The kids are back in school, and we have a few weeks before we enter the craziness of the holiday season. This is a perfect time to identify one or two main projects that you wish to tackle before the year is over.
If your house is on the market, you have about three weeks before the buyers begin to slow their shopping as they start preparing for their own holiday season. No one wants to move during Christmas, and with most closings taking 30 to 60 days, we’re seeing that window for buying or selling a house closing.
So, what are some easy tasks that you can do to help increase your home’s value and help it to sell more quickly?
Grout Paint
When you go to sell your house, you are immediately struck by how dirty your grout is. There is something about black grout that makes you wonder why anyone would buy your place.
Now, most people are used to floors looking that way, and won’t give it another glance.
One way that you can try to brighten your grout is to scrape it and reseal it manually. Using a drill with a wire brush, you can try to remove the dirt physically. (Tool Tally also recommends using bleach or peroxide to clean grout.)
Scraping grout turns out to be a cumbersome, slow, and mostly inefficient task.
A much easier approach is to paint and reseal your grout with a specially designed grout paint. The paint manufacturer still recommends that you thoroughly sweep your floor and that you spend some time scrubbing the grout to make sure there is no loose debris.
Then, using a toothbrush or small foam brush, you can easily repaint your grout with a bottle of grout paint.
The results are instantaneous and make the entire room feel brighter and cleaner.
Wall Paint
If you haven’t given your walls a fresh coat, it might be time to grit your teeth and get out the rollers.
The tricky thing when painting your walls is the quality of the paint. It is tempting to buy the cheapest stuff out there. After all, you aren’t going to live there for much longer!
However, high-end paints apply faster and look better. Brands like Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore offer entry-level paint products that go on nicely and will hold up for years.
Investing a little extra on the type of paint itself will save you time in covering up thin spots and redoing your work.
Laminate Flooring
This task requires you to be a little bit more committed. If you are already offering a “carpet budget” to prospective buyers, then it might be worthwhile to recognize that your carpet is ready to be replaced.
Flooring sets the tone for your house. Even the nicest houses will struggle to sell with dingy carpet. Homeowners like the illusion of buying a new house, but the carpeting tells the real story.
If a professional carpet cleaning company can’t infuse new life into your floors, then consider replacing them.
Luxury Plank Vinyl Laminate flooring is a new product that is attracting a lot of attention right now. It is water-resistant and can be installed by homeowners.
The end result is a bright, clean, open, look.
If you want your house to step into the modern era, check into hor hard it would be to upgrade to luxury vinyl planking.
Pressure Washing
This is an extremely cheap and easy upgrade that often goes overlooked.
If you have vinyl siding, then a quick pressure washing will make all of the difference. It gives you a beautiful, clean exterior.
Additionally, pressure washing your back deck and fence will do a lot to make your house look sharp and attractive. While you are at it, spend some time cleaning the gutters and trimming back bushes. There are only a few days left in summer, and your prospective buyers will notice how clean the yard is.
Get Packing
Call it taking action on faith. Or call it the Marie Kondo effect. But getting the non-essentials out of your house can make a big difference to prospective buyers.
One of the biggest tips you can consider is to invest in a nearby storage unit. Begin packing your house down to the non-essentials. Scale down to the most important 80% of the items that you need to use on a daily basis.
What you will find by getting 20% of your stuff out of the house is that it is much more open and brighter. It is also easier to clean for last-minute walk-throughs.
As a bonus, you’ll already be mostly packed when it comes time to move.
Create Spaces To Sit
Your home has areas that you love relaxing in. Is it the kitchen? Is it the front porch?
Invest in nice chairs for those areas and encourage your real estate agent to have people enjoy that space.
When a prospective buyer can sit somewhere and gain an appreciation for that space, they are more likely to feel at home and to envision themself there.
It may even be that you never sit on that swinging bench. However, if it has a good view, your buyers will love sitting there and falling in love with the place.
By staging an area for them to sit and appreciate your property, you are giving your house one more chance to sell.