You’re considering selling your home, but you never ended up getting around to updating the questionable 80s laminate that covers the floors of your entire home, wall to wall. Don’t freak out. It’s not too late. You’ve come to the right place. We’ve found out what adds value to your house, and everything you need to do to make it a reality on a budget.
If you’re short on hiring a property stylist (which we do recommend if you have the budget for it), you have options. Find out what adds value to your house and how you can achieve it without spending money you haven’t made yet (don’t worry, you’re about to sell your house. You can reap the rewards real soon, so long as you follow our advice).
Paint Cabinetry (Your Kitchen Will Thank You)
If you want to make it look like you recently renovated your kitchen (even if you haven’t really), paint your cabinetry. If you do a good enough paint job, this trick immediately elevates any kitchen cupboards 1000%. Especially if your kitchen was built anytime before or during the 90s, and your cabinets have started to… how do we put this delicately… yellow *shudders*.
Since you’re going to have to take them off to do the paint job anyway, it’s worth replacing the handles while you’re there. A cheap way to make your kitchen look on trend, without having to make any time-wasting (and money-wasting) changes.
Budget: $200 or less
Say Cya to Questionable Flooring and Hello to Timber Laminate
It’s going to cost you a little more than replacing a few doorknobs, but trust us, when it comes to what adds value to your house: updating flooring pays off (especially if you’re replacing ancient linoleum).
If you don’t replace questionable flooring before you sell your home, your buyers are going to walk in and immediately add an expense to their list (ripping out the floors), which is going to come straight off your list price. This puts your home into the category of “needing work”. Immediate red flag. To put it bluntly, you’ll lose more than you would earn by replacing outdated fixtures, like flooring.
Believe it or not, you can actually replace old linoleum with new linoleum. Timber laminate is surprisingly realistic, easy to clean, and most importantly, inexpensive. Especially when you compare pricing to the next best thing: real timber.
Budget: Approximately $6-10k for a few rooms
Don’t have the power to store stuff on the ceiling? Get a TAXIBOX ’til the job’s done.
Install a Decent Showerhead
Everyone loves a good shower, but for some reason, not everyone realises how easy it is to improve your shower set-up. Replacing a run-of-the-mill showerhead with something much more high quality is inexpensive, super quick, and only requires one trip to the hardware store.
By updating the shower with a rainfall showerhead or the like, you can guarantee your buyers will step into the bathroom and immediately imagine how much better their high pressure showers are going to be in their new home. If you really want to impress them, try removing the water flow restrictor to ensure the water is really high pressure. People tend to test the taps out during open house inspections, believe it or not.
Budget: $100 or less
Make Your Bed with Plain Bedding
Figuring out what adds value to your house doesn’t have to be compliated. It can be as simple as changing your sheets. Good looking bedding doesn’t have to cost you a lot. No need to splurge on an expensive linen sheet set just for property styling purposes; simple, plain bedding in neutral colour ways will do the trick.
Visit a big red store of your choice and remember, keep it simple. Steer away from any patterns, and especially anything Star Wars. Go for whites, beiges. Colours that feels a little warmer and therefore more homely than a hotel, but still clean enough that you wouldn’t be surprised to see them on a high quality hotel bed.
Budget: Anywhere between $20-100 (take your pick, after all, you get to keep it once the house sells)!
Replace Carpets and Curtains (Don’t Worry, It’s Cheap)
No matter how many times you pay to get your carpet professionally cleaned, those furniture dents and wine stains are there to stay. Replacing your carpets (and your curtains) will make a world of a difference. It’s a renovation that’s worth it.
If your ancient curtain rod doesn’t match up with curtain fixtures from this century, get a steel or black universal extendable rod. Get your hands on some trendy cotton curtains in a warm tone, and you’re done: you’ve snuck in a trendy feel into an otherwise neutral home without having to spend too much.
Budget: Depending on how much carpet you have, it’s usually $25-$50 per m². A curtain rod and a decent set of curtains should cost you $100 or less per room.
Get your stuff off the carpet, keep it in a TAXIBOX in the meantime.
Paint Window Frames and Wardrobe Doors
It doesn’t matter how smooth the mechanism is; dated frames on wardrobe doors and window frames tend to make everything look cheap. A coat of paint will quickly make any wardrobe door or window frame look a little better. Stick with white to stay safe, or an accent colour if you want to try out a trend.
Trust us. Wardrobe door and window frames look a lot nicer when they’re not shiny enough you can see yourself in them.
Budget: $20 or less, or you might already have the supplies at home: all you need is a tin of paint and a roll of masking tape
Warm Up Your Lightbulbs
Want to convince your buyers your house is homely before they’ve even had a proper look around? All you have to do is replace cool, white lightbulbs with warm, yellow lightbulbs. No one wants to feel like they’re at the office or in a hospital when they’re at home, trying to relax.
If you really want to add to a homely feel to help with what adds value to your house, lamps can do a lot for creating softness and warmth in an open home (which will do wonders, even if your home isn’t boasting in the natural light department).
Budget: How many people does it take to figure out how much a few lightbulbs cost?
Cover Up the Aircon
External aircon units can really ruin the mood on an otherwise nice balcony or backyard space. They’re particularly eye-sore-y if your balcony is on the tighter side of things. Luckily, there’s an easy way to hide an AC unit outside, and turn it into a feature of all things.
Cover up the eyesore with an external wooden cover, and make it seem more like a fixture than a waste of space. Add some greenery and you’ve turned something you’re trying to hide into a feature in no time.
Budget: Roughly $100 (or if you’re crafty, even less: DIY)!
Pressure Wash the Pavement* Away
This tip applies to all the ground that surrounds your property… everything the light weather touches. It’s time to pull out the pressure washer and have at your patio, your driveway, your courtyard pavement, the works.
No potential buyers want to see your gardening mishaps and soil stains, or better yet, smell the dog pee scent that’s lingering around your entirely paved courtyard. Spend an afternoon with the pressure washer and make it look like the concrete was set fresh just yesterday.
Budget: $100 or less
Replace the Oven with One From This Century
If there’s one way to prove you don’t cook much without saying you don’t cook much, it’s having an ancient, freestanding oven or stove in your home that you never got around to replacing. Similarly to ancient laminate and the like, an old oven screams of excess expenses that your buyer will be mentally tacking onto the list price. An updated oven creates the impression that the house is a turnkey package.
No matter how much they’re planning on cooking in their new home, your buyer wants to at least have the option to cook on a decent stove or in a decent oven. Replace the old oven with something new (psssst, if it’s stainless steel, it’ll look chef grade even if it isn’t necessarily).
Budget: $1k or less
Get Some Help From Some (Affordable) Professionals
Believe it or not, professional property styling doesn’t have to eat up your budget. Depending on how much you can set aside, you can get quite a lot done (all while sticking to a pretty tight budget). Considering what adds value to your house, it can be a worthwhile investment.
Award-winning property stylists like Cordony Group can improve your home staging with as little as 1K. If you can go up to 10K, you can do just about everything under the sun and completely perfect your property styling:
- Got 1K? You can book a TAXIBOX to store your clutter and have your property professionally cleaned.
- Got 5k? Hire a professional landscaper and painter to freshen up your home. Have a stylist partially style your property, which includes additional decor and furnishings to what you already own.
- Got 10k? You can have all of the above arranged, and as a bonus, have 100% of your home styled professionally.
The bonus of hiring a professional is that there’s no need to worry about whether you’ve done the job right or not – so long as you trust the company you hire, you can leave everything to them. Sit back, relax, and watch your house sell itself.
One Last Easy One: Hide Your Stuff
If you just want to keep the presale process simple, there’s one thing you can do that doesn’t overcomplicate the pre-sale process. No bells, no whistles, no trends necessary: all you have to do is spend a day decluttering. In the grand scheme of discovering what adds value to your house, this is a no-brainer.
No one wants to see real life clutter in their dream home. If you want to make sure your home is looking its best, get the excess stuff out of it and make some space. Strip it down to the basics, and hide everything else (think bulky furniture, DVD collections, and the like). It’s even worth hiding away clothes if you can. Believe it or not, buyers actually do actually peek in the closets.
Budget: Not much! Figure out how many TAXIBOXES you need to find out (we have a storage calculator to help with that).
Make the most of your home sale with one quick tidy up. Show your buyers what their life could look like in their brand new home, without all the messy stuff. All it takes is a TAXIBOX.
