1. The Kitchen - If you haven’t known by now, the kitchen is the heart of a home! Potential home buyers always have something to say about a kitchen when they first view a home for sale, so make sure it’s clean and relatively updated. Kitchen faucet, cabinet door handles and upgraded energy efficient lighting fixtures can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. If you have a higher budget then replace the cabinet doors and hinges, if not you can buy a can of paint with Teflon and paint them white; white gives the appearance of a larger kitchen.
2. The Appliances - Try to match all your appliances with the same color scheme. If you cannot afford new appliances, then just buy the replacement doors or face panels. A more cohesive looking kitchen makes a big difference in a buyers mind and the re-sale value of your home. HINT: Many dishwasher panels are made black on one side and white on the other, you can easily unskrew the panel then flip it over to match the rest of your appliances!
3. The Bathroom - Next to the kitchen, the bathroom is also most important! A new toilet seat and sink are pretty easy to install and are relatively cheap. Make sure your bathtub is clean, replace broken tiles and if need to re-tile your floor use vinyl tiles or sheets. They are inexpensive and you can install right over the old floor.
4. Add a room? - If your house is a 3 bedroom + 1 den structure than add a room! The only difference between “bedroom” and “den” is that there is no closet in a “den”. Add a closet to the den, now your house is a 4 bedroom unit. Adding an extra room raises the value of your home significantly and you can do this for under $1500.00.
5. Can you judge a book by its cover? - Although it may seem obvious to trim the grass, shrubs and sweep the walk way, when buyers drive by your house, what they see is extremely important. If you can, instal some new sod and plant a few evergreen shrubs, if not hire a landscaper. These minor changes will impact a buyers first perception of your home and therefore increase its value. And your neighbors will love you cause you just help increase the value of their home too!
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