Home Renovations That Can Help (Or Hurt) A Sale Price

Home renovation can be tricky. Most people make renovations to please themselves, but those renovations don’t necessarily make the home more valuable in terms of its sale price. The money that was sunk into the renovations might not be recouped when it’s time to sell. On the other hand, some people make renovations to please themselves, but also with a view to improving the home’s sale price if they decide to put the home on the market at a later date. But what renovations are the most valuable in terms of resale value?

1) The Kitchen

In virtually any home, the number one renovation that improves resale value is modernizing the kitchen. This is particularly true in an older home that hasn’t been updated, but most homes built last century will benefit from a kitchen remodel. Unless the kitchen needs a serious update, even a few hundred dollars spent can up the home’s resale value considerably. Fix leaky faucets and make other minor repairs, add a fresh coat of paint, new curtains and light fixtures, and updated cabinet hardware. Minor additions like these give the kitchen a fresh and clean look that makes it feel new even if it’s not.

2) The Bathroom

The same principles apply in the bathroom—kitchen and bathroom are typically the two rooms that buyers want to see are clean, modern, and well-maintained, so these are the rooms where a little money spent can have the greatest impact. Fresh paint, new faucets and fixtures, resealing the bathtub and sink, updating the mirror and vanity, can all make a big impression.

3) New Paint

A fresh coat of paint in key rooms ups buyer interest, and it’ll make a particularly big difference if your current home’s color scheme is bright, unfashionable, or otherwise undesirable. Neutral colors are best, because they’re not distracting, and they help potential buyers envision what their possessions will look like in the space.

4) Spruce up the Outdoors

A tidy garden adds curb appeal, and it can add value too, simply because it helps show the house off to good advantage. Prune trees and bushes and put things in order, and perform any minor maintenance tasks like cleaning gutters.

5) Add a Bedroom

Adding a bedroom isn’t exactly a minor renovation—unless you already have that room in the house. If the house has a den or an extra living room that’s suitable for conversion, on the other hand, adding a simple closet system instantly converts that den into a bedroom, and can add a healthy chunk to the sale price.

Renovations That Don’t Add Value

There are also a few renovations that many people believe add significant resale value to a home, but actually aren’t all that valuable. An article at Forbes.com pinpoints half a dozen examples that, while they’re expensive to install, tend not to pay for themselves when it comes time to sell up.

• Swimming pools: they’re fun when you’re at someone else’s house, but the effort they require to maintain means that many people just don’t want one at their own home.
  
  
• Overbuilding: when you overbuild in comparison to other homes in the neighborhood, the lower value of the surrounding homes drags down the value of yours.
  
  
• Landscaping: A well-kept yard is a winning bet, but an extensive garden isn’t, simply because many potential buyers are turned off by the heavy maintenance an elaborate garden requires.
  
  
• High-end upgrades: expensive touches like hand-made tiles or stainless steel appliances don’t necessarily add value if the rest of the home isn’t up to the same standard.
  
  
• Specific-use upgrades: A media room, or any other room with a highly specific use, may not add value, as most home buyers aren’t specifically looking for that particular feature. It’s also worth noting that upgrades like disability access features tend not to add value due to their highly specific nature, even if they cost a significant amount of money to install.
  
  
• Wall to Wall Carpet: Carpeting is one of those love-it-or-hate it things, and the difficulty of maintaining expensive carpeting means that many home buyers aren’t swayed by the idea of buying a home with new carpet. In fact, for a seller it’s usually more profitable to restore wood flooring than it is to install new carpet. Alternatively, instead of installing new carpet, treat your existing carpets to a deep cleaning.
  
  

Keeping Your House Show Ready

Having your house on the market while you’re living in it can be a stressful time. You still have to live. The dog still puts muddy prints on your freshly mopped floor. The kids still race down the hallway bumping into your freshly painted walls. Construction down the way still lays that fine layer of dust on your mini-blinds.

The best advice from people that instinctively know how to keep a house ready to show is:

• Clean as you go: As you’re cooking, give the counters a swipe with a damp sponge and don’t leave the dishes for later. While your home in on the market,later can become the next morning and then you receive a call while you’re at work that a very interested buyer only has today to look at your house, and now you're trying to figure out how to race home from work to wash those dishes. Put a squeegee in the shower and give the glass doors and walls a swipe every time you take one.
• Less is easier: Having less stuff means there is less to get out, so less to put away. When you’re house is showing, pack away all those knick-knacks that collect dust. Remove extra furniture so that cleaning the floor is easier.
• Use containers: Give your kids lidded containers for their stuff. At the end of the day, have them collect all of their things—toys, video games, iPods, etc.—and put them away in their container. They can keep it in their closet or you can stack them away in the laundry room…whatever works for your space.
• Use tricks: Okay, sometimes you just can’t keep everything clean all the time, so you have to resort to some quick ways to hide the mess. Cover furniture with blankets or throws to keep pet hair and kids messes off the upholstery. Then, you can just grab the blanket or throw, fold it up and hide it in the washer. Or, keep a Swiffer on hand to quickly gather up dust, pet hair or those muddy footprints.
• Have a plan: When you’re living with the constant need to have a clean home, you have to adjust how you think about cleaning. Many of us let the little messes pile up because we know we’ll get to it on the weekend. In fact, in many homes an entire Saturday morning can be set aside for cleaning. But when your house is on the market, you can’t let things wait for Saturday, so have a plan for just 20 minutes a day to pick up, put away, wipe down and surface clean.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

Your real estate agent knows that you’re living in the house. They can help you decide which are the big things that you need to concentrate on and which are the small things that won’t make a difference to a sale. We’re here to help, so ask us!

5 Easy Ways to Boost Your Curb Appeal

Whether you're getting ready to sell your home or you just want it to look good enhancing your home's curb appeal is one of the ways to boost our home's value. The best thing about curb appeal is that you can enhance it without breaking the budget. Curb appeal can come cheap, here are five tips for an inexpensive makeover.

1. Add a layer of mulch. A fresh layer of mulch was mentioned the most as a cheap way to improve the look of your yard. Mulch will cover up a multitude of problem areas. But experts warn to avoid red mulch which can clash with flower gardens or other landscaping. When picking mulch keep in mind that the darker the color the better. Save more by getting it for free. Your local landfill probably offers free mulch as long as you will haul it away.

2. Focus on your front door. Updating your door's handle and deadbolt set with a modern-looking option is a great visual upgrade, and it can be a practical improvement, too. While you're at it, see if your doorbell, light fixtures and the door's kick plate could be replaced. Don't forget to glance up to check for cobwebs on the front porch.

3. Talk a walk. Walk to the end of your driveway and look at you house. Are there oils stains in the driveway? Is there mold on the mailbox? Grime on the front door? Is the siding green with algae? You can often clean these types of things with cleaners you can find at the hardware store. Rent or borrow a pressure washer and thoroughly clean your home's exterior. You can use the pressure washer to clean your siding, foundation, patio, walkways, driveways, stairs, decks and porch. Take a bucket and scrub brush to your front door, mailbox and any other areas that need gentler cleaning.

4. Add a color to your home's palette. If your home's paint job is decent but a little boring, see if you can add a second accent color to the window casements, shutters and/or front door.

5. Mow, trim, prune and weed. A manicured lawn and weeded garden beds shows you care and take pride in your home. A little thinning of the trees and shrubs will open up the house and make the good areas more visible. There is nothing worse than a house that looks overgrown. Avoid putting too much garden art in the front yard, instead use colorful flowers to add accent. If you have to have your little gnomes you can save them for the backyard.

Questions To Ask Any Realtor You Hire

Buying or selling a home can be daunting. In fact, it can be a full-time job. For many people, it makes sense to hire an expert to handle the time-consuming tasks and the nitty-gritty details. Real estate agents can take work off your hands and also help you get a better deal.

Since your house is one of the biggest investments you'll ever make, no one should judge you for being more than a little choosy about whom you hire to help sell or buy it. Find an agent whose philosophy and methods align with your preferences.

Be prepared to interview at least two or three agents to find the right person. Asking the right questions will help you gain insight into the agent's capabilities and personality. Questions you should ask:

• What is the list to sale price ratio for your listings?
• Do you rank in the top 1% of agents in your county?
• May I see testimonials from your past clients?
• What percentage of your companies’ listings sells rather than expire?
• What areas or townships do you specialize in?
• What is the current absorption rate in our market right now?
• What is the average number of days on the market?
• Are we in a buyer’s or seller’s market? Explain.
• What do I need to do to prepare my house to sell?
• Isn’t my house worth more than the foreclosure down the street?

In the end, it’s important to hire a real estate agent you think will seek out your best interests. Even gut feelings can tell you something. You don't want to entrust such an important transaction to someone who doesn't make you feel comfortable.

Tips For Adding Resale Value

When you’re in a hurry to sell, you need top dollar, try some of these tips:

• Have us evaluate your home. As real estate professionals, we know what sells and what doesn’t and we can help you spend your money wisely to get the best return

• Have a home inspection. A certified home inspector can point out areas that need correcting, fixing or removing.

• Paint walls a neutral but modern color. Gone are the days of all white walls, but sticking to taupe and gray tones gives a hint of freshness while remaining timeless.

• Request a home energy audit. Most utility companies offer this service. Sometimes simple lighting changes or additions to insulation give your home a higher energy rating and make it more attractive to buyers.

• Clean up landscaping. Curb appeal is very important to selling your home. Add new mulch, clean up flowerbeds and add new flowers and shrubs, if possible.

• Remove dated wallpaper. Simple removing outdated, stained, peeling, or faded wallpaper from kitchens, baths and bedrooms gives the home a fresher, less outmoded look. Instead of replacing it with new wallpaper, simply finish and paint the area with a neutral color in an appropriate finish.

• Replace light fixtures. Ceiling and vanity lights that you replace with high-efficiency fixtures upgrades your home with very little expense and bring your home into the compact fluorescent era. Upgrading exterior lights with automatic lighting options adds a safety factor to your home’s exterior while reducing energy costs.

• Expose your hardwood. If you have hardwood flooring hiding underneath stained, faded or worn carpeting, remove the carpeting and expose the hardwood. If you can refinish the floor, do so, but even if you cannot, you can use some quick fix options to make your wood floors look inviting when your home is showing.

When in doubt, refer to number one above: call us at (317) 271-1700. We’ll help you determine the best options for your home.

The Value of Home Staging

Twenty years ago, nobody worried about staging their home before putting it on the market. Giving it a good scrubbing and hiding the kitty litter box was considered sufficient preparation for putting out the "For Sale" sign.

But all that has changed, as more and more home sellers in many parts of the United States enlist the services of home stagers. As with many trends, once the standards have been raised, it's hard to go back.

The Castetter Group recommends staging your home to help people fall in love with your place so they will want to buy it. A few things a stager might do to get your house ready for sale:

• Identify specific ways to highlight your home's best features and compensate for its shortcomings. For example, the stager might recommend removing curtains from a window that has a great view; or, in a small bedroom, replacing the double bed with a twin or even a baby's crib, in order to make the space look larger.
• Recommend which items of your furniture and household possessions should stay in the house and which should be removed before an open house or showing. Be prepared to have to either move or place into storage the majority of your possessions, so as to de-clutter and depersonalize your house. This will, of course, be much easier if you've already moved into your next abode.
• Bring in furniture, artwork, curtains, carpets, pillows, and even artful-yet-homey objects like a bowl of oranges (either real or high-quality fakes!), potted orchids, and a welcoming doormat. Many stagers keep warehouses of this stuff, all carefully matched and chosen to make your house feel like a place where people can live their dream life.
• Add finishing touches before an open house or major showing. For example, the stager might add fresh flowers, or put a pie in the oven on low heat in order to waft delicious aromas through the house.

Once you’re ready to put your house on the market, give us a call and we can help connect you with a quality home stager and get your house sold!

3 Reasons Your Home Didn't Sell

If you’ve been trying to sell your home and haven’t gotten the results you wanted, a number of factors could be to blame.

It can be frustrating wondering why someone didn’t want to purchase your lovely home. Many articles offer numerous reasons why, but it really comes down to three main problems.

1. Over Pricing

Every home will sell at a market appropriate price. A willing buyer sets the price. Not the seller (you), not your Realtor, not what your neighbor sold their home for, not what you paid plus what you put into repairs, not what the tax assessor says its worth and not what you owe your bank.

When you list your home with The Castetter Group, we will use our extensive resources to get a superior home evaluation, check the comparables in your neighborhood as well as stay on top of the market conditions.

2. Ineffective Marketing

Reaching today’s homebuyer is much different than it was even ten years ago. The Internet has given us a new way to reach prospective buyers. But, we can’t forget about traditional methods of marketing either.

Your home needs to have a major online presence. Our listings are syndicated to more than 300 local and international real estate search sites, so you’re home is sure to be found anywhere a buyer is looking.

We also offer virtual tours (which are also mobile optimized) and integrate social media into your online marketing.

Castetter Group agents also use traditional means of marketing for your home with advertising and brochures.

3. Poor Condition

According to the 2010 NAR Study of Buyers and Sellers, buyers look at 15 homes before they choose one. From experience, we know buyers comparison shop and you want your home to stand out as the best value of every home on the market.

Buyers have a hard time visualizing how they will live in your home. In fact, only 10% of buyers can visualize a home’s potential. We will assess your home’s condition and make recommendations on improvements.

Make your home in as close to move-in condition as you can. Buyers are willing to spend more money on a home they perceive as move-in ready.

When you’re ready to sell your home, give us a call or shoot us an email! We’ll help you come up with a new game plan, including a timeline, for getting your home sold once and for all.