing a home that looks to small for the all furniture.

Always have peculated coffee brewing, lamps on for ambience and a couple of vases with fresh flowers when people are visiting your home for an inspection.

It’s all about neat, tidy and well presented, the rest will take care of itself.
This is a good subject, one I feel that should continue.

[Three inexpensive ways of increasing land value is:
1) Painting
2) Carpeting
3) Landscaping
Short and simple!]

Hi Michelle,

We got advice to not do anything because the buyer might not like our choice. We ignored it and spent $15 000 making the place nice how WE like it, and made an extra $100 000.

It is not going to work in every case and if you have really poor taste, get professional advice. Most people are irrational animals, they DONT see potential, only what you are showing them. You need to get someone to fall in love with your place, then they ignore the few things that they don't like. If the overall packages appeals to them, then they are not going to try discount over a few minor issues (yes, carpeting becomes a minor issue when you are in love with a place and you do not think "gotta discount the carpet" when you love a place, you think well it is brand new).

We put down nearly 1000sqm of turf, and before we did it, we were told not to bother or just put a little say 200 to 300sqm - people don't like mowing. The person who bought it happened to have a ride on mower and were desperate for an excuse to use it.

We painted the entire inside of the house an off white (tinge of grey/blue) despite being told it didn't matter and others would most likely change it. Spoke to the buyers who were very nice and friendly and they said they weren't going to change anything other than add some work sheds at the back.

Presentation is very important, I can't stress this enough.

3timesbuilda

Hi 3timesbuilda,

Sounds like you have good taste and didn’t need professional advice, pity help me, if everyone catches onto that!!

I would never suggest to anyone to NOT do a thing to their home, you did the right thing, but you didn’t go overboard with it.

[Most people are irrational animals; they DONT see potential, only what you are showing them.]
I agree with this statement but I’ll be sure never to say it to a client!!! I may get shown the front door. LOL…

I think you were lucky with the sale of your home, and I can tell you are people that care about your surroundings, it helps.

Thanks for keeping the thread going I think it’s an interesting one, and could go on for a while.

*Race to you to win the Guessing Game!!*

I've been looking at a lot of houses lately and if anyone tries the old "freshly brewed coffee and baking bread trick" I let them know quick smart just what I think of such pathetic cliches.

Present it at it's best - of course. Clean it up, eliminate clutter, paint etc, but spare me the cheap psychological tricks.

Just last weekend I drew a hearty laugh and lots of approving noises from those viewing a house when I pulled up the agent for the old coffee trick. People are smarter than that now.

Or the folded towels on the bathroom vanity, with the folded corner and the little soaps on top!

I thought they were trying to sell a house, not a hotel!

Oops!!

I folded the towels and put them on the vanity in my ensuite when selling my house....

I thought it looked better and didn't even think of the "hotel look"



Matt

First impressions last.

An upgraded entry door can work wonders with selling a house.

One of the first things a potential buyer looks at when they come for an inspection is the entry area, and if this is lacking, that sets the mood for the rest of the house.

I think the best thing you can do before spending any trivial amount on improvements is to have the place valued.

If you are spending more on the renovations then the house is actually worth on the open market, you are making a mistake.

Everyone plans on living there forever, but no one knows what they will be doing in 5 years time.

This is also the best reason to keep paint colours and additions impersonal, if you ever want to rent the house or sell it, it's best to sell it with a colour scheme that most people will like.

Always see people who have painted their walls a very personal colour & it hurts them when they go to sell because most people don't want to re-paint a house and are willing to walk away and find something that needs no work.

Ha….how funny I must have missed this thread!!!

Let me tell you…. Rolled up hand towels look better than the huge jar of Vaseline, makeup spread all over the vanity and a blow dryer hanging off the edge.

You will be amazed at what I see…..and the list goes on!

Smelling a freshly brewed perk coffee is better than smelling last nights curry dish still wafting thorough the house on inspection!

Not every home on the market is valued at 3 or 4 hundred thousand, there some out there on for 199, to 250 theses are the homes that need help. These are the people who are pulling all stops out to sell. And usually these are the people who may need help.

Remember not everyone is the market to buy expensive homes.
And not everyone knows how to present their home for an inspection!

And yes…..first impressions last. I can’t say that enough.

I agree 100% MIchelle.

And as long as people don't make a fuss about them, cliches work. You should appeal to as many senses as possible when saelling a home.

If it's coffee and cakes, so be it - if it offends then look through it. I guess if you are buying, go back unexpectedly to make sure the coffee wasn't masking something else (fags & beer).

Looks like a hotel? Great, they present really well, what's the alternative? I have never heard anyone compain at the presentation of a hotel room...

"Hey, can you send someone to room 501 - my face cloths are folded too neatly and the used soap has disappeared again!"

Mind you the air freshener pong is a bit overpowering in the rooms sometimes.

Ed

great thread,

what about preparing the neighbours in case they asked any questions or planning any unsightly behaviour?

I am planning to sell soon and am on a corner, so I only have 1 neighbour.
She is 82 years old.

I will ask her to keep the heavy metal music down, not rev up the motorbike, do the naked sunbathing or have her Hells Angels friends over on open inspection day

I am planning to sell soon and am on a corner, so I only have 1 neighbour.
She is 82 years old.

I will ask her to keep the heavy metal music down, not rev up the motorbike, do the naked sunbathing or have her Hells Angels friends over on open inspection day

And to keep the size 20 bonds undies off the line on that
day!

ok our house was looking pretty run down and worn out last year when we sold. we hadn't done anything much to it in a while and I'd been out of action on the garden front for quite a while at that stage with hubby too busy caring for me and keeping the lawn from turning into a jungle. These are the things we were advised to do. ***




The rest we decided to do as they were not expensive and meant it made it easier for a buyer to get an impression of the house without being put off. Most importantly know your market. We did. We knew who we were likely
to appeal to and what it was worth spending/doing. these were the possibilities.Our property was a 859 squ m block with a 19 year old house on it.
1. investor who would do the minimum
2, someone who wanted to subdivide and would poss rip the house down
3. a family who would do some gutting.


All:

***Clean . scrub and declutter.

Inside:
***Organised a tiler to replace some cracked tiles in the ensuite. ( we had spares)

Retouched all paint work that needed it.
We also removed a large number of small pictures from around the walls of our dining room. ( Having checked out some other houses nearby us we saw one that had previously had lots of pictures on a couple of their walls. Actually they were decorative plates from what we could gather, we realised that to a prospective buyer having a themed picture collection or at least in the case of the house we looked at, having hooks or pictures everywhere might put some people off so we removed the pictures and hooks, plastered and repainted.

Repatched and repainted DS2's bedroom to hide the remains of a border removal.

Painted the spare room/study and replaced the curtain that was falling apart in there with a cheap basic curtain so the window was not bare.

Washed all curtains etc.

***Paid for a window cleaner to do all the windows and sliding door bits
(well worth it)


***We were advised not to replace tap/shower fittings anywhere because they would make the rest of the bathroom/kitchen looked more tired / worse. ( ensuite was due for renovation)

Replaced the main bedroom carpet ( it was falling apart) and over due to be replaced. We did this 4 months before the house went on the market but knowing it was likely to go on the market was an added encouragement

***Of course we also made sure the entire house was clean, spotlessly so and smelt clean.

We did do the coffee trick. My idea not the agents.
I also used a very small amount of vanilla essence on a damp cloth and ran it over the sink area and just inside the inner edge of several kitchen cupboards. There was a "hint" of vanilla not a cloud of it.

Outside:
***Not to spend loads of $ repainting the patio lattice as it would have been tricky to do.

Washed the underside of the patio roof as the colorbond and , poly carbon sheeting was dusty and dirty.

***Removed the small xmas tree type lighting from around the patio as a number of the light bulbs had blown and were past replacing stage.
***Removed a paved area external light that had sun damage and was not worth replacing.
***Replaced the light bulbs and repaired wiring in garden lights that needed it.
*** cleaned all light shades etc

Made sure there were no weeds in the paving .

Purchased some inexpensive plants ( multiples of) for a bare garden border along a side fence.

***Tidy lawns, remove weeds, have some colour ( ie flowers) not just greenery in the garden. - We weeded, sprayed, moved, edged, added some bright flowering annuals to one small garden bed near the path to the front door and to the small bed next to the letterbox. Then mulched all the front garden areas the week before "home opens" started.

I oiled the front doorstep- the timber had greyed.
Replaced the front doormat with a fresh new one that looked welcoming but not over the top.


We spent less than$3500 including the cost of the tiler, plumber , some plaster repairs from water damage and good quality bedroom carpet, professional window washer, mini skip and getting someone else in to purchase, deliver and put all the mulch in ( 2 large ute ?loads) some "hard graft" weeding to one lawned area and some weed poisoning with an expensive non garden plant weed killer, wetta soil , and the wrong more expensive brand fertilizer, feeder for all our lawn areas. (ouch) and paints, mat, curtains. all of the above.
A word of warnign about mini skips. the hinged doors are heavy. The day ours was delivered hubby thought he would open it up so we could put some old furniture in it that no one wanted... Oops the hinged door slipped and landed on his foot. he hobbled off in pain and wasn't able to do much for the next 3 days although he still managed to life a few very heavy items single handed. After much persuasion he finally went to the doctor 4 days later. HIs foot and lower leg was some very pretty colours by this stage. yes he did fracture bones in his foot!. yes it did take 2 months to heal!. Yes we were trying to put the last weeks worth of final touches to our house before home opens with him not very mobile!. BE CAREFUL

Oh, I so agree - underwear left hanging out in the garden - not a good look!!

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj187/nurselovescoffee/PlantaBraPink.jpg