When most people start thinking about selling their Bakersfield home, they start thinking about what they need to do to get the most out of their property. After all, if you have the time and money to list on the market for top dollar, you want to get the best bang for your buck. While upgrades can be an excellent way to increase the value of your home, some improvements just aren’t worth their own cost and can be a big waste of time and money.
Here are 3 upgrades that we think you should invest in, and 3 that you should just forget about altogether, as they just aren’t worth the cost and effort.
3 Upgrades To Invest In:
Do: Paint
This is probably the best thing you can do before you sell your house. It is such a cheap way to increase the value of your home by thousands of dollars. A fresh clean look for a property is so much more appealing to buyers than something that looks dirty and in disrepair. If the paint is dirty in your home after years of wear and tear, prospective buyers might start wondering what else is not in perfect shape as well. This will lead to discounted offers, and wasted appointments.
Even after paying a professional painting company, the cost will still be worth the value that you will get out of a newly painted house. Unless your house is already pristine and their are no marks at all on any of your walls, we highly suggest just putting fresh paint in.
Do: A Kitchen & Bath Facelift
As investors, kitchens and bathrooms are the biggest factors when we make offers on houses. We know that these are sometimes expensive to update, but they are the most influential parts of the house. The bedrooms and living room are boring and will be filled with the new buyers’ things anyway. The bathrooms and kitchen are fixtures of the house that everyone will be spending a lot of time in. If these rooms haven’t been upgraded in a long time, you might want to consider sprucing them up a bit before putting the home on the market.
You might have heard that an upgraded kitchen and bathroom are two of the best areas to focus on when upgrading your home, and might be thinking that they are the most expensive. However, you can do some smaller upgrades that will make a big impact without costing a fortune.
New faucets, drawer pulls, and resurfacing your cabinets are affordable ways to revitalize the space. Some appliance manufacturers sell new and alternate colored faceplates. This way you won’t have to buy expensive brand new cabinets in order to get a fresh and clean experience. Of course, this does depend on the type of neighborhood you live in. If you live in areas where the home prices are between $150,000 and $250,000, then you will probably be able to get away with these cosmetic tips and tricks. However, if you live in houses above the $300k range, you might need to consider new cabinets and appliances.
Speaking of appliances, swapping out the front of your dishwasher to match the other appliances is a great way to save money and tie things together.
You can take the same principles to give your bathroom a quick makeover. Vinyl tiles can go on the floor, right over what you currently have. Do a deep cleaning of the grout, and re-grout if needed.
Fix any cracked tiles or broken hardware. (Wobbly towel racks, etc.) Another option to a complete shower renovation is to install a pre-fab cover. This is much cheaper than doing a whole shower overhaul.
The main theme here is that new buyers want a clean house that they can make their own. They don’t want anything that looks dark and dirty. That is what they are trying to escape from if they are buying a new home. They want something that looks and feels bigger and better than what they currently have.
Do: Landscaping
Planting some flowers out front or covering dirt with a pretty, fast-spreading ground cover will give your home instant curb appeal. If needed, have trees and bushes trimmed and keep the lawn mowed nicely.
Here in Bakersfield, you can plant succulents or lay down pretty rocks to keep the space well maintained, but low-maintenance. This is a very common theme especially in Northwest Bakersfield.
Maybe throw a fresh coat of paint on the mailbox or hang up a bird feeder and some hanging plants. Small touches and a well-groomed yard will draw anyone in.
This is another project that you could hire out professionally and still come out ahead. The appeal of a clean yard means that the new buyers don’t have to do all the strenuous work out in the blazing Bakersfield heat themselves. Most of the time, buyers want everything already done for them when they make their purchase.
3 To Forget About:
Don’t: Finish The Basement
This is just generally a bad idea as far as cost/benefit is concerned.
It can take so much of your time to get everything done right, and at the end of the day, it really doesn’t add that much to the value of the home. It’s not like adding an extra bathroom or adding a bedroom. It is way more expensive and just isn’t that important to most buyers.
Besides, most homebuyers want to fix up the basement themselves anyway. They have their own specific plans for the basement, and if they want to take on the project, they might as well be able to customize everything themselves anyway.
Don’t: Add a Patio, Deck or Pool
Spruce up whatever you already have, but don’t make any major improvements here. Some people like having decks in their backyard, and some like more empty space so their kids can run around and enjoy. You never know what the preferences will be for future buyers, but you can know based on past experiences that these things don’t add much value. There is a much higher chance that they will hurt you instead of help you.
Besides being extremely expensive to put in, many people will actually stay away from homes with pools because of all the safety and maintenance issues that come with them. If they have kids, pools could be an unnecessary worry for parents.
If someone is on somewhat of a budget, they probably don’t want to pay for pool maintenance either. And who do you know that wants to maintain their own pool in this insane triple digit heat?! If you know someone who enjoys doing that for free, please let us know immediately!
Don’t: Do A Major Renovation to The Kitchen or Bathrooms
This is a warning of sorts going with what we talked about earlier. Kitchen and bathroom cosmetic repairs are always worth it, but major repairs can be a nightmare for the typical homeowner. Either give a discount on the price or sell to a “we buy houses in Bakersfield” company like Buyers of Bakersfield!
Don’t waste your money with a complete overhaul unless it is absolutely necessary due to water or fire damage. The cost does not make sense, especially when homebuyers will have their own tastes. Many homeowners would prefer a credit to the home price allowing them to upgrade on their terms.
In summary: Don’t over-improve… keep it simple!