One of the most common questions house sellers have is whether they should fix their homes first before selling, or sell it as it is.
The answer to this depends on several things like the condition of other competing properties and the chances of a good return on investment.
In general, homebuyers want a home that requires little repairs.
Those who may want a dilapidated house are buyers who can't afford to buy expensive houses or enterprising individuals who make a profit by fixing homes and selling them afterwards.
It is very rare for buyers to want a dilapidated house since they do not want to spend time, effort, and money to do repairs.
At most, house buyers may only do repairs like painting the walls or putting in new carpeting on a house they just bought.
Make a Gamble House sellers may make a gamble and sell an old house as it is.
This gamble may pay off in a hot market, where buyers are aggressively purchasing properties.
In such case, home sellers may think that buyers are frantically buying houses that they don't mind purchasing old houses at relatively high prices.
However this gamble has a lot of risks.
If a seller needs to immediately dispose off his property then selling a dilapidated house may not be easy.
The only way to quickly dispose the said property is to accept a substantial price cut on the part of the seller.
Give Credit to Buyers Some house sellers try to pass on the repairs to their buyers in exchange of a discounted price.
This will save house sellers the hassle of repairing an old property, but they may be losing out in the end since they may not be getting the best value for their properties.
Repair to Get The Best Price But for house sellers who want to get the most value for their property, the only way to go is to make repairs and improvements on their properties.
Just like in any market, homebuyers want to purchase a well-maintained property.
By doing the necessary repairs on their properties, house sellers are sending the right message to their buyers, enabling them to get good leverage into nabbing the best value for their properties.
Primp It Up Any smart house seller will first compute the costs of proposed repairs against the expected market value of a property before proceeding with the improvements.
If the repairs won't guarantee a good return on investment for a property, then home sellers should just do away with the proposed improvements and sell the property as it is.
Most of the time, repairing kitchens and baths provide the highest return on investment for a property.
House sellers should be wise enough to repair these areas if they hope to dispose their properties quickly at the right price.
Study Competing Inventories House sellers should tour other properties in the areas before deciding to make improvements in their houses.
They should look at the conditions of the homes in their areas and compare them with their properties.
If most of the properties in the area have good kitchens, then house sellers should concentrate on repairing and improving their kitchen.
House sellers should be prudent in spending for these repairs.
Buying new appliances is not required to make a dilapidated kitchen look attractive.
A simple repainting of the cabinet and putting on new hardware may do the trick.
Take Notes To make things easy, house sellers should list areas of the house that need repairs or improvements.
List things that are defective or worn out.
Some of the areas that may need improvements or repairs before selling a property include the walls and ceilings, worn out appliances, leaky faucets, worn out carpeting, roof, and broken windows.
House sellers should also look at the conditions of their roof, ceiling fans, light fixture, and window coverings.
In a nutshell, fixing a home is the best way to get the best value for a property being sold.
While it may cost a few more bucks for a house seller, repairing and making improvements in a property can go a long way towards getting a house sale transaction closed.