Experts: Spruce Up Home Before Sale in Spring

 

If you're thinking of selling your home in the spring, you should already be thinking about what you'll be doing with your home during the winter months. According to an article by Hubble Smith of the Las Vegas Review Journal, "A few hundred dollars invested in home renovations during the winter could return thousands of dollars in a spring sale."

You may already understand that home sales are typically slower during winter than in spring and summer. It makes sense to make some changes in the winter months, you'll be much more ready to sell by the time the warmer weather comes around.

Some projects take longer than others and can be more expensive. According the COO of forsalebyowner.com, "You want to get them out of the way before you start marketing your home in March, April and May. That's really the beginning of the selling season."

If you've had the urge to get working on something around the house, start with those projects that will add value to your home. Projects that mostly just make the house more to YOUR liking may not add to the home's value and can cost you unnecessary expenses, time and effort.

Some suggestions for value added efforts include:

• Repaint- interior and/or exterior, including the garage door
• Plant flowers that will bloom in spring and last through summer
• Clean up the yard
• Removing clutter from the house- it makes the house look larger

"They're all common sense things," he said, "just spending time and sitting down and putting some foresight into what you need. Look at it outside and see what it needs, maybe a fresh coat of paint, or the bushes and hedges need to be trimmed.

Doing the repair work yourself on your home can save a lot of money. Have you ever had repairs done on your car, and the labot cost more than the parts that needed to be replaced? Well, projects around the house to spruce it up is very similar.

The whole idea of do-it-yourself renovations is to save money. The same goes for selling a house online, Sambrotto said.

"Also, a big thing is pricing the house," Sambrotto said. "That requires some research and some thought. You don't want to price it a few days before you're going to sell."

 

Smith, Hubble. "Experts: Spruce up Home Before Sale in Spring." Las Vegas Review Journal 16 Jan 2005.