How to Make your Home Look Better

Whether they're looking for temporary house or a condo to buy in midtown Toronto, most buyers will only consider properties that are modern and move in ready. This means that if your home is older, outdated, or needs some work, you'll be at the bottom of the priority list for most buyers. Your home will sit on the market longer and net less in the final closing price than a similar home where the owner took the time to prepare the home for sale. If you're wondering what you can do to help your home sell, we here at Elegant Locks have the answer.

The trick, when preparing a home for sale, is not to spend more money than the renovations will net you in increased closing price, which means that you need to look for renovations with a high return on investment, or ROI. Generally speaking these are inexpensive cosmetic renovations such as painting or replacing the rusty old locks on your condo with an elegant modern keypad rather than functional ones like replacing the roof or installing a new hot water heater. Buyers would rather have a price deduction and do those renos themselves.

Keep in mind, as well, that it is often the monthly payment that drives the value of the house. Features like geothermal heating can lower the total heating expense for a house dramatically. Or even simply offering a really attractive mortgage rate with the house can make the difference

Another thing to remember is that when people are looking for homes that are move in ready, they mean homes that don't need any updates to look just the way they want, especially if they're on a limited time-frame to move from there to here. To get an idea of how to paint and renovate your house to make it appealing to buyers, you can read articles like ours on what buyers want, watch TV decorating and real estate shows, or read home magazines. Neutral colours and spare design is always a good way to go.

Sometimes the simplest way to improve a home in the eyes of a buyer is to get your stuff out of it. Over the years our homes tend to fill up with miscellaneous detritus, which makes them look smaller and shabbier. It also reminds buyers too forcefully that this is another family's home, especially if the buyers are not very imaginative. We can give you some tips on how to clear it all out - what to keep, what to ditch, and where to put it all while buyers are wandering through your home trying to picture themselves living there instead of you.

Overall, the goal is to get the same look that new homes achieve simply by being new. This will mean some work and expenditure on your end, but with any luck you'll be able to recoup the cost by generating a competition between buyers to purchase your perfect home. To read some Elegant Locks tips on what looks buyers want to see in homes, how to balance living in a home and readying it for sale, and what not to bother spending your money on, click through some of the topics in the navigation bar at the top of the page. If you want to locate information on choosing the right appliances we can help with that as well.

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