If you’re ready to sell your New Orleans home this spring, these simple upgrades, along with enlisting the help of a creative Realtor, can help you get your home MLS ready.
Simple Improvements That Can Help Boost the Value of Your New Orleans Property
You don’t have to spend a fortune to enhance the value of your property, as evidenced by these easy home upgrades:
- Replace outdated items throughout your home. Whether it’s replacing dripping faucets, upgrading your lighting, or installing a new front door (or painting the old one), the little details will increase your home’s value without breaking the bank.
- Give your home a deep cleaning. It may sound like a no-brainer, but a bright and sparkling house can attract buyers like a moth to a flame. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer: if you were looking at two homes, one clean and welcoming and the other cluttered and a bit dingy, which would you choose? Scrub your home from the attic to the front steps. There is no such thing as too clean.
- Perform routine maintenance. While it can be easy to put off doing routine maintenance, tackling potential problems before they turn into big, expensive ones is great for your home’s longevity and worth. Instead of ignoring a leaky roof, peeling paint, or a cupboard door that won’t stay closed, take care of those issues now so they won’t negatively impact the value of your property later.
- Look at your home objectively. To get a fresh perspective on your home, take black and white photos of it, inside and out, and examine them closely for flaws. When the color is gone, imperfections like cracks in the walls, sagging fences, and worn carpet can become more pronounced.
- Do a bathroom upgrade. While a kitchen overhaul is considered the upgrade that provides the biggest return on investment, don’t overlook your bathroom, which can be much less expensive to fix up. Consider replacing your old countertop with a new granite one (bathroom counters are typically much smaller and cheaper to replace than ones in the kitchen), or freshening up your tile with new grout, since dirt gets embedded in bathroom surfaces and can be very difficult to remove.
- Hire a home inspector. A deteriorating roof, outdated wiring, or termite infestation can be difficult for the average homeowner to see, but a home inspector is trained to spot minor or hidden problems that could adversely affect the value of your home. Inspection reports can be a vital tool in repairing issues before they become big, costly issues that could scare away potential buyers.
- Put on a fresh coat of paint. Freshly painted rooms look and smell clean and updated, and one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to enhance the value of your home is to paint. Paint costs an average of $25 per gallon and can increase your home’s worth by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
- Tackle your lawn. Overgrown shrubbery and patchy lawns scream “neglect” to potential buyers. If you don’t have a green thumb or the time to devote to sprucing up your yard, hire a lawn service to cut your lawn, trim your bushes, shape your hedges, and edge your sidewalks, taking your curb appeal from shabby to stunning for a few hundred dollars.
Simple upgrades can add up to big increases in your home’s value. If you’re unsure about where to start, hire an interior designer to check out your home. Their standard fee is usually around $100 per hour, a small price to pay for their creative suggestions. And if you’re ready to sell your NOLA home this spring, contact our team of creative, knowledgeable Realtors who can help you get your home MLS ready.