Homeowners who are considering putting their property on the market often feel like they can't take that major step without renovating their home first. They want their property to look its absolute cosmetic best before taking the plunge.
But is this the right approach? Is spending loads of money actually necessary? And where should you invest your money to get the best possible return on investment?
The natural tendency when getting ready to sell would be to focus your energy on cosmetic improvements: Painting, flooring, kitchens, bathrooms and landscaping. Improving all these areas will add value to your home, help make it easier to sell, and help buyers fall in love with it. But they are purely cosmetic improvements.
There is another type of investment that can not only add value but actually have a far bigger impact on your whole selling process. And that is, fixing problems which would arise in a building inspection report.
When buyers view your home, they are looking at so much more than when it was last painted. They are considering the construction style, cladding type, age of plumbing, roof condition, strength of foundations and any possible remedial work or upcoming maintenance required in each of those areas.
Arguably these remedial and maintenance considerations will impact a buyer's perception of value and their willingness to offer far more so than how recently your kitchen cupboards have been painted, or how recently your bathroom vanity was replaced.
What's more, if a buyer does make an offer subject to a building inspection report (which is standard), and that building inspector finds too many challenges that need attention, it can pour cold water on the buyer's emotional connection to your home and result in their offer being withdrawn. Once a deal has crashed on your property, it can make it extremely hard to secure a second buyer as your home now comes with the stigma of being a property which had a contract fail on its building report.
So before putting your home on the market, consider where you could invest money to increase your chances of moving through the building inspection stage with your hard-won contract still intact.
Are there any overdue maintenance areas around your home that a building inspector will flag as needing attention? Even if these areas wouldn't be noticeably visible to a buyer on first inspection, it still pays to focus your attention on these aspects of your property first, before spending money elsewhere.
Have the end game in mind right from the beginning. Once you've secured a buyer who falls in love with your home, worked through the offer process and negotiated a great price, you want to have everything in place to maximise your chances of that contract reaching the unconditional stage.
Yes, it's worth spending money on cosmetic improvements and yes, it's worth spending your time gardening, painting and titivating your home before going on the market. But these aren't major barriers to securing a sale. Long-overdue maintenance, however, could be.
Once you have taken care of any deferred maintenance which might be a red-flag for potential buyers and their inspectors, you can focus on the cosmetic improvements which add the most value for the least amount of effort and expense. For most properties, these areas are: Painting, gardening and staging (decluttering).
Ask any buyer what they would prefer:
An old-fashioned home with good bones that's been well looked after, with no major remedial works required.
Or...
One that has been recently renovated, but shows signs of potentially expensive maintenance issues hiding under the surface.
It's hard to spend money on hidden aspects of your home that don't show up in pretty photos online, but it's the smart choice if you want to sell your property quickly, for the best possible price.
