In today’s market, there are more home buyers than there are sellers. In any other industry, this would mean the consumer holds all the power. However, in the crazy world of real estate, that’s not always certain. The reason for this being, properties are always long-term investments.
Therefore, buyers and sellers realize that the changing hands of a property are a big event. Thus, the buyer can’t really hang you over a barrel. If they wait too long and the market begins to turn in your favor, they will have lost their chance. If the prices rise just 2% as predicted by some experts, instead of paying $200,000 for a property, you’ll be paying an extra $4,000. Together with fees and the whole ordeal of moving, the costs are going to rack up. Thus, as the seller, you should take the initiative to essentially, make them an offer they can’t refuse. Sprucing up your home, just to sell is a very prudent idea. Let’s look deeper into the advice you need if you’re selling your home in 2020!
What exactly is, ‘sprucing up’?
Now, this could mean a lot of things. Sprucing up could mean fluffing up your pillows or it could mean buying luxury pillows for your living room. It could mean steam cleaning your carpet or, it could mean tearing the wallpaper off for a glossy coat of paint. It might also mean mowing the lawn and tidying up the flowerbed. On the other hand, it might even mean constructing a conservatory to give your home an extra push up the mountain so it can be seen better by all who are interested. The bottom line is, by sprucing up your home, you’ll inevitably catch the eye of customers more often. Even though buyers know it’s not their home yet so they need to take whatever they witness in a home viewing with a large pinch of salt, a messy home is simply offputting.
You can perform the simple task of cleaning everything up to make your home look inviting. Or, you could go the extra two miles and invest heavily in luxurious construction and decor. The first tactic will suffice, but the second will put your home on a plinth above fellow competitors.
Don’t Avoid Needed Repairs
Guess what! You know that creaking step on your staircase? You need to fix it. Many home sellers will admit that they avoid making repairs before selling their homes even though they know they should. It’s quite easy to figure out why. They would rather not spend more money on something they don’t want anymore. And yet, they want the highest price possible. Talk about having your cake and eating it!
It’s simply not going to wash. Thus, you must make any type of repairs that are needed. This might be something as simple as changing a lightbulb, to fixing the broken gutter system. Take a look around your home and make a list of all the things that need to be repaired. Does your wallpaper have rips in it? Have a few bathroom tiles cracked? Does your staircase handrail have a few supports missing? Check the garage and see if there are any leaks. Be thorough and you will earn yourself a better price.
Making Major Updates
There are the cleaning and repairing, and then there’s updating. The third choice by far will net you a bigger wheelbarrow of money for your home. Thus, if you would really like to make an impact on the property market, you should seriously consider construction options. Perhaps make a loft conversion whereby you create a new bedroom or relaxation quarters. Extend your kitchen to create more dining space. Maybe you’d like to truly bring your home into the modern era by removing the walls and creating an open floor plan. The question on your lips right now is where do you get the funding for this?
Construction projects such as these will require large-scale borrowing. Projects that will eventually earn you an extra four or five digits to your sale price will always require a large amount of funding. That’s where an option like secured loans makes the most sense. These secured loan FAQs answer a lot of your questions. The number one reason for this type of loan over any other is, you’re using your home as collateral. But, it’s the asset which you’re investing into in order to sell. If the plan is to invest in something you know will increase in value, then secured loans offer you the best funding route. You can borrow large amounts, long-term, giving your time and space to make the major updates to your home.
Know Your Buyer
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about selling your home in 2020, is that the majority of buyers are still millennials. For a long time, millennials haven’t been able to buy their own homes due to many social, economic and political factors. However, this is slowly changing as the majority of experts predicted. It was only a matter of time before the generation of the fourth industrial revolution saved up enough to buy their own homes. Although the majority of millennials are still choosing to live in apartments and invest in their careers, they are the biggest group of homebuyers today.
Marketing your home in their direction is thus, future-proofing your ability to sell to the highest bidder. Millennial home buyers will be having children. This makes it beneficial to have all the information about the local school options. They’ll also want to live in a safe neighborhood where they can raise their children. So, have all the crime stats memorized as well as any neighborhood watch groups. The parents will want to know about what lies beyond the local area, such as parks, restaurants, theaters and day trip ideas. Perhaps the most important will be commuting options as for millennials work life is still a top priority for both parents.
Don’t be that home seller that leads viewers to the first floor only to hear loud creaking noises from the staircase. Make the necessary repairs and don’t hope on the potential buyers not noticing.
Best of luck to all of you selling your home in 2020!
