It’s true, Halifax home buyers love to see totally renovated kitchens and bathrooms in the houses they want to buy. When done right, home improvements like this modernize the two rooms that people spend a good bit of their day in. These kitchen and bathroom renovations tend to be costly, so when buyers see homes with outdated kitchens or bathrooms, they automatically think of how much it would cost to make the upgrades after they buy.
You Don’t Always Need A Gut Job
If you are selling a house, does this mean you must do a total gut job for thousands of dollars to make your home salable? The answer to this question depends on a couple of things. What condition is your kitchen or bathroom in now? If either room looks like a sad tribute to the 1950s, you might consider biting the bullet for a more extensive redo. If you live in an upscale neighborhood where most houses have knocked down walls to create popular open floor plans with large gourmet kitchens or transformed dingy bathrooms into relaxing spas, you will hurt resale value if you don’t undertake a major renovation.
For most homeowners, a few hundred dollars of upgrades and some elbow grease should improve either a kitchen or bathroom. The reality is that, even on high-end upgrades, what you choose will not appeal to all buyers. If you have chosen to upgrade your room with the style or materials that a particular buyer dislikes, that buyer may fear that the listing price of the house reflects upgrades they want to rip out. By choosing simple cosmetic improvements, you can make the room looked like a well-prepared canvas for a new buyer’s taste. In many cases, what you have done will appear to be move-in ready to many buyers with budget updates.
Necessary Steps To Budget Friendly Updates
• Remove outdated wallpaper, if necessary, and paint the room a neutral color that complements the rest of the house. White is viewed as too bland for the walls these days, but white trim always gives a crisp clean feeling to the room.
• Say goodbye to outdated flooring. Old, stained, chipped, or scratched flooring not only ages the house, but can make it look unsanitary. Your investment in current flooring will be well worth it. You goal is to improve the value of the home, so avoid stick on tiles or other cheap solutions that may detract from your home.
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• When you have tile in bathrooms or even in kitchens, replace broken or cracked tiles and freshen the grout or caulking. Even if the tiles are intact, make sure the grout and caulking are free of mildew stains.
• In the bathroom, splurge on a new shower curtain liner. Clean your outer fabric curtain too.
• If you have old faucets in either room, consider replacing them to give the rooms a more modern look. If you choose to keep the old faucets, repair any leaks and shine all the hardware to make them look bright and new.
• Make sure your sinks are clean and free of stains. A new kitchen sink may cost a couple hundred dollars, but will drastically improve the appearance of your kitchen.
• If your fixtures are a pastel color popular in decades past, consider having your tub reglazed white and replacing the sink and toilet. An upgraded toilet also offers efficiency you can emphasize in this era where “greenness” is an important asset in a home.
• Kitchen or bathroom cabinets look old and worn? If they are structurally in good shape, you can paint them and replace the hardware for cost-effective makeover. If they need more help, you can replace the doors and paint or refinish the outer shells.
• Countertops can be an expensive investment, but scratched or worn ones detract from your kitchen. Even though you might not want to spend thousands of dollars for stone countertops on a limited budget, there are alternatives that enhance appearance without busting the budget.
• A lean, clean counter makes the area look more spacious. If you enjoy displaying appliances and knickknacks on kitchen counters or an array of cosmetics on your bathroom counter, put these things away during the sales process.
• Thoroughly clean windows, lighting fixtures, mirrors, and bulbs that can accumulate dust and dirt. Make sure your bath and kitchen have the pleasant smell of clean.
• Light sells! Once you have cleaned your windows, make sure that the window treatments led in natural light while preserving privacy.
Home Selling Basics
Even if you don’t want to add high-end upgrades to your kitchen or bathroom, making the areas appear fresh and clean are essential. A good Realtor® will tell you that these are the basics to make your home a candidate for quick sale.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
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Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
