Upgrade Your Home For Resale - Affordable, high ROI swaps
Over our years of selling homes in Maryland, we have learned how important it is to make a home’s aesthetic as high quality as possible (without breaking the bank!), and also how stressful, overwhelming, and confusing it can be to figure out without strong guidance. If you are a first time home seller or a veteran home seller, it’s always great to know what to focus on and what to forget when preparing your home for sale. And if you are not planning to sell anytime soon, that’s fine too! It’s always better to know what to spend on, and what to skip when it comes to your home.
After selling hundreds of listings in and around Baltimore County & City, we have have refined a process and system to help our selling clients maximize their home’s value with a white glove service that includes the following:
Specific direction on what upgrades to make - all focused on low out-of-pocket cost with high return on investment - and what upgrades to skip
Coordination of all contractors from A to Z - including acquiring estimates, discussing and making decisions with clients, and coordinating their work
Staging the property with The Beliveau Group’s own inventory of furniture and home accessories
People often ask what they should do to their home to make it more valuable for resale - even if resale is a long time from now - and we have found it best to break it down into 5 key areas - these are listed in order of priority and impact.
1: Curb Appeal / Front Exterior
2: Main Level Presentation
3: Kitchen
4: Bathrooms
5: Everything else!
CURB APPEAL
As a rule of thumb, any large-scale renovations performed strictly for resale value do not yield a 100% (or more than 100%) return on investment unless the work is done at a very steep discount. This includes investing in extensive landscaping which can be pricey. Therefore, in all of these categories, we always recommend lower-cost changes and “swap outs” of simple items.
The highest impact + lowest cost curb appeal upgrades for resale include the following:
Fresh mulch and basic colorful flowers in pots and gardens for front exterior landscaping
Full cleanup of anything messy or overgrown in the yard / gardens
Fresh paint to any exterior features such as front doors, door trim, mailbox posts, hand railings, etc.
A bold, sharp, freshly painted front door with nice looking hardware is a must! Every buyer stands and stares at the front door while their agent is opening the lockbox. They are forming their powerful first impression right here.
Swapping out dated light fixtures for new ones like these or old, worn out house numbers for ones like these can be affordable and instantly modernize the home
In some cases - homes with outdated or faded siding colors can benefit from a paint job - but make sure to discuss a bigger investment like that with an agent or designer before making that bigger investment!
MAIN LEVEL PRESENTATION
Buyers form an opinion from the front exterior impression of your home, and their opinion is cemented within 30 seconds of entering your home. Therefore, your main level being a “WOW” is key, because you can lose a buyer long before they notice your beautifully finished basement or other secondary features.
Key areas to focus on include:
Neutral, light paint: Homes that are bright feel bigger and cleaner, and homes with neutral colors make it easier for buyers to envision themselves living there (and neutral colors keep buyers from immediately calculating what it might cost them to repaint the house - we like to prevent that thought from even entering their minds). Furthermore, using paint colors that reflect the trends of today instantly makes your house seem more modern and valuable.
Evaluate your flooring: Depending on your flooring type and condition, it might make sense to make changes to key areas (like swapping out tile in a foyer or kitchen), refinish hardwoods, or upgrade carpet. This is very much case by case, but it’s important, and best to evaluate with a great realtor or designer.
Evaluate your fixtures: take a look at your light switch covers, outlet covers, cabinet hardware, kitchen hardware, and light fixtures (many favorites here) and look for opportunities to make easy swap outs that are on trend (and match!). Sometimes homes have lots of older 80’s gold fixtures and it’s an obvious move to swap to something newer, but sometimes it makes sense to consult a realtor or designer to make the call.
KITCHEN
Everyone knows that kitchens are extremely important in selling homes! A full kitchen renovation can be very expensive, so generally we recommend simpler, strategic changes depending on the features and layout of your kitchen. These are the most common strategic changes we recommend:
Paint - Evaluate both the wall color as well as if painting your cabinetry could make sense and modernize the space.
Fixtures - Evaluate cabinet hardware, light fixtures, plumbing hardware (one of our favorites here), and consider whether a comprehensive change-out would make sense and add value.
Backsplash - Sometimes the addition of a backsplash where you had none can be a good investment, or changing out an outdated backsplash to newer tile makes sense. This is case by case for sure!
Appliances - It is important for appliances to match in color, but not necessarily in brand (this is a FAQ!). All stainless is generally most preferable, but this is a good thing to evaluate with your agent or designer depending on other factors in the kitchen.
Beyond the above items, some people choose to upgrade countertops (especially if the countertop was a weak point in an otherwise upgraded kitchen ) or reface or replace cabinetry, which is often the biggest expense and something we recommend far less often.
BATHROOMS
Your master bathroom is key, although the following advice can be applied to all bathrooms at varying levels with great return on investment impact. You won’t be surprised to see that this closely mirrors the kitchen advice!
Paint - Look at your wall colors, any associated trim, and depending on your vanity/cabinetry, it could make sense to paint that as well. You might need an experienced realtor, designer, or contractor to advise on cabinetry painting.
Fixtures - Just like the kitchen, these are generally low cost + high impact changes. Many bathrooms are lovely yet have very outdated lighting - I recommend you evaluate your lighting and upgrade to something that pops! If you have outdated or rough looking plumbing fixtures, consider swapping to something like this or this. Of course, cabinetry hardware changes are the easiest and can be done yourself, while plumbing and lighting are a bit more complex.
We have seen clients have great success with (carefully) spray painting outdated gold trim on shower doors, so that’s a fun little tip if you’re dealing with that look!
Tile can be tricky - it often opens up a can of worms when pulling up toilets, vanities, etc. - that said, it is almost always a great idea to upgrade tile if you have something dated and can afford to do so. We like The Tile Shop in Lutherville, Maryland and Chesapeake Tile & Marble in Owings Mills, Maryland, and this is one of our all-time favorite styles: penny tile.
Sometimes a vanity is better off replaced than finessed with paint and hardware. You’d be shocked what deals you can find if you hunt online. This is a good consideration if you have the budget for it.
While you can get more extensive than the above list, it gets more expensive, so be thoughtful about your choices here!
EVERYTHING ELSE
Everything else is called everything else for a reason! People often ask about items that are more obscure when compared to the above list - examples of those questions include “Should I install closet organizers?” “Should I dry wall my garage?” and “Should I finish my basement?”
Generally, our answer is definitely no, unless you have exhausted the above list to its maximum and have more time, energy and budget for finessing - in which case, go for it! Just be aware that going beyond the key areas outlined here often does not yield nearly as strong as an ROI which can be frustrating when you start working on your sale and don’t get a result.
There are some “everything else” items that are certainly valuable and could be very important on a case by case basis - sometimes a home is quite nice and random items stick out like a sore thumb. Back yard exterior items can be important too - we often recommend similar advice to front curb appeal including touching up paint, full landscaping cleanups, power washing decks and siding, and other strategic updates.
That said, if you stick with the first four priority areas mentioned here, you can’t lose!
If you have more real estate questions or simply want to get connected with TBG, reach out. We’d love to talk all things home sale with you! hello@thebeliveaugroup.com