Whenever you decide to sell your home, your aim should be to provide as much value as possible. You want to make your house as pretty, but you also want to make the process a seamless one for your potential buyers.
Even if you plan on selling your house as-is, you can still increase your home’s value without much work of investment. You might not want to, or even have to, make significant renovations before listing your home. Here are a few cheap and quick tips to help you raise the value of your home today.
14 Best Ways To Increase Home Value
- Focus on Curb Appeal
- Give the House a Power Wash
- Do Some Landscaping
- Fix Any Damaged Roofing, Gutters, and Siding
- Clean Up the Inside
- Paint the Interior
- Take Care of Minor Maintenance
- Perform Major Maintenance
- Do Some Minor Remodeling
- Improve the Home's Air Quality
- Turn the House Into a Smart Home
- Perform Major Renovations
- Upgrade Your Appliances
- Install Solar Panels
1. Focus on Curb Appeal
The first step to finding a buyer is to get people in your home for a viewing. If the outside of your house is not up to par, then many people might just drive on by. Improving the curb appeal of your home immediately makes the rest of the house more attractive.
2. Give the House a Power Wash
An easy way to increase a home's value is to give the house a power wash. You should also make sure the sidewalks, patio, and siding are washed, as they are often neglected. After a year or two of wear and tear, these elements of your home can become rather unappealing. Power washing them restores their beauty and catches the eyes of passersby. If you don’t own a power washer, perhaps you can borrow one from a family member, friend, or neighbor. Or, you can rent one from a local business such as Home Depot.
3. Do Some Landscaping
Beautiful landscaping will also increase the value of your home. You don’t have to go overboard and put in new landscaping or even add new features. But planting a few flowers or fixing up some disrupted bricks or flower beds is a great way to intensify your house’s curb appeal. Remodeling your outdoor patio section can be a huge bonus as well. Everyone loves a beautiful outdoor area to grill out and hang with family and friends. A tiny or dirty patio might be a serious turn-off for some people.
Make sure not to ignore the yard either. If your dog has been digging holes around the yard, fill them in. Take care of any weed infestations and plant grass to thicken up the yard. Dead and or otherwise ugly grass is a major turn-off to potential buyers. At the very least, try to keep your grass cut and bushes trimmed at regular intervals to keep things looking sharp.
4. Fix Any Damaged Roofing, Gutters, and Siding
Another obvious aspect people will notice immediately is the condition of the house’s exterior. This includes the roof, gutters, and siding. If you have noticeably damaged shingles, get them repaired. If gutters are loose or hanging off, put them back together. Make sure no sticks or leaves are clogged up there as well. And if you have broken or missing shingles, get them repaired immediately.
5. Clean Up the Inside
Once you get people in your house, you will want to impress them with the home’s interior. Whenever showing your house, make sure all the rooms are cleaned and organized, dust and debris picked up, and candles lit.
6. Paint the Interior
Repainting your interior is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to add value to your home. Depending on the size of your house, the whole house can be taken care of in a matter of days.
If there is a room in the house that seriously needs repainting, make sure you take care of that one first. Then, proceed through the rest of the house. Chipped or faded paint can be a distraction for potential buyers.
7. Take Care of Minor Maintenance
Do you have a leaky faucet? A broken door handle? Burnt-out light bulbs? Or damaged ceilings? These are some common minor issues that pop up over time and often get ignored. It just becomes “part of the house.” But when trying to sell your home, these minor issues need to be taken care of.
Imagine looking at a home to buy, and you accidentally lock yourself into a room, or you turn on a faucet and it sprays up into your face. These can be taken care of often in a matter of minutes. And, although their being fixed won’t make or break a deal, alternatively ignoring them might turn a buyer off.
8. Perform Major Maintenance
Buyers don’t want to buy a home that will be high maintenance. They want to move into a home knowing they will be protected physically and financially. The last thing they want is a broken heating or cooling system, poor insulation, leaky roof, or drafty windows. Getting a major maintenance issue taken care of might cost you, but it will certainly help sell your home quicker.
9. Do Some Minor Remodeling
If you have time and energy, doing a few small remodeling projects can also add a bit of value to your home. Popular remodeling projects include:
- Kitchen counters
- Kitchen cabinets
- Window cleaning
- Add shelving
- New light fixtures
- New carpet or flooring
- New doors
10. Improve the Home's Air Quality
Improving the air quality in the house will also increase the home's value and make it more appealing. You can do this by cleaning or replacing carpets, installing new filters, and dusting intensely. Old carpets and dust can really take a toll on the air quality in your house. Contaminants and allergens become trapped over time, which can be hazardous to health or even noticeably smelly. Consider washing or entirely replacing old carpets with hardwood or tile, which is easier to clean.
11. Turn the House Into a Smart Home
You might be wondering: what is a smart home? A smart home is simply a home set up in a way that allows the homeowner to control it remotely, with voice command, or set automatic controls. These typically include things like smart speakers, lighting options, locks, and thermostats.
These can connect to your phone or detect motion to determine if anyone is home. If no one is around, then the AC or heat might shut down for a while, or light may be dimmed to save you money. Security cameras such as a Ring Doorbell allows you to see your guests from anywhere in the world. These add a much-needed level of security for 21st-century homes.
12. Perform Major Renovations
Extensive renovations to the kitchen, bathroom, or specific rooms throughout the house can significantly increase the value of your home. These projects can also get pricey, but if the room is in bad shape, the benefits of doing so can outweigh the costs. While getting your home appraised, ask how certain projects would add value to your home so you have a better idea of what might work.
Adding a three seasons room on the side of your house. A three seasons room is a great place to relax, and the additional square footage is sure to add value to your home’s price.
You might also want to think about renovating your bathroom, particularly focusing on the bathing area, which tends to accumulate dirt quite easily. Water and moisture can get in between the liner and your tub, creating mold and mildew making it challenging to sell your house. If you are interested in remodeling your bathroom, check out our article on the costs of remodeling your bathroom with a Bath Fitter to see if it's a right investment for you.
13. Upgrade Your Appliances
If you do not have the time or the budget to make large-scale improvements, you can upgrade the appliances in certain rooms. Depending on the age and quality of your current appliances, upgrades can be seriously beneficial. Energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers, washers, dryers, or water heaters can result in some big-time savings for new homebuyers.
14. Install Solar Panels
Depending on where you live, solar panels can be a wise and cost-effective upgrade. In the southern parts of the United States, which receive more sun, solar panels can entirely replace electrical energy. Or just upgrading certain appliances to solar can be cost-effective. A solar water heater costs roughly $5,000 upfront but can result in 80% savings to water bills.
Increasing Home Value Bottom Line
The above options are the best ways to increase the value of your home quickly and effectively. If you have the time, money, and ambition to go further, there are some additional options. Whatever your budget and availability, there are multiple options for you to increase the value of your home. Minor additions or updates can genuinely go a long way for buyers, and major updates even more so. Either way, make sure you take the time to maximize your home’s value before listing it for sale.
After having taken the necessary steps to increase the value of your house, you still might not be sure on how high it could go for. To determine the real value of your house, try using one of the best home value estimators to get a feel for where it stands in the current market.