• Use neutral wall colors. If you’re getting ready to put a house on the market, don’t allow walls with chipped or cracked paint to go unmaintained. If you need to do more than a touch up, choose neutral colors. Sellers are well-advised to get out of their personal taste. Buyers want to be able to project their own ideas onto a space, and sellers can help with neutral wall colors. • Remove the “question marks” from your house. Some real estate agents call this the “what’s that?” factor, and whatever it is (1950s wallpaper, a broken front step or cracked threshold, green-and-blue vinyl flooring), fix it or remove it. EXAMPLES OF HOME IMPROVEMENTS THAT PAID OFF “If the roof is leaking, buyers won’t get beyond that.” That is a piece of truth that sellers simply cannot get around. No matter what upgrades or improvements have been made to make a house more appealing, and thus costlier, if the fundamental systems (furnace, AC, plumbing, electric, foundation, and roof) are in bad shape, so is the chance of a sale. There are, though, examples of home improvements that you can almost bank on returning a good ROI on your investment outlays. According to Remodeling magazine (http://www.remodeling.hw.net/) you are less likely to recoup your investment in a major kitchen or bathroom remodel than you are to get back what you spend on basic home maintenance such as new siding. Siding replacement recouped 92.8% of its cost, according to the study. The only home improvement likely to return more at resale was a minor (roughly $15,000) kitchen remodel, which returned 92.9%. Replacing roofs and windows was also high on the list, returning 80% or more at resale. In the hottest housing markets, investing in a kitchen or bath remodel is a wise investment, often returning more than 100% of the cost. In Baltimore, for instance, a $9,400-bathroom remodel recouped 182% of its cost at resale, according to Remodeling ’s 2004 study. The markets in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego also offered triple-digit returns on a bathroom remodel. Minor kitchen remodels (average cost: $15,273) also provided returns
84
Powered by FlippingBook