Use neutral wall colours. 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 colours. 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 colours. 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 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
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