Thinking about selling your home, but not sure how it’s going to fit on the market? Having doubts whether it can fetch the price you’re hoping for, or whether it will remain ignored for years? Or even worse, get bombarded with constant, tempting offers to sell it for cheap?
Are you maybe mulling over whether to renovate. Or do you feel like you should touch it up a bit, and if so, how much touching up are you supposed to do? You want to make it as appealing as possible to new buyers, but you’re not exactly sure how far you’d wanna go.
If that’s you, you’ve come to the right place to address those worries and dilemmas. Lucky for you, there is a way out of it, and a way to increase your property’s value to the max. Keep reading, because we are going to highlight the five key steps one must take in order to increase the chances of selling your property at maximum value.
Learn More About the Local Estate Market
Every beginning is hard, but it just gets easier and easier. The important thing is to start researching the local market. Look at local ads, see what other people offer, and give it some time. Which property got sold quickly, and which one is still up for sale, four months in? What are the differences between the two?
As you continue researching the local markets, it’s going to become even easier and you’ll feel more empowered than ever. In time, you’ll have a good insight into comparable sales in your neighborhood and you’ll get a good idea of your property’s value.
Pro tip: pay close attention to the average value of square footage, and then correlate how various features, such as location, swimming pools, the cleanliness of the place and other factors figure in the property’s price.
Eventually, you’ll get a good idea of how much your property is worth, as well as what you can add to it to fetch an even higher price.
Hire a Good Listing Agent
Sometimes it can be difficult to find a trustworthy realtor you can rely on. In order to make sure you get the right one for you, you’re going to have to do some research first. It’s good practice to talk to more than one realtor, and get second, third, or even fourth opinions. Pro tip: When interviewing a listing agent, ask them about their experience in your particular area, and inquire about his network to potential buyers. Then pay close attention to what they tell you.
Clean Your Windows
What’s the first thing that you notice when you drive by a house? Chances are, it’s windows. If they’re shiny and clean, you’ll deduce that there’s a person who lives there and loves taking good care of the place. But if the windows are dirty, blurry, or even cracked, you’ll receive the opposite impression. It’s a place that’s breaking down.
So, tip number one in increasing your property’s value: make sure that your windows are squeaky clean.
Any property manager or real estate agent worth their salt knows that one of the most important qualities of your business or home is reflected in the condition of your windows. Get your windows gleaming, shiny and clean, and the value of your property is only going to go up from there.
As a bonus, you can add more lights both inside and outside of your home. The more light present, the more apparent the clarity of your windows and the (ideally, pristine) condition of your property. Walls, driveways, plants – everything looks better with more light. So another rule of thumb when it comes to managing real estate – the more light, the better!
Clean, Or Paint Your Walls
As with windows, the same principle applies here. Ideally, you’d want your property’s walls to radiate with cleanliness, clarity, and newness.
Usually, brighter colors fare better. We aren’t PhDs in human psychology, but the overall impression is that bright colors make people feel more positively, while darker colors tend to subdue enthusiasm. However, not everyone is like that, and sometimes colors that are garish, or too bright, neony, or too saturated, can turn off potential buyers.
If you’re uncertain about the color of your property’s walls, here’s another good rule of thumb: go neutral. Light beiges or light greys, white and its variations, or even a light peach color should all be palatable to the wider audience of potential buyers.
But what if you don’t want to throw a new paint? Well, there are still affordable ways to make your walls shine like new. If your paint is cracked, or it’s just gotten pale from the tooth of time, you can try giving your walls a good power wash. Power washing the walls of your home will remove bacteria, dirt, mold, discoloration and even some types of surface damage like rust or mineral deposits. The whole procedure is quick and painless, and the payoff is huge – your walls will look bright and brand new.
Clean Your Gutters
So, windows? Check. Walls? Check. But what else do people notice right away when they approach someone’s house? The gutters.
Whether they’re looking down or up, they’ll notice the gutters all right. A gutter almost girds a building, outlining its shape. If it’s rusty, people are going to notice. If it’s shiny and clean, people are going to notice that as well. Your best interest here – have clean, shiny gutters.
But it’s not just about aesthetics. Functionality is the key role of gutters, since they are the primary water discharge system for a building. When they are sound and working well, gutters will protect your foundation, floors, walls, patios, doors, you name it, from temporary flooding or permanent water damage. Furthermore, they can minimize soil erosion around your property, making landslides less likely (especially important for properties built on slopes!).
So how does one get clean, functional gutters? Well, you have two options.
Option one is to buy new ones. But that’s costly and needless to say, time consuming and a lot of work.
Option two is quite more affordable: hire a company to power wash your gutters.
You’ll be surprised as to the amount and diversity of refuse that we’ll poke out of your gutters. Leaves, soil, twigs, dust, rocks, pebbles, nuts, even old animal bones and feathers and snails can clog your gutters and make them look dirty, rusty and old! But a power wash and two hours later, your gutters will look good as new! And raise the price of your property some more.
Clean Your Roof
You know how you’ll be driving somewhere, and catch a glimpse of a neat, shiny, beautiful roof in the distance, perched over the tree canopy? The thought that immediately crosses your mind is “Man, that must be a beautiful house.” Or at the very least, you have to admit, your curiosity will be stirred.
A clean, shiny, new looking roof is one of the most significant elements of a property when it comes to raising its price. Just think about it, who wants to live in a house with an old looking, worn out, cracked roof? The very idea implies either trouble with flooding, or having to pay money out of your own pocket to replace the roof after you buy that disheveled property.
But it’s also expensive to replace an entire roof in order to sell.
So what’s the best solution? Well, you’re probably not surprised at this point, but pressure washing. As long as you don’t actually have roof tiles cracked or missing, a good power wash will strip all the rust, dust, dust, and other debris away from your roof. Once all that stuff is gone, your roof will look brighter, newer, and very, very clean looking. And it will start catching people’s eyes from far away. They’ll be thinking to themselves, “Ah, now that’s a good, well maintained house I’d like to live in.” A clean, neat looking roof equals a clean, neat increase of the value of your estate. Even if you don’t clean or renovate anything else, the roof is an absolute must.
Just Power Wash the Entire Thing
So you’ve researched the market and hired a trustworthy listing agent. What then? Do you replace the windows? Or just give the walls a paint job? Or retile the entire driveway? Or replace the entire roof?
No. It’s much simpler than that.
All of those are quite expensive ways to go about it, and offer nothing but diminishing returns. We offer you an all-in-one solution to making your entire property look like new. Hire us, and we’ll make your walls, windows, roof, gutters, patios, driveways, and even garage areas look shiny, clean, and brand new.
It’s healthy to be skeptical. But we promise you that you’ll be shocked when you witness the difference that a good power wash session can make on your property’s exterior. And what makes for a stronger first impression than an impeccable, fresh look of every element of your home? By the time your customers reach the front door, they’ll already be impressed.
Don’t hesitate, call ACX Pressure Washing now and request your quote. We’ll finish the job to your complete satisfaction, and make you money in the future!
