CHAPTER 13 Tips for Increasing Your Home our Home's Value via Improvements ements $99 AND BELOW IDEAS • Get a professional perspective. Engage a real estate agent or interior designer to examine your home with an eye to improving sale value. Many real estate agents will do this as a courtesy, but an interior designer will likely require a consultation fee. Check with area designers; the hourly fee is normally less than $100. In that time, they can give ideas for necessary or desirable improvements. Even small improvements, such as paint colors or furniture placement, can go a long way toward improving the salability of your home. • Inspect it first. Not all home improvement projects are cosmetic. They may be less obvious than red brocade 1970s wallpaper in the bathroom, but deteriorating roofs, termite infestations, or outdated electrical systems will play a major role in your house sale. While a new roof will not add appreciably to market value, as a serviceable roof is expected by home shoppers, a dilapidated roof can quickly squelch the deal, or at least cost the seller the amount of a new roof off the listing price and cost you the trust of a buyer who now suspects you won’t have maintained other parts of the home as well. You can’t fix it if you don’t know it’s broken, so hire an inspector to
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