Just about all of us have seen our home values fall to some degree in the past year. Rather than wait for them to naturally increase, you can take charge and try to generate some of that value yourself. Here are some simple things you can do to increase your home’s value.
-Renovate the kitchen: An impressive kitchen wows everyone, doesn’t it? And a lot of this stuff can be handled by any DIY handyman with a little bit of gumption. From appliances to lighting, this can be done fairly inexpensively just by paying for materials from the hardware store. Re-tile your counters, swap out your fixtures, put in energy-efficient lighting. Manufacturers sometimes sell just the panels for appliances, and a modern-looking panel can look impressive for cheap.
-Renovate bathrooms: It all starts with cleaning, but from there? A trip to Home Depot could get you DIY materials for toilets, mirrors, sinks, even tubs and showers. If you’re not looking to get into detailed plumbing work, replacing toilets and sinks are still fairly reasonable, and you look at things like lighting and cabinets to fix up.
-A home check-up: The worst thing that could happen is if your home is under inspection and you find problems in wiring or plumbing. If you get this taken care of prior to putting your house on the market, you’ll be worry-free when it comes to this, and you’ll also have the opportunity to replace/clean-up any problems. Boasting about new wiring or plumbing is a strong selling point and it makes inspections far easier.
-Yard work: We all hated doing yard work as kids, but now it comes with something much more than an allowance. From paving stones to retaining walls to flower beds, a lot of this can be done by yourself as long as you’re willing to put in the effort. You don’t even necessarily have to have a green thumb, as you can look at things like fountains and patio treatments instead of an overload of plants. Strong, attractive structural items like these can increase a home’s value, and there’s no doubt about the curbside appeal of a pretty garden.
The views published here are the opinions of the writer and are not a substitute for legal counsel.
Israel Gonzalez
Real Estate Broker-Hollister CA
831-636-8858
Click here to contact me by email
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I want to start blogging too, what do you think, which blog platform is good for beginner?
WordPress is really good for beginners. You could also sign up on posterous and it will allow you to choose more than one blogging site. Then when you post on posterous it can autopost to the other blog sites. I use posterous as well and makes blogging much easier.