Myths – And Truths – About Selling Your Waterloo Region Home in 2019
When you are selling a home – especially if it is the first time you will be doing so – it often seems like everyone has some (often unsolicited) advice for you. However, not all of it will be accurate, meaning you’ll have to learn a little about seperating truths from myths.
To help you, we’ve collected some of the biggest of these myths, and debunked them to help you ensure you head down the right path towards the successful sale of your Waterloo Region home.
Myth: I’m going to have to redo my kitchen and bathroom before putting my property on the market. Truth: While the kitchen and the bathroom of any home is something that every buyer pays close attention a major renovation undertaken just before a sale will rarely net you a good return on your investment.
Minor renovations in these spaces, on the other hand, can indeed help up your home’s appeal and perceived value, helping you to get it sold faster and at a better price. New countertops or ‘facelifted’ cabinets may be just what you need to do this, and even sometimes something as small as swapping out dated cabinet hardware can make more of a positive difference than you’d imagine.
Myth: I need to focus more on the interior appeal of my home for sale than the exterior. Truth: Many home buyers will make a snap judgement on a home based on its exterior only. If that does not appeal to them it’s a negative from the start, and some may even decide to skip viewing the interior of the home altogether.
Buyers do still do ‘drive bys’ before viewing a home and if that cluttered yard or ill kept lawn is what they see when they do they are far more likely to say ‘pass’ if their Realtor adds the place to the showing list.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend a great deal of time or money to up your home’s curb appeal. Cut the grass, trim the hedges, weed the flowerbeds and clear away any clutter and, in most cases, that is all you’ll need to do.
Other small touches – new house numbers, a new porchlight, maybe a coat of paint for the front door, may all help too and none of those projects is likely to cost you more than $50 each at most.
Myth: My house is clean and tidy, so I don’t need to stage it Truth: Clean and tidy is a great start, but the rise in the power of home staging has raised the bar considerably. People now expect to walk into a home and see those Instagram interiors they have been browsing for weeks presented to them in real life, and to create those you really do need the help of a professional home stager.
Home stagers are experts at creating great looking interiors that will appeal to a wide range of tastes. They can walk through a space and pick up on the best aspects of it that need to showcased while also making plans for softening the impact of any flaws.
Of course you don’t have to hire a pro, you can choose to do the work yourself. But if you do make sure you do your homework first and take in as many advice and how to articles as you can before you begin.
Myth: Home buyers can overlook things that can easily be changed – like paint and wallpaper – that they don’t like. Truth: Moving is not an easy task at all, and while the majority of home buyers know that yes, things like paint they hate and terrible wallpaper could be changed the fact is that they simply don’t want to.
That is why one of the most important things you can do to update your home’s appeal is give it a fresh coat of paint in a suitably neutral color. Even if you decide that you don’t have the time/skills to do it yourself a professional paint job is not hugely expensive and it is one upgrade that always offers great ROI.