Selling your home or property is all about making money, so why would you want to spend any money on it? It seems counter-intuitive! We suspect that you already know the answer, though – a small investment in improving one aspect of the house may make a much larger difference to the price you ultimately receive for the whole profit. Spend a little, earn a lot more. It’s a common-sense transaction, and it’s the reason a lot of people refurbish or improve their properties before they sell.

How should you know what to improve on, though? Would your property be worth more if you renovated the kitchen, or is the ugly hallway you have to pass through on the way to the kitchen doing more harm than a new kitchen could repair? Should you pay for an agent to start advertising your property right now, or should you hold on a few months for better market conditions? Everyone and everything seems to demand your money, but what are the right things to spend on when you’re selling?

The short answer to the question is that you should make sensible gambles – and yes, selling a property is still a gamble no matter how immaculate its condition and how well-timed its appearance on the market is, so think of it like one.

If you wanted to give yourself the best chance of making a return on a gamble, what would you bet on? Would you place a stake on online slots, or would you stick it all on black at the roulette table? Online slots might look more glamorous and involved, but the 50/50 odds of betting on black make for a safer bet.

The rewards may not be as great as hitting the jackpot on an online slot game, but the risk is much lower, too. Most people would go with the roulette wheel, and that’s the right approach with pre-sale home improvements, too. Take the little wins and hope they add up to a bigger one when the offers come in.

While this list shouldn’t be considered exclusive, here are a few classic tricks to use to maximize your prospects of getting the price you’re looking for.

Pay For A Deep Clean

We know that you won’t allow visitors into an untidy property, and nor will you let an agent come in to take pictures. You’ll either clean the place yourself or have a cleaner do it for you. That may not be enough.

Someone considering buying your home will give it the closest inspection for dirt in a very long time, and they’ll look everywhere for signs of dirt or decay. That’s why it’s worth spending a few hundred dollars and getting a professional deep clean done to ensure the place is looking at its immaculate best.

You’re looking for the ‘wow factor’ that you’d normally associate with a showroom, and there’s no reason why you can’t achieve it if you get everything as clean as it was on the day it was new.

Replace Old Furnishings

Sellers hate doing this. Very few people sell a home with the fixtures and fittings included, and so replacing furnishings only to have to remove them again feels like an expensive waste of time. Despite that, it’s worth doing.

Dated furniture is listed as one of the most common reasons that a house may sell under-value. If a viewer sees the furniture and thinks it looks old and tattered, the house will also feel old and tattered even if it isn’t. You don’t have to go overboard with this – get basic, nondescript-but-modern-looking furniture, and keep it to a minimum.

It could even be a good excuse to buy the furniture you want to use in your next home, so you can take it with you when you go.

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Pay For A Great Realtor

Although they get a lot of bad press, realtors do a difficult job. The bad ones bring the reputation of the whole trade down. While it’s true that there are some who do the best part of nothing and then charge a significant fee for that nothing, the majority of them are honest workers who will look to secure the best result for the seller they’re working with.

There’s a lot more to being a realtor than just showing people around the home and trying to broker deals. Look for one that has a great reputation and plenty of experience. Using a good realtor may be the difference between selling your property for the price you want to get for it, and having to settle for a lower amount because the realtor isn’t skilled enough to defend the price effectively. One who can do that is worth a little more of your money.

Re-touch The External Paintwork

If you’re selling an apartment, move straight on. There’s nothing for you to see here. If you’re selling a house, though, this is the easiest quick fix of all quick fixes. Nothing makes a property look new and interesting like a fresh coat of paint.

Depending on how you feel about ladders and getting a little messy, you might even be able to do this yourself, so your costs are down to buying the paint and brushes, and the cost of your time! Most people would prefer to employ a professional who can apply the paint thoroughly and evenly, though.

Don’t be tempted to go for a wild color here – just a fresh shade of the same color your home was painted last time around should do nicely. There’s never anything wrong with painting a house white or cream, but avoid bright colors that don’t gel well with their environment and may drive sellers away.

Buy Large Mirrors

If the property you’re trying to sell has large windows, you’re very lucky. Even then, though, there are places in the house that probably feel a little dark and poky no matter how well-lit they are when you flick the switch. Mirrors make every room they’re placed in look bigger, and so they’re not just for bathrooms. Have a large mirror in the hallway.

You should definitely place a large mirror in the main living space. You might even want to consider having a mirror put in the bedrooms. A small, cramped room suddenly feels roomy and airy when you put a mirror into it. It’s like a magic trick!

None of the above ideas should involve incurring significant expense – they’re cheap, quick fixes to several issues that can prevent the sale of a house, or cause the value of the sale to fall below expectations. Why not give them a try and see if they work for you?

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