When the time is right to sell your home, it’s important to take stock of your top selling features. Those features depend to some extent on the pricing, size, and geographic location of the house. Sometimes, all you may be lacking is a little remodeling or a fresh coat of paint. Here’s some examples.
Curb appeal
Starting from the outside in, “curb appeal” is the first impression your home makes on prospective buyers. If the exterior is not inviting, you may not get the opportunity to show off the fine interior features. Chipping paint, overgrown bushes, and patchy grass will be an immediate turn-off.
Landscaping should be well-manicured and gardens should be pruned and cleared of debris. Walkways should be swept or washed down with a hose before any open house. Overall, the exterior should look well-cared for.
Closet space
Ample closet space is always attractive for buyers. One can never have too much storage. When a house lacks this type of space, the home decorating website HGTV suggests taking half of your stuff out of the closets and neatly organizing what’s left.
Lighting
HGTV also suggests maximizing the lighting in your home. “After location, good lighting is the one thing that every buyer cites that they want in a home.” So clean the windows, change the lampshades, increase the wattage of your light bulbs, and push back the drapes to let the sunshine in.
Green features
Green features are becoming more and more important to savvy buyers in today’s market. According to Alyson McNutt in her FrontDoor.com blog, “If (the seller) knows what the terms FSC-certified, Low-VOC and passive heat gain mean,” he or she is ahead of the game.
However, for owners that are not up on the latest eco-friendly design elements, it’s useful to have a Realtor who understands how to communicate and sell-up these attractive features.
Necessary repairs
At Kiplinger, Cameron Huddleston notes the importance of making all the necessary repairs before you put your house on the market. “Even minor things, such as a leaky faucet or chipped paint on a baseboard, can suggest to buyers that you might not be maintaining the house well in other ways, too,” notes Huddleston.
Staging the house
She also cites research by the International Association of Home Staging Professionals that stresses the importance of “staging the house.” This involves deep cleaning, painting where needed, decluttering, depersonalizing, and arranging furnishings to make your house as appealing as possible. The goal here is to come as close as possible to making your home look like it could be featured in a magazine photo spread.
While location is always one of the key selling points, all these features need to be taken into consideration when you put out that “For Sale” sign. Whether you’re selling a penthouse in an urban metropolis or a cabin in the woods, attention to detail is going to distinguish one home from the competition.
A case in point is the remote rural development called “Black Warrior Community” in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. There, homes have been built on 1200 acres of pristine timberland, nestled up next to “one of the most beautiful rivers in Alabama.”
Billed as the “haven for equestrian lovers,” each one of their River Cottages has taken into account curb appeal, ample closet space, and even the inclusion of “eco-friendly materials, designed to blend with nature.” These homes make great investments, because when they are ready to be resold, they will already have many of these top selling features.