How much work do you need to do in order to get your house ready to sell for the highest possible price? Find out today.
Sellers often ask me how they should prepare their homes to sell on the market. What should the home look like by the time it’s listed? How much work is involved in that process?
For some reason with today’s buyers, you have to present an almost-perfect product. It’s difficult to imagine what a home would look like with new paint, countertops, and carpet, so you have to present the home with all those features if you want to capture potential buyers’ attention. We’ve noticed that when you put the work into making the home look its best, you can get a 3:1 or 4:1 return on your investment.
Here’s an example of such a case: A year and a half ago, we had a property that a flipper initially offered us $750,000 for. But after talking to the seller, we decided that we were going to repair the house ourselves. This was part of a program we offer in which I loan my sellers the money for the repairs, I manage the work myself, and then we put it on the market. I get paid back for this at the close of escrow. The project cost a total of $32,000, and you can see some before-and-after photos at 1:20 in the video above.
On that property, the front yard was initially dead. We put in new grass, painted both the outside and inside of the home, and we added new sod to the backyard. The trellis was completely dry-rotted, so we replaced that completely.
Additionally, we replaced the four-inch white tiles in the kitchen with brand-new granite countertops. We put in new mahogany cabinets to replace the old oak ones. You can see in the video above how the overall effect of looking through the kitchen window into the backyard created a much better impression than before. We even took the old guest bathroom upstairs and replaced the cultured marble with granite countertops. Overall, the home was radically transformed.
After doing the work, we put the house back on the market and had 35 people come through for the open house. We received multiple offers for it, and in the end, the house closed for $875,000—we picked up $125,000 for just $32,000 worth of work.
If you don’t have the money to pay for the renovations, we can cover it for you ourselves, and you can just pay us back at the close of escrow. Today’s example was one that showed a huge return, but the point was just to demonstrate the things you can do to make the house show perfectly and to help you get the highest possible price for it.
If you have any questions about renovating your home or the program I discussed today, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.
