Deferring Maintenance
Face it, we are all guilty of “kicking the can down the road”. Life has its priorities, kids’ education, dentist visits, medical and the list goes on and on. Nonetheless, not taking care of your home’s issues will eventually come home to roost. This includes ignoring leaks, damaged roofing, plumbing problems, and electrical issues. Neglecting maintenance can lead to more significant and costly problems over time. Failing to address necessary repairs and maintenance issues can quickly erode your home’s value.
Over-Personalizing Your Home
We all get it. You love trains so you turn your bedroom into a massive model train display that includes pictures and painted walls including trains. Nice! I love trains, however, when it comes to selling your home, you need to put it back to the way it was when you bought the house. Buyers are not as excited about trains as you are, and they need to see them living in your home.
Highly personalized design choices, such as unique paint colors and modified layouts, can limit the appeal of your home to potential buyers. The more buyers you appeal to the more likely you will get the highest price for your home.
Curb Appeal Creates Excitement
The exterior view buyers see when they pull up to your home will create desire! Even when your home is not on the market. So, when your home does go on the market you will have people calling their agents demanding they see this home. It happens often! Anticipation and excitement will get you the most offers on your home. Curb appeal does matter. However, the interior needs to meet the curb appeal.
Oppositely, neglecting the exterior of your home can discourage potential buyers. This includes failing to maintain the lawn, letting landscaping become overgrown, or allowing the exterior to deteriorate will not attract buyers.
DIY-ing May not Save You Money –But cost you!
Just because they make it look easy on TV does not mean you can pull it off in real life. Tackling projects on your own can be a wonderful way to save money and force equity — unless the results are poorly done and non-conforming.
While DIY projects can save money, poorly executed renovations can decrease your home’s value. So, unless you know what you are doing. DON’T DO IT! Poor workmanship or cutting corners will cost when it comes to selling.
Updating Your HVAC & Windows
Today’s buyers are demanding and expect move in-condition. Delaying energy-saving and environmentally friendly features that reduce utility bills high on their list of must-haves. Buyers will sit down with their realtor and add up the cost to replace these items and of course, they overestimate, and you will need to negotiate and will eventually cost you.
Today’s environmentally conscious market, homes that are not energy-efficient can be less attractive to buyers. Failing to upgrade insulation, windows, or heating and cooling systems will hurt your value. Not only that but your home may take longer to sell and as the saying goes, “time is money.”
Unpermitted Structures
You may think you beat the local ordinances and taxes by doing your addition or outbuilding, but it will come back to bite you. I have sold and bought properties that had an unpermitted issue. Sometimes lenders will not make a loan on the property and the deal falls apart. In some cases, you may have to tear the structure down. Costs in time of money and time and heartache are great Unpermitted work can reduce your home’s value and make selling challenging! DON’T DO IT!
Setting an Unrealistic Asking Price
When you meet with your realtor ask for comps within your neighborhood, within the past 3 month’s sales, within 10% of the square footage of your home. You should base your selling price on the facts. It is that simple. Yes, you can factor in updates, upgrades, and conditions.
Overvaluing your home and not looking at the stats will only cause your home to sit on the market and then price reductions and eventually the sharks will come out and low ball the price you should have originally been priced. I see it happen time and time and time again.
You never want to sell yourself short, but high-balling can extend your listing’s dreaded days-on-market (DOM) timeline.
From neglecting basic upkeep to unrealistic pricing, it does not take more than a year for homeowners to sabotage their properties’ values — but they do not have to.
Let’s Get Moving On!!
John L. Ecklein, Realty One Group/Complete
www.findmeahome.net
916-308-7642
