If you want your home to be worth top dollar someday, follow these simple tips on how you can increase your home’s value.
Your Boston home is one of your greatest investments. Whether you’re getting ready to sell or plan on living in it for another ten years, it’s not unusual if you want the value of your home to climb.
Luckily, you don’t need to transform your home HGTV-style to make an impact. Here, the trick is to know the easy ways that require little of your money, effort, and time to increase your home’s value.
From choosing the right color for your walls to thoughtfully revamping your yard, here are our top nine tips that will improve the value of your Boston abode. Let’s dive in!
- Give the Walls a Fresh Coat of Paint
Painting is the least expensive and easiest way for the biggest return. Regularly repainting the walls every few years breathes fresh life into a house, cleans up old scuffs, stains, splatters, and even neutralizes bad smells.
When it comes to painting, prioritize painting the entryway, kitchen, bathrooms, and foyer. Baths and kitchens are regarded as the most important parts of a house while the entryway and foyer help to create a positive first impression.
To increase your home’s value, pick warm natural colors, such as grays, golds, tans, beiges, and “greige” which is a blend of beige and gray. These colors make your indoor space look spacious and give a contemporary finish. Moreover, they make it easier for potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the space as neutral color paints go with almost anything. Avoid white as it may seem too stark of a color on a wall.
- Upgrade Your Gadgets
Tastes change quickly. What the latest design was five or ten years ago could now be outdated. These small, outdated features may not make or break your home sale, but modern smart home technology, like a Smart Heating System, can add great value to your Boston-area home. Moreover, many homebuyers want to move into houses full of new appliances and gadgets.
When you consider decking your home out with smart home gadgets, don’t go crazy with the latest, greatest, most expensive fad. Rather, go for investments in three categories: security, lights, and locks. Also, some easy updates that can make a huge difference include bathroom faucets, light switch plates, and outlet covers.
- Declutter the House Room by Room
If you want to sell your residence and are getting ready for the finishing touches, the simplest way to make it stand out is to declutter your home. With empty boxes for donations, large trash bags for junk, markers and sticky notes to label everything, and a kitchen timer to keep you on track, you’ll have the supplies you need to jump right in.
The first and most significant aspect of decluttering is to remove all personal effects. This includes all unusual décor, large collections on display, and family photos. When you remove personal items, keep the air fresh with a fragrant cleaning spray, and keep all countertops clutter-free, it’ll leave room for the buyers to imagine themselves decorating their new house after the deal. That will maximize your selling price!
Removing furniture that is crowding a room or furniture that is not in good shape instantly makes the room look larger and is another great way to increase a property’s value.
- Deep Clean the House
Doing a deep clean is a critical aspect of preparing the home for an open house. Buyers want to picture themselves living in your house, and a great way to create their blank canvas is to ensure your home is as clean as possible.
Make sure to clean around doors, paying special attention to areas like sliding door tracks, frames, and doorknobs. Also, make the windows sparkle by scrubbing each pane on the inside and outside of the windows. Launder or remove the drapes, and be sure to dust the blinds. Be sure to dust ceiling fans while caulking and scrubbing the bathrooms.
Steam cleaning carpets can be a big step to freshen the look of your home, especially if you have pets. It will also remove any pet odors that you may have become nose-blind to.
- Refinish Wood Flooring
Over the years, the fresh shine of a house begins to wear around the edges. Even if you take off your shoes at the door and clean the floor regularly, scratches, gouges, and discolorations may make your wooden floor look damaged and out of date. Buffing or replacing your old wood flooring is a great way to brighten up your home and add value.
- Give Your Kitchen Cabinets a Makeover
Kitchen remodels notoriously add value to a house. If a full redesign is out of the question, you can still give your kitchen a facelift by refacing the cabinets with white paint. Also, using the existing frame and cabinets, drawers and doors can be updated without being replaced.
- Improve Lighting Where Possible
The quality and type of light in your home can positively attract buyers or repel them. The simplest and most obvious is to make sure all blinds and curtains are open.
However, keep in mind that not all prospective buyers will visit the house during the day. Check all prominent light bulbs in the living room or dining room, replace the burnt-out or broken ones, and make sure all of them are working and that the fixture is clean and shiny. Also, do not forget to examine the lights in the bathrooms where buyers will imagine getting ready every morning.
In darker, less-inviting spaces, add additional lightings, such as bedside lamps, floor lamps, or desk lamps. However, harsh lighting can be a huge distraction to your home. Buyers want to see a soft light in bedrooms, so change out any light bulbs that are not of soft lighting.
- Add a Fireplace
A fireplace is an investment that offers a significant return, financially and otherwise. When you put your house on the market, potential buyers will love the warmth and charm that a fireplace adds to any room. Wood-burning fireplaces seem to be the most popular, but installing any kind of fireplace that fits seamlessly into your home will add value to your property.
- Update Your Exteriors
The outside of your home is as important as the inside when it comes to attracting buyers. Make a great first impression by replacing the front door with a new look and style, and seal the deal with an outdoor entertaining space in the back.
Also, upgrade the landscaping by planting some trees and trimming shrubs and bushes. These are simple and inexpensive methods that grab the attention of buyers and increase the value of your house.
The Bottom Line
While these easy modifications can enhance the comfort of your home while you’re living there, they can also increase your future list price when it comes time to sell. A home that gains value over time can provide a great financial leg up when you are ready to upgrade
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