Thinking of Selling your Home?

Step 1: Get a Value Wizard report for your property:

Step 2: Home improvements to increase value

There are two reasons for pursuing home improvement projects:

1. You want some new features in a home to improve your family's quality of life, but you don't want to leave your current home.
   
   
2. You want to make your home more marketable to maximize return (or minimize loss) and speed up the sale process.
   
   

In the right market conditions, a project might fit into both categories. Othertimes, though, the two approaches will conflict:

Just Want To Do It :   In situation A, the project is perceived as a necessary or worthwhile improvement to your family's lifestyle. Say you have two or three teenagers in the family and the morning bathroom situation is completely out of control. It doesn't matter how much an additional bath generates on the return on investment, you need an additional bath. Do just about any upgrade correctly and the economic impact will benifit you along with the convenience. If you have the money for a new bath and you don't want to move....  add the bath.

 Or, say you're a barbecue fiend and the only feature missing from your present dream home is a sprawling backyard patio with a natural-gas grill custom-built with flagstone and river rock. Again, return on investment may not be a critical question. The improvement becomes more comparable to purchasing an asset that you feel is a necessity for your lifestyle, such as an upscale automobile. When the barbecue aficionado adds the deluxe patio to a home, there's a good chance that they will recoupe most or some of the cost in a subsequent sale, depending upon the comparison of other homes in the neighborhood.

An even better example might be a pool. If you're a person who simply has to have one... Put in a pool. But it's probably worth checking with a real estate professional first, just to make sure you fully understand that adding the pool will actually lessen the property's value in the Richmond market and make it more difficult to sell should you later decide to move. That's the reality in many markets. That doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't do it, especially if you're planning to live in the home for a very long time with no chance of relocation. It just means it's worth knowing the cost and sale-ability impacts at the front end, even if it's not going to deter you from pursuing the project.

Really Need To Do It:  The "type-B" home improvement project is pursued primarily to increase the property's sale-ability. In turn, this often increases your return on investment or stabilizes your investment. The Gordon Laroussini Team can advise you of possible improvements that will attract more potential buyers and also pay for themselves either through increasing the home's value or through shortening the time it takes to sell the home. We are typically talking about projects such as: painting, either because the existing paint is in bad shape or not neutral; replacing carpets, again because of age, color or style; repairing or resurfacing a cracked driveway or sidewalk; refacing kitchen cabinets; and trimming or removing overgrown or unattractive landscaping. There is much more to consider....

 While spending several thousand dollars on your home right before you sell might not sound very appealing, it's not uncommon for the right work to more than pay for itself in a higher selling price or shorter marketing time. In a flat or down market, this is manadatory!

Consult with the Gordon Laroussini Team to learn what improvements will make your home more marketable in comparison to similar properties that are now, or recently have been on the market in your area.