Top home improvements to tackle before selling your home

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Hey. My name is Kasha, and in this show, we talk about home staging for home sellers. If you are getting ready to sell your house soon, you are in the right place. We cover home staging tips, strategies to help make it easier on you, and ways to influence buyers. So roll up your sleeves, get a notebook and pen handy.

Yes. I do things the old fashioned way, and let’s get your house ready to sell. Welcome to the Creative Home Staging Show. I’m your host, Kasia McDaniel. And today, we are talking about home improvements that you should tackle before selling your home.

Now we’ve had this dilemma in our house in Virginia. We had a master bath, that was dated and looked original to the house. Yeah. Back to the 19 seventies. Right.

The sink was molded into the countertop. It was kinda part of it, so it was definitely a dated thing. And the faucets were just antique. They were old. They really were.

And mind you, we did a number, a lot of renovations to that house since we bought it in 2007, and we were moving in 2015. So we’ve lived in it for 8 years and renovated during that time the whole kitchen, a 1,000 square foot basement, the upstairs bathroom, the laundry room, and the living room walls because they had wood paneling instead of drywall because we wanted to, make the whole brick fireplace that was, oh, by the way, 17 feet long. Yeah. I wanted to hide some of that brick. So we dry walled over it, basically.

So just to make it a better focal point than 17 feet of red brick. Yeah. I know. So we had done a number of renovations. So you think we were done.

Right? And we’re selling the house. Right? No. No.

Because the master bathroom was outdated, we updated a few things in there to entice the buyers. Everything else was updated, but that master bath needed some help. So what we did, we we did it attacked it 2 ways. We did go to a bathroom remodeling company just to get an idea as to how much it would be just to, you know, make it new because it was the original to the house with the bathtub shower combo and all that stuff. Right?

Yeah. That bids came in at $60,000, and that was back in 2015. Yeah. I know. It’s been a few years since then.

Right? So we’re like, okay. Yeah. We are not gonna get a return on investment on that work, plus we’re not gonna enjoy it. I’m like, what am I remodeling a whole bathroom for for somebody else?

Right? You know what I mean? So we decided to update a few things, and that’s what I wanna share with you in this episode is take do make the changes that are actually gonna going to help you and get a return on the investment. So what do we do? We change things for about $2,000 versus the $60,000.

Yeah. So, what we do is we replace the counters with granite. We got new sinks that are not molded into the whole piece of the I think it’s actual white sinks and the nice granite. We got new mirrors and lighting and, oh, and faucets. Definitely faucets because those were just yeah.

So that Definitely faucets because those were just yeah. So that cost us just for the master bedroom. Okay? $2,000. So instead of going that route, what are some things that you can do to help sell your house?

Now this is from the National Association of Realtors 2023, profile of home staging. And you can take a look. I’ll leave the link in the show notes so you can take a look to see what are some of the changes that home improvements that realtors and other, you know, professionals have recommended that people do to get their house ready to sell. Number 1 at 96%, decluttering. What?

96%. Just decluttering. Now there’s not much clutter behind me, but there are a few things if you’re watching me on YouTube. There are a few things behind me that I could probably, you know, get rid of, obviously. But, yeah, that’s the biggest thing.

And, really, decluttering the house will actually help you get ready for your new house because some of those things probably don’t belong there, need to find a home, or need to be donated or thrown out because you’re not using it. It’s just sitting there. Right? Now I’m talking about clutter, like, maybe you have a collection of things that you really maybe you’re downsizing and you can’t take with you anyway. Right?

Maybe it’s just a lot of toys that the kids have you have bought for the kids over the years, and they don’t play with every single one of them, do they? No. Even my kids after a while when, Christmas or birthdays came around, where we were the kind that were like, okay. You’ve outgrown this tea set. Now you’re a teenager.

You’re not gonna play with that. Let’s give it to another person who would love it and love it for their home. Right? So decluttering is the top first thing that you could possibly easily do. It doesn’t cost you a dime.

You actually may make some money if you sell some of the things, right, because you’re not using it, right, or donating it. Right? So the number one thing, decluttering. Number 2, the entire home cleaning, 88%. Okay?

And I mentioned, this in my last week’s podcast episode, like my moving tip of the week, is hiring a cleaning crew. So if you can hire a cleaning crew or have you or if you wanna do it yourself, you know, that’s something that you do to clean from top to bottom, everything. Get the house cleaned, get the carpets cleaned, the floors washed, everything, all that kind of stuff, the kitchen, especially the stove, the oven, those types of things. Yeah. Just cleaning makes a world of difference in presenting and showing off your home.

Excuse me. So just by cleaning those type the house is enough to help make the house look more presentable, and buyers will be more apt to, you know, make an offer versus they walk into the kitchen, they open up the stove, it’s caked in, you know, stuff that’s been baked in there, the microwave’s not the greatest looking, the appliances are just like, yeah. They’re not clean. And you walk in and you’re just like, okay. If they can’t maintain the, you know, the cleanliness, what else haven’t they maintained in the house?

Right? So you don’t want them thinking that. So just get the house cleaned. Again, something you can easily do yourself or hire a crew to come in and come do that. Okay?

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But that one is coming up gen starting January 2nd where you can post whatever pictures or questions you have. And then once a month, we go live on a Zoom call like this, and, you know, we talk about your questions, give you a chance to answer your questions, and I will answer your questions live right there. It’ll be recorded so that you can take a look later on if you wanna go listen to somebody else’s questions, but this is an opportunity to get your home staging questions answered in my home staging squad. So check out my Black Friday deals on my website, blue diamond staging and design.comforward/blackfridaydeals 2024. We’ll see you later.

Another, home improvement project, which is not really a project, is actually removing pets during your showings. Yeah. So please, please, please do not lock your animals in a bathroom, in a spare bedroom, in a closet. I’ve seen all of those, been through that when I’ve been through open houses and showings and things like that. And you’re just like, I I can’t go into that room.

I wanna see every single room in the house. But if there’s an animal in there, then you may not wanna go in there because you don’t know. They’re just like, you know, strangers. Like, well, they’re gonna be afraid of strangers too. Right?

Your animals, your pets. So just take them with you when you have showings in your house. Okay? Don’t lock them up in a bedroom. I know sometimes it can be difficult if you’re having a showing during the day when you’re at work and your pet’s at home.

Okay. Fine. It happens, but kinda minimize those things if you can. Okay? Especially during that time when your house is up on the market.

Alright? Another thing that you can do, is professional photos. They make a world of difference. They really do. I actually was just recently on a, website just looking at, houses for rent.

And the pictures you could tell, they were kinda fuzzy. The the sun was glaring in the rooms. It wasn’t taken in the best light either. So it looked kinda dark, but, you know, in professional photos when they’re taken, the photographer has their equipment. The lighting is in there, and it looks fantastic.

The and everyone’s kinda drawn to those pictures and go, oh, wow. That looks really nice and bright in there. Or I love what you know, they have this view out there. Whatever it is that makes the room just look nice and clean because you cleaned it. Right?

You took the time to do that. Now you wanna show it off. Right? So make sure those, professional photos are done and taken by a photographer who’s a real estate photographer, not with your iPhone. Okay?

Not with this. Right? Now we actually get to actual home improvements, and I’m talking about minor repairs is number 5 on the list. I know. We finally get to repairs.

The easier stuff before that, kinda kinda easier to do. Right? Minor repairs do take some time. 72% of real estate agents, recommend getting those taken care of. Now things like a hole in a screened in porch, I actually just recently had to do that.

We had a hole that was kinda ripping at the top. Come to find out it wasn’t ripping. It was just actually just had come out of the binding that was holding it. So we didn’t know that at the time. We replaced the whole screen and then realized, oh, well, we coulda just kinda pulled it tighter and gotten back up there.

But those types of things are minor repairs, things that you can mainly do yourself. Maybe you need to hire a professional to come in. Maybe you have broken tile in the kitchen or the bathroom. Burnt out light bulbs. Those are minor.

You can easily get those replaced and fix those. Maybe it’s a door handle that’s loose or a cabinet, the handle that’s missing. Right? You know, those have to make it all the same. Minor repairs.

Okay? Now our bathroom was a major thing. It was a minor, I guess, to the whole room renovation. So notice how it said minor repairs, not a whole house renovation because you will not get your money back. If we did a major rental like that, we would not have gotten our money back for that for definitely.

Right? So I talk about these types of tips in my free home staging guide. It’s called how to start staging your house now. If you are selling your home soon, you you wanna download this free guide because there, I share 10 home staging tips for you, home some home improvements that you can work on, and how you can influence buyers. Right?

So I’ll leave the link in the show notes for you to take a look at that. K. The next home improvement item, carpet cleaning. I kinda touched on that in the whole house cleaning when you’re talking about, you know, cleaning the bathrooms and the kitchens and things like that. Carpet cleaning’s at 71%.

Right? And if you lived in your house for a number of years, like, you know, 2, 3, 4 year and you don’t get your carpets cleaned every year or so, they’re gonna build up on stuff and things and, you know, just getting those cleaned is just a nice refresher, makes the house smell better, and everything looks great. Again, for those professional photos that you’re gonna take. Right? The next item, depersonalizing the home.

Yeah. What I mean by that are pictures. Like, I have a couple of personal photos there, diploma type things or whatnot. Yeah. All those things help sell your house faster.

Right? Because they don’t the buyers, when they come to your home, they don’t wanna see who lives there. They wanna imagine themselves living there. They don’t wanna see pictures of the family that’s gonna be sitting there, that’s gonna that lives there now. Right?

If you heard me from podcast, you know I’ve talked about this before. Just take them down. There may be a lot of them. I know I have a whole staircase full of pictures I need to take down when I have to either sell or rent this house. Right?

It’s really easy to do. Take them down. You know, that’s it’s the easiest thing you could possibly do to help sell your house faster. Just depersonalize it. Okay?

Now depersonalizing not not just means photos, but then also, my kids. If I had to ask them to depersonalize their room, yeah, there’d be a number of other things that would come down as well. And they know it. They’re just like, you’re making my room soulless. I actually quote, unquote, I swear to God that’s what they said, but they know that’s what it takes to get the house sold faster.

Right? Yes. To them, it’s soulless because it’s not their personality on the walls. It’s not their favorite things. They have jewelry carts filled with, you know, jewelry and tchotchkes and souvenirs they’ve collected and all those fun things.

Yeah. That those types of things are gonna have to go. You just need to show off the room, not the personality. Because, again, you don’t know the family that’s gonna be moving in. They may have a different personality.

You just need to show the room and how it can be used. It’s a bedroom. It looks really nice. It’s gonna look nice when you do personalize it. Okay?

The next item home improvement you can do are paint touch ups at 58%. Yeah. I know with moving when we moved, moved out to, Germany, we rented our house and then came back. When we moved back in, there were some scrapes and things like that on the wall from the previous tenants that I now have to touch up. Right?

Whether it’s the footboards, whether it’s the walls, especially on the staircases, those can be some paint touch ups that need to be done. I know I have some molded full floor molding to take care of in the kitchen, in the laundry room. Yeah. So those are my personal paint touch ups that I would have to work on. And it’s just a small little can of paint.

You don’t need a lot. Right? But those can go a long way when it comes when you have those, again, professional photos taken. And especially the next one is painting walls at 57%. Yeah.

This room and the bedroom, my husband picked previously. The wall color was a yellow wall color, but it was, like, not a pale yellow. It was a darker yellow. And it was it’s not a a good color to I actually had a difficult time decorating with that wall color, and he loves that color. He actually really loves more orange, but yellow is next on the rainbow scale.

Right? And it just spoke to him, but I’m like, let’s okay. We can do yellow, but maybe in, like, pillows, but not wall color. So painting the walls a neutral color is another home improvement that you can do to help sell your house faster. There was actually an article that just recently came out.

I’m trying to think if I find it. I’ll leave a link in the show notes, but it was the top four colors that buyers did not want to see in their house in the house when they were being sold. I know one of them was, like, a deep purple. Another one was black black walls. Even though it’s a trending thing, they don’t wanna see black walls, and red.

Yeah. And I forget the 4th color, but I’ll leave the link in the show notes so that you can take a look at that article and see if you have any of these wall colors. Oh, the other one was oh, now I remember. Neon green or anything neon. Yes.

Just too bright, too vibrant, too too much in a room. And I know we have fun with our kids when they’re younger that, you know, wanna have something fun in their room, And I’ve seen neon green painted walls in bedrooms, and it’s just too much. It really is. So painting the walls to tone it down to help sell the house is another thing that you can do to help get your house sold faster. K?

And the last one I wanna share with you, is landscaping the outdoor area at 50%. Now I talked about a little bit about this in episode 322 when I talk about 3 front porch home staging mistakes to avoid. You can go check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you listen to your, you know, podcast. But that’s another one where you need to take care of your current repeal. Alright?

Landscaping, take a look at your flower beds. Is the grass cut? You know, the bushes trimmed? Those types of things. Right?

So take a look at that as, you know, part of your home improvements that you’ll get your money back that will help you sell your house faster. Now Forbes did another did a great article about home improvements and ones that pay off and ones that don’t. And here are a few that they mentioned. And, again, I’ll leave the link in the show notes so you can follow in. But, the one that I thought was interesting was that it said recommended not to put in an addition, but just paint the walls instead.

I was like, wow. And I know people are staying in houses longer, so maybe your family’s growing, so you may have to do an addition, but that’s for when you’re staying in the house for a while. If you’re thinking of selling it, you painting the walls instead, you can expect a ROI of a 105% for the interior and 80% for the exterior. So back to the home improvements that I mentioned before in that other list from the, National Association of Realtors, yeah, painting the walls, you get a lot more money back for just painting the walls. Okay?

Don’t remodel the kitchen. Just update the fixtures. Okay? And in that one, you get a return on investment value of 55%. So you get about half of it back.

So just like, you know, I do with the bathroom, here it mentioned replacing the lighting and the faucet, the kitchen faucet, which can be, you know, a couple $100, not a lot. It’s not the whole kitchen remodel. Right? That can be 1,000 of dollars. Believe me, I know because we did one.

And time. Faucets and lighting take very little time a day, half a day. Okay? So don’t remodel the kitchen. Just update the fixtures.

Okay? And same thing with the bathrooms. Don’t rebuild the bathrooms or remodel them. Update the faucets and lighting just like the kitchenette. 55%, you get a return on investment on that one.

So while, yes, our bathroom, we did a little bit more than that, but the whole rest of the house had looked so good except for this master bath. And you’re like, okay. We really need to do just a little bit more. Plus the house was, a bit higher in the range. So we did spend more because our house was in the $900,000 range.

So make changes that make sense for your price point of your home. Alright? Don’t add granite countertops to a $100,000 house. Okay? It just doesn’t make sense.

You’re not gonna get your money back on that. Okay? So you wanna make sure that that any changes that you make are in line with the price point of your home. Right? If it’s a 3, $400,000 house, then, yeah, they probably expect granite in there.

Right? Or some kind of hard some kind of stone in the kitchen and the bathrooms. Okay? Because we have already done these things to help sell the house. Right?

We already did. We already remodeled the kitchen. You know? We did all that kind of stuff. The bathroom, like I said, it was a sore thumb that kinda stuck out.

But we also had a budget, which you should consider too if when you are selling your house, which people don’t think about. They’re like, I need to have a budget to sell my house. I need to spend money to sell off my house. Yes. Yes.

You do. And a good rule of thumb is 1 to 3% of your asking price. So if your home is listed at $400,000, you should reasonably set aside 4 to $7,000 in home improvements, like housecleaning. Right? Maybe you hire a cleaning crew.

A painter, maybe you have to paint some walls. Right? Staging, carpet cleaning, the photos, minor repairs, all that stuff. That’s gonna add up to, yeah, a cup $4,000. It could.

It’d be great as less, but you really need to have a budget and set that aside to get your house ready to sell. Okay? This will help you sell it faster. Right? If you leave your home as is, then the offers won’t come in as high as you would like or your listing price won’t be as high as you would like.

I had one client actually, no. It wasn’t a client. We sold our house, that Virginia house, for 900,000 dollars because we had done so many changes and had lived in it for 8 years. When we sold our house over asking price, you know, at $900,000, there was a house down the street, same style house, same cookie cutter type thing. It was a colonial, but they hadn’t done any updates.

And they thought that because our house sold for that amount that they should be able to get the same amount for theirs. Mm-mm. They couldn’t. You could look at the pictures of our pictures and their pictures. Even though we’re done professionally, they had old wallpaper on the walls.

They had same old type of fixtures. It just wasn’t going to sell for the same amount that ours did, and they thought they could because, well, ours did. Why wouldn’t theirs? Right? Mm-mm.

They actually had to lower the price. Well, actually, what they did instead was they actually then staged it. They actually did paint the rooms a more neutral color. They added you know, changed the furniture. They added a couple things and fixed it all up so that it was staged so that they could sell it to close to what we had.

Yeah. I know. Right? So you never know what it takes, and that’s why I wanna share with you these easy home improvements that you can make and do some some of them do yourself. Some of them you may have to call a handyman to come in, but I do wanna share with you those home improvements that you can do to get your house sold faster.

So let’s move on to the moving tip of the week, and I’m really excited about this one because this one is for an international move. And we just recently moved well, we moved to, Germany back in 2019. And at the time, we sold our vehicles, and then we were gonna buy vehicles over there because we won’t didn’t wanna have to deal with the shipping of them. Right? Well, we have friends of ours who just recently moved there and found out that because when they shipped their vehicle that the customs, especially in Germany specifically, were looking at their tires.

And you’re probably thinking, what’s wrong with the tires, tread or something like that? No. No. No. No.

There’s actually a rule, a law in Germany that certain times of the year between I wanna say it’s October or November to, Easter, basically. So it’s, like, from holiday to holiday, basically. They have a law that the tires have to be winter tires and rated for winter weather. Not that you had to have chains on them. That’s the next level up.

These are winter tires. They have summer tires and winter tires. Or you can do all season tires, but they have to have 3 peak mountain and a snowflake picture on the tire itself. If you don’t have those and you show up at customs in Germany, they’re gonna fine you if you try and drive on them because you can cause an accident. They won’t release your car.

And, oh, by the way, tires are more expensive overseas there than they are here in the states. So if you are moving internationally from the US specifically to Germany and even if you’re moving to Italy or England or someplace else in Europe, go take a look and see what their laws are for tires. In Germany, specifically, if you cause a accident in the winter time frame and they look at your tires, so not only will you get charged for the accident, you also get charged for the, not having the right tires on your car. I know. Right?

You’re probably thinking, oh, that’s ridiculous. I I yeah. No. Just save yourself some time and effort right now and get your tires changed now, get whatever rebates you can now before you leave to go over and move your vehicle to an overseas location. Okay?

So customers will look at it anyway. You may get lucky if you they don’t, but I’d rather be safe than sorry and be driving on tires that actually can help me out, especially in their kinda winters that Germany has. You know what I mean? Okay. So that’s my moving tip of the week.

But we’ve gone through a lot of home improvements that you can easily do yourself that will help sell your house. We’ve talked about decluttering being the biggest and easiest thing that you can do. Like I said, a lot of the times, there are things that you probably don’t need anymore, and it’ll probably be less stuff that you have to deal with on the other end. So deal with it now before you move over to your next house and then have to deal with it later. Yeah.

Right? We talked about cleaning, photos, minor repairs, those types of things. So take a look. I’d love to help you out. If you need help with staging, let me know.

But I hope this helps you understand better what you can do and how to get more return on investment on your house and get your house sold faster. Alright. We’ll talk to you later. Have a great week. Bye.

Thanks again for listening to this episode of the Creative Home Staging Show. I hope you got some good tips in this episode, and I hope you come back and listen for more. If you wanna connect and want to take action, there are some ways you can stay connected with us. Number 1, you can watch this episode on my YouTube channel at Blue Diamond Staging and Design to get more visuals. I like to share some short videos there as well.

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