You've got the kitchen of your dreams and a master bedroom suite that would look right at home in a 5-star hotel. And your gorgeous new exterior paint job is the envy of the neighborhood. Your place looks so great that real estate agents are dropping off their cards telling you how much they could sell your place for, if you felt like putting it on the market.
Sell it now! Good grief no! Not after all the remodeling work. But... who knows? In five or six years when the kids are off to college and you and your mate get tired of mowing that big lawn and knocking around in a house built for five but inhabited by two, a downtown condo may look pretty inviting. Face it. At some point in the future, whether it's next year or in 20 years, you're going to want to sell your house. And with all the improvements you've made over the years, you should get a nice return on the sale, assuming you don't let your house fall apart.
Remodeling can be frustrating but it's also fun -- filled with anticipation and visible rewards at the end of the project. Maintenance is dull and routine, but you have to do it if you want to retain the value you've added to your home. For example: Hardwood floors need to be refinished every 5-10 years depending on wear and tear. If they get too worn down you can do permanent damage to the wood. Exteriors need to be repainted every 5-10 years too, depending on such factors as the weather where you live, or you can damage the exterior wood. Your roof and gutters need annual inspections. A clogged or damaged gutter and drain spout can flood your basement and cause serious damage.
And the list goes on. Like taxes and dental checkups, regular home maintenance isn't fun. But you must do it if you want to take care of what is likely your biggest single asset -- your home.
Annual checklist home maintenance checklist:
Kitchen: Check for leaks under and around the sink. Plumbing leaks can damage cabinetry and floors. Check and repair grout and caulking on tile countertops and around the sink. Also check wear and tear on wood floors, which periodically need to be refinished.
Bathrooms: Check for plumbing leaks and check grout on tiles. If the grout gets worn away water will start getting into the walls behind the bathroom, causing damage.
Basement: Check for cracks in the foundation and leaks. Buildings settle over time and even after decades of having a dry basement leaks may suddenly occur.
Attic: Check for signs of water leakage from the roof. Also look for any sign of termites or rodents. Squirrels or rats that nest in your attic can chew electrical wiring, which can lead to fires.
Smoke alarms: Batteries need to be changed annually.
Heating system: If yours has a filter, change it annually.
Air conditioning system: Change all filters monthly or as recommended by the filter manufacturer.
Roof: Note if any shingles have fallen off or if gutters or downspouts appear clogged or damaged. You can always hire a reliable roofing company to get on the roof and take a look. Reputable roofing companies won't try to sell you a new one unless you really need it. You can simply pay them for an inspection.
House exterior: If your house is wood, check that the paint hasn't worn away so much that the primer paint is showing. If the primer also wears down, you can do damage to the wood. Brick houses should be inspected for damaged bricks or masonry. Check stucco houses and repair any cracks large enough to slide a nickel into.
Asphalt and concrete driveways: Repair any cracks or buckling.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Maintaining Your Home to Retain Value
Friday, April 25, 2008
5 easy ways to sell your home faster
You don’t have to take on a full-fledged renovation to get prospective buyers interested in your house—in fact, that may even turn some people away in a challenging market. After all, every penny that you’ve sunk into an obvious upgrade is money that the seller is mentally adding up as a factor in the price—and may represent an aesthetic choice the buyer would not have made. (Cancel that appointment at the Sub-Zero showroom, STAT.) There are simple ways, however, to make your home seem infinitely more appealing with very little investment—and very little effort.
1. If you do only two things before showing your house, clean, and clean some more. “People want to come into a space and visualize themselves living there,” says Manhattan-based Corcoran Group sales broker Jeanine Schlifer. “If there are spills on the table, toys on the floor, and dog mess everywhere, people can’t focus on the space.” It’s worth it to hire a professional to come in for a deep-clean, as they may find dirt in places you can easily overlook, like scuffs on walls and smudged light switch plates. Nadia Geller of the new TLC show Date My House says that buyers pay most attention to the entryway—the first-impression spot for most visitors—as well as the kitchen and the master bedroom; those rooms in particular should be immaculate. The same goes for any architectural details (such as a fireplace) that might be called out on a spec sheet, Geller adds.
2. Accentuate the positive, camouflage the negative. If you have large windows or a great view, hang long, simple curtains to accentuate them. (Hanging curtains from just above and outside the window frame will also make ceilings feel higher and windows more impressive.) If you have spacious rooms, remove any too-bulky furniture or unnecessary pieces that would make the space feel cramped. Geller suggests looking at furniture catalogs to get ideas for pleasing furniture proportions, arrangements, and an idea of how many pieces to keep in a room. If your closets are tiny, pull out some of the clothes and store them elsewhere. “You don’t want it to look like you couldn’t fit one more thing on the rack if your life depended on it,” Schlifer says. A kitchen counter top cluttered with appliances can similarly make a buyer feel there will be no place to store their things; packing some of that away in cabinets will create the illusion of more space.
3. Appeal to the widest possible audience. If you have a hot-pink accent wall, paint over it with a more neutral shade that matches the other walls. Pack away that collection of Star Wars figurines. Stash kids’ toys or dog toys in another room. “Remember that you’re selling your home, not your personality,” Schlifer says. And a prospective buyer who hates dogs could get hung up on your giant training crate and pile of rawhide bones. (Be sure to also take pets to a friend’s house or a kennel and vacuum well before any showings—a sneezing, fur-allergic buyer is not a happy one.) Thin out your collection of trophies, knickknacks, and personal photos on bookshelves, and replace them with more books—even books from a secondhand store or thrift shop, says Geller; they’ll have a more universal appeal.
4. Create a welcoming environment. “You want buyers to make an emotional connection to your home,” Schlifer says, and you can go a long way toward achieving that by making the space feel warm, bright, and fresh. Replace dim light bulbs with new ones and make sure there is a pleasant, but not overpowering, smell in the house. (Try baking cookies or setting out a scented-oil diffuser.) Place fresh guest soaps in the bathroom, hang a new shower curtain and neatly fold matching bath towels. Purchase fresh flowers—a bunch of all one variety makes the cleanest statement—and put them out in a simple vase. Open the windows before people come in to let some fresh air blow through. The ultimate goal is to make people feel so good in your house or apartment, they won’t want to leave—ever.
5. Develop a quick-clean plan for last-minute showings. You never know when a realtor may have an interested client, so it’s important to have a speedy cleaning plan for spontaneous appointments. Invest in a nice-looking storage trunk for stashing day-to-day clutter in a hurry and make a habit of kicking up your regular cleaning routine a notch so there’s less to do before a visit.