House renovations can take a serious amount of time, especially if you’re doing it for the sake of selling a property. Buying and selling is a fantastic way to get on the property ladder, so it’s no wonder that so many people are interested in doing this now. However, without the proper preparations and knowledge, you can end up spending a lot of your time on the wrong things.
So if you really want to up your game in terms of buying and selling property, we’ve put together a couple of tips to help you out. This is our advice on how to quickly buy and sell your renovation properties.
Don’t spend too much time dressing up your house to look perfect
We understand that a lot of people want to make their home as pretty as possible so that it can sell quickly–at least, that’s the assumption. But in reality, property development is a little different from property design. While a lot of people will see value in dressing up a property before they list it, there are actually a couple of caveats to doing so.
For starters, it requires a decent amount of interior design knowledge. If you don’t really understand how to make a home look nice, then you can end up spending money on the wrong things and wasting your time trying to make it look nice and ending up with a bad result.
Secondly, it’s time that you can spend doing other things that will be more productive. For example, you could be renovating empty spaces, redesigning the outside to make the first impressions good, or even getting planning permissions so that the buyer can perform their own renovations.
Lastly, don’t forget that the property is just a property to your prospective buyers. Not all of them are looking to buy a home that’s been pre-built for them. A lot of people are looking to incorporate their own ideas, and they might have designers ready to transform your home anyway. For these kinds of buyers, it’s often better to have a blank slate for them to work on. As such, it can be beneficial to just make sure the home is nice and clean, and to leave it as a sort of canvas for the buyer to come up with their own design.
But if you’re set on decorating a house before you list it on the market, then we’d argue that it’s worth hiring a professional designer to help you out.
The purpose of a designer is to help you save time and ensure that the house looks great when you decide to list it. You’ll get plenty of beautiful photographs that can be used to entice buyers, and they’ll get to experience a wonderful house when they arrive to view it for the first time. Just try to keep things rather simple because there’s a good chance that they already have plans for the house–your decorations are just there to inspire them a little and make the viewing a more pleasant experience.
In short; don’t fall for the idea that you have to decorate a house with lots of effort in order to help it sell faster. In many cases, buyers are actually looking for a blank canvas that they can decorate themselves. But if you have to decorate it before listing, hire a professional to do it for you.
Take good care of the exterior to make the outside more appealing to prospective buyers
The exterior of the home is often neglected when it comes to listings. This is because buyers are usually more interested in the inside of a home and not so much the outside–at least until they arrive to view it. If they see that the outside of a home looks dilapidated and there’s nothing nice to look at, then it could hurt your chances of quickly selling that home.
The entire viewing experience needs to be pleasant. Even if the inside is relatively empty because you’ve been following our previous advice, you have to ensure that the outside is actually presentable. You don’t need to create an entire flower show or do anything extravagant. All you need to do is make sure that it doesn’t look run down.
You can start by taking care of any of the outdoor features. For example, if there’s a cast iron grate that looks rusted and forgotten, replace it! Trim the lawn around it as well, and make sure that the fences are in good condition. Remove all the weeds, trim any trees that have started to grow too big, and make sure the roof is looking good too. These are simple things that you should do on all houses that you buy to renovate and sell as there are likely lots of things about the exterior that makes it look old and forgotten.
Spend time and money on renovating the important rooms in the house such as the kitchen and bathroom
The kitchen and bathroom are two places in the home that see a lot of use. Because of this, it’s a good idea to renovate them a little so that they look a bit more appealing and are fitted with modern technology.
For instance, your bathroom should look and feel clean, you should have the latest amenities, and it needs to have plenty of storage space. Similarly, the kitchen should have lots of clean cabinets for the new owner to store things in, the cooking appliances have to be new and updated, and the lighting should be present but not too overpowering.
Failing to renovate these important rooms will make the house feel a bit sad and boring. Yes, it’s really nice to have a big and pretty living room or bedrooms, but the kitchen and bathroom are two very important places where people spend a lot of time. As such, they need to be as functional as possible, but they also need to look good.
So to conclude, make sure you spend some time in the kitchen and bathroom. These two areas require a lot of attention when renovating, and your buyers will probably appreciate having a property that is immediately livable and doesn’t require extra work like changing the bathroom or kitchen.
Fill up all the empty space and make sure every inch of your home is functional
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they renovate a home to sell is forgetting to use every inch of the home for something. While a lot of people do like spacious homes, what they like even more is having a functional property with lots of storage space, and where every square foot of the home has been utilized in a positive way.
A great example of this is how you make use of walls. Lots of walls in large homes tend to be bland and empty, and this can make a house look really dull. So what a lot of expert developers do is add functional storage space such as shelves and cabinets. Alternatively, they can make an empty wall look more interesting with different textures, or even just hang a large painting or design. It doesn’t need to look amazing–all it needs to do is hide the fact there’s an empty wall behind it!
Another good example is how you use extra space in the property that normally isn’t used for anything. For example, your roof space can be converted into extra storage or even another room if used correctly. Similarly, storage closets can be transformed into functional rooms if they’re large enough, or you can knock down walls to create bigger bedrooms or ensuite bathrooms. How to utilize the space is really important when renovating a home, so don’t be afraid to change up the layout a bit as long as it works.
If you’re renovating a relatively small home, then it might make more sense to try and optimize the space you have. This can mean utilizing the walls more for storage and furniture, or even using multifunctional furniture that is designed for smaller spaces.
So in other words; try to be more creative with how you utilize space. Since you’re renovating a home, you have a lot of leeway with how you can change the layout, add new rooms, or add additional storage solutions. The more functional the house is, the more attractive it’ll be to prospective buyers.
Conclusion
We hope that these tips have helped you make more informed decisions when renovating a home for sale. We understand that it can be a lot of work to perform some of these changes, but that’s why it’s important to work with contractors and even home designers to help save time. The more you invest in your renovated homes, the more complex the project is going to get. So try to keep things simple if possible, and don’t go too overboard with small details and designs.
