Listing a house for sale is an exciting but exhausting time. Making everything picture-perfect is tiring, and keeping it that way isn’t easy.
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First impressions matter a whole lot when it comes to buyers being interested in your house versus another similar home. There are some fairly simple low-cost updates you can do to help wow people who view your home without doing a full remodel.
That being said, there are companies who buy any house, no matter whether it has been updated or not. You might not want to go down that route though, if you want to stick to using Real Estate Agents then your house may need a refresh. Here are some low-cost updates which can help sell your house.
Stain your front door
The front door is the first thing people see up close when they enter your house, and it should make a statement. If the wood is peeling and cracked, it is time to sand and re-stain it.
You can hire a handyman or painting service if you have a particularly intricate door, or do it yourself for just the cost of supplies. It cost us about $400 to have a handyman service do it, plus the cost of stain. It took the team most of the day to get our intricate door sanded, so it was worth it. In our previous house, my husband re-stained the door himself as it was a simple flat door.
Check out how bold our door looks now after staining!
Pressure wash
Pressure washing your driveway and walkways to remove the layers of dirt that have collected over time does wonders. A bright and clean driveway is very inviting and shows the area has been well-maintained.
Pressure washing is also a great option for your fence. It removes the top layer of faded, weathered wood, leaving fresh and bright pieces.
If you’re in the southern states, you will also want to pressure wash the siding of your house to remove any mildew.
You can hire a handyman to pressure wash, rent one to do it yourself, or even buy a unit. The cost will be similar for all three options in the $300 range.
Trim back your trees
If you have an overgrown tree or two, chances are the front of the house is obscured. Maybe that is a plus while you live there with all that added privacy, but potential buyers want to see the front of the house. Getting the landscapers to trim the tree and remove extra foliage helps bring instant curb appeal and visual interest in the house. I think our landscapers charged us an extra $150 for the tree trimming service.
Seal and treat Floor Tile
The kitchen is one of the most focused-on rooms in the house, so it needs to look great. I’m about to suggest a very inexpensive solution to brightening up your floor tile. We have dark slate tile in our kitchen, and it was looking dull and dingy. We got somesealer and enhancerto spray on our floor and rubbed it in with our Swiffer. One bottle took care of our entire kitchen, and really made a difference!
You can see in the photo below the area that we treated and the line where we stopped for a break.
Get a storage unit
If you have a TON of stuff as we do, it makes showing the house difficult and not as pleasant. You want the house to be big and clean, not have all the surfaces cluttered. So we got a storage unit and moved a lot of stuff into it, especially from our boxes room *cough* and garage. Now all the floors and counters are cleared off, and potential buyers can see the house for what it is, rather than be distracted by stuff.
A storage unit isn’t that expensive per month, even the largest one is less than $200 I believe, so it is worth it for a couple of months while in the selling stages.
Over to you! What simple and inexpensive fixes did you do around your house to get it ready to sell? Tell me in the comments.
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