How to prepare a Home for Sale on a Budget?
Sometimes we just don't have the money to do all the things that should be done, before one puts one house on the market, here I give some tips on how to prepare your house for sale on a budget.
Ask a friend or neighbor to come over and give you objective advice. Because after you live in a home for a while, you might not see the things that will distract home buyers.
First impressions count. That's why your yard needs to be inviting. Trim back the bushes and trees, especially if they block views from the windows and make your home difficult to see from the street.
Here are a few other low-cost curb appeal improvements
Keep the lawn mowed, preferably on the diagonal.
Remove junk and clean up the yard.
If needed paint the garage door and frame
Wash the exterior windows.
Paint your house number on the curb or buy a plaque displaying your house number and install near the entry.
Wash or replace a front porch light fixture.
Make sure the area around and including your front door is painted nicely (and caulked if necessary) or washed if brick/stone.
Sweep up and consider a nice entry door mat.
Check your entry light. Is it old dingy and hanging loosely? Look for deals on new light fixtures online and at discount stores.
Pull all weeds. It is easy and does make a difference.
If you have large bare spots in the grass put down a seed patch mix. Follow the directions to make sure it looks nice.
If you have rock or mulch areas that look dirty and messy, purchase a few bags of matching material from hardware or landscaping stores. Put down the new clean looking material for a quick spruce up. (Alternative for those looking to cut costs and willing to do some more work - pick up the rock/mulch and put it on a screen to remove the leaves and other debris and then wash with water and put back. This will give it a clean fresh look without purchasing any new materials)
Remove Excess Clutter and Furniture
Many homes contain too much furniture. You may benefit from removing 2 to 3 pieces of furniture from each room. Less furniture will make the rooms appear bigger.
Remove all personal photographs from tables and walls. Patch holes in the walls or hang non-personalized artwork over the existing nails.
Pack up your bookcases (you're going to move anyway). Ridding your home of clutter is another simple way to get buyers to focus on the bones of the house, not the titles in your CD collection.
You can hire a professional cleaning crew for about $300 or do it yourself for free. Be sure to wash the inside of the windows.
Rent a carpet steamer and clean the carpets. You may find they do not need to be replaced.
Dust the tops of your doorways and window frames.
Polish all wood / ceramic flooring.
Wash all light fixture coverings and ceiling fan blades.
To give your home a more open feeling, consider removing a few doors that open into each other or otherwise block the flow of traffic.
Updating the Kitchen on a Budget
Kitchens are the most important room in the house. It's the heart and soul of the home. Even if a buyer is not much of a cook, the kitchen is still where family and friends tend to gather.
If new granite is out of your budget, consider either re-grouting the kitchen counter tiles, which is surprisingly cost effective, or covering them with granite tiles instead of granite slab.
For wood cabinets, stripping the finish and re-staining or painting will save you more money than re-surfacing the cabinets.
Buy new knobs and / or pulls for the cabinet doors. If you have 40 or so knobs on your kitchen cabinet, at a cost of about $5 per knob, your total outlay for new hardware will be about $200. New hardware will transform the appearance of your cabinets.
Replace a worn kitchen faucet for about $100 to $200.
Buy new kitchen sink basket strainers for less than $25 each.
Painting the Interior
Professional painters will probably charge you anywhere from $300 to $500 to paint each room, but with a little patience, you can paint the rooms yourself. This is not the time to get creative.
Choose a soft color in a light brown tone (never white), and paint every room the same color.
The painting will go faster if you paint the ceilings the same color, but ceilings really pop if they are a lighter color than the color of the walls. Lighter colors also make the ceilings appear higher.
For a 10 x 10 room, you will need 2 one-gallon cans of eggshell paint. Each one-gallon can of paint should cost no more than $25. For the amount of money a professional painter will charge you to paint one room, you can probably paint the entire house yourself.
Give rooms purpose and panache
Make sure each room has a distinct, useful purpose.
Staging rooms is about setting them up to highlight their best features and downplay any faults. Decluttering and cleaning are part of staging, but it also includes things like setting out fresh flowers in the dining room, putting a bowl of fruit in the kitchen, upgrading your bathroom towels, and putting new hotel-like linens on the bed.
Carefully edit the furniture and arrangement of other items in a room so that each space has a defined purpose. A bedroom that you were using as a storage room should be turned back into a bedroom, for example. If you live in an area with lots of young parents, a small bedroom could be set up as a kid's room or nursery.
Let there be light
Lighting plays a vital role and is often overlooked when getting a property ready for sale. Dark hallways, rooms with little natural light, basements and bathrooms should be addressed. A minimum of a 2-bulb overhead fixture with maximum watt bulbs can transform a dingy area. There should be NO overhead receptacles without a light fixture! Consider adding pendant fixtures in dining rooms and eating areas. Big box stores offer affordable options in brushed nickel or silver fittings.
Adding ambient lighting is essential especially in areas where there is no overhead outlets. Adding table lamps and floor lamps will help brighten up any room and help your property appear as “light-filled” as possible.
Use mirrors
Make small rooms appear bigger and dark rooms seem brighter by adding an attractive wall mirror. A boxlike dining room will benefit from a leaning floor mirror and an entranceway more welcoming with a console mirror, and bedrooms seem bigger. Mirrors also help increase the light in the room.
