Renovations with Sell Power

One of the aspects of a real estate market like Kelowna’s is that it is often difficult for sellers to see the benefits of unique differentiation in their home compared to other comparable priced homes. This is particularly true in the new home market where builders tend to default to what is popular and use similar features to sell their homes. However, in the resale market, a partial or total renovation can go a long way towards creating a unique appeal in your home in order for you to achieve the optimum sales dollar.

It is true that in today’s real estate market, home sellers tend to be more sophisticated than even just a few years ago. An explosion of ‘how to’ programming on TV, the Internet and other mass media has helped to raise the awareness of what buyers are looking for in a home. Yet, despite a generally improved awareness level, some homeowners are still unable to translate what they’ve seen or read into an effective action plan to get their home ready for sale.

Here are a few simple guidelines to help you put your renovation dollars where they’ll do the most good at sale time:

• Concentrate on the entrance, kitchen and main floor bath – most buyers make up their minds within the first 2 minutes of entering a home. Focus on the areas they’ll see in that time frame. In other words, do the main floor bathroom first. If you want to do the upstairs bathrooms too, so much the better, but finish the first one that buyers will see before you devote any time to the upstairs.
  
• Splurge on quality materials in small areas – You may not have the budget to use top-of-the-line materials throughout your home, but you can make a big impact in a small area. Your entranceway, foyer or a downstairs powder room are perfect locations to use the finest marble or slate flooring, an upgraded light fixture and a new window treatment.
  
• Use top grade accessories and hardware to upgrade cabinetry -- Whether it’s for kitchen, bathroom, laundry room or closets, it’s an expensive proposition to replace old or poor quality cupboards and cabinets. An effective compromise is replacing the door knobs, handles and drawer pulls with top quality hardware to step your look up a notch.
  
• Invest in improvements you can take with you – Remember that improvements that are easily removed, such as window coverings, light fixtures and ceiling fans, fireplace tools and screens, mirrors, lawn furniture and even potted shrubs can all be taken with you after the sale of your home -- provided you plan for it properly. Make sure you advise your Coldwell Banker professional exactly what items are to be excluded from the purchase so that your listing will reflect this.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.