A boosted home value is important and we have several excellent guides to help you. Everything from designing the best curb appeal to understanding the most profitable areas of investment for a potential return when you come to sell. This is an essential part of being a homeowner and maximizing or fortifying your place on the property ladder.
That said, despite all your efforts, investments, renovations and plans, none of that really matters if no one thinks your selling price is reasonable. That doesn’t mean you have to lower your standards for a potential purpose. Houses can stay on the market for a while before they redeem their worth with a willing buyer.
However, having a worthwhile valuation is always helpful. Especially if it’s been given by an experienced real estate agent with a trusted pedigree and clients that regularly visit their portfolio. So, it’s not always about if you think the house is worthwhile. It is also about how much a potential professional would want to sell it for.
In this post, we’ll discuss about how to maximize that valuation, not just the vague idea of a home’s value on your own terms even if you halve a boosted home value.
Tidying & Organization
While your house doesn’t have to look like a perfect showroom (there’s no shame in your home looking lived-in). It’s good to make sure everything is in place before your appraiser comes to visit. And certainly if you’re welcoming house tours or buyer visits.
Making sure your garden tools are picked up and placed in storage, that garden furniture is clean, that your children’s toys are packed away and that throws or carpets are folded and properly oriented makes a big difference.
It can also be worth dusting and cleaning carpets. Those will often have the biggest impact on how a home space feels.
That’s not to say it’s fair your home can be judged on those metrics. It’s simply that the impression a home gives cannot be divorced from the objective viewpoint of the amenities available. Appraisers not only remain impartial related to the market value of your home but how much most potential buyers, from their years of experience and intimacy with the present market trends, would be willing to pay for it.
Resolve Cheap, Visible Home Repairs
Repairing small, tired issues across your household can be key. That might be as simple as fixing a hairline crack in a window looking out from your attic. It could mean replacing a cracked paving stone. Perhaps one of your children accidentally fell into a staircase banister pillar and broke it. Now you need to replace it.
As mentioned above, the small aesthetic upgrades do help you present your home more favorably. It can also deter the “how much investment does this household need to be perfectly functional” line of reasoning. Especially when there’s no real reason to think that should be relevant.
Use Real Estate Agents Experienced In Your Field
It’s good to use local real estate agents experienced in your area. But you may also have certain services with particular specialist experience near you, too. Some might help sell properties with large amounts of excess land. Perhaps even splitting these into lots for maximum resale potential and value.
Perhaps your property is classed as luxury real estate given its location and development. As such, you need agents that can help with that value.
Maybe your home is highly unique and historical. As such you need someone able to present that value in the correct manner. Be shrewd in who you partner with, because it may define how accurate your valuation is.
Gauging Market Trends
Unfortunately, it’s not just how good your home is, but the time in which you sell it that counts. As you can imagine, market trends can determine the cost of your property more than anything else.
Over time, property prices tend to go up depending on the level of supply. In many countries it is a continual cause for concern. So you may be able to make use of that on your own terms.
If the market looks like it’s in a particularly bad slump due to inflation, you may just renovate and decide to sell next year. If you have the flexibility to give yourself that space, you may benefit, sometimes up to and over 20% compared to slump periods.
You can gauge the general trends of market value in your area by inspecting other properties and how much they’re selling for. Especially directly on your street, or those with similar number of bathrooms, bedrooms and amenities to you.
It’s a shame you have to contend with this. But supply, demand, and variable price influences, affect every other asset, and as such real estate is certainly part of that.
Virtual Tours & Photography
The better you can present your property, the more interest it will attract. The more interest it attracts, the more likely you are to have someone offer your asking price.
Real estate agents will want to take their own photographs so they can independently verify the real estate they’re advertising to others is accurate and a fair representation of your property.
That doesn’t mean you can’t arrange the lighting to work best for photography. Bright interiors and soft lighting to fill out but not eliminate shadows can work best.
You can also use virtual tours to ensure remote viewers can see your home without having to visit it in person, potentially putting an offer in.
Consider Self-Storage Services
Everyone has too much stuff in their household, it’s part of being a homeowner. That said, for now, you’re hoping to let your home shine and appeal to people.
You want them to imagine their own possessions in your house. Moreover, if you can’t properly show spaces like the attic because of how many boxes you have stored there, this can be damaging to the end appraisal.
So, make sure to consider self-storage services if you can. Even storing your items for a couple of weeks while you have the home appraised and take viewings can be helpful. It will give you some very necessary and literal breathing room.
With this advice, we hope you can not only invest in your home, but boost its end valuation too.