Women’s Finance Blog

If you need to sell your house in a hurry, or if you are in a very slow moving real estate market, every little thing helps when it comes to selling your house. Here are some quick ways to increase the value and visual appeal without spending an arm and a leg.

Appliances
Take a good look at your appliances, especially the ones in the kitchen. Sometimes all you need to do is change the rings under-burner drip catchers to make a world of difference. Give the refrigerator seal a good scrub. Clean the oven. Defrost the freezer. Sometimes new appliances will be in order, fortunately, there are many budget models available that don’t look budget. And if your appliances are harvest gold or avocado green, definitely spring for new ones.

Cabinet handles & hardware
Updating the old drawer pulls and cabinet handles can make a world of difference, and you often don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get something trendy and modern. Judt don’t forget to measure the holes on the handles so you don’t buy the wrong size!

Paint
Even clean walls get dingy over time. Don’t underestimate the value of a fresh coat of paint on your walls.

Weeds
Sometimes you don’t need to do serious landscaping other than a serious job of weed pulling. So don’t buy any expensive plants or shrubs until you have pulled all the pesky weeds.

Storage
Lacking storage? Build some cabinets or shelving in your garage. Seeing a great deal of available storage can make a house seem like it is bigger, because people aren’t as worried about where to put everything.

Lightbulbs
Make sure every lightbulb is working. And replace some that are older and dusty, as they can make a room seem quite dark, simply because the layer of dust and grime on older lightbulbs.

Dust!
You would be surprised at how many people don’t dust their houses (me included!) But you want to make sure everything looks spotless and dusting is a must-do.

These tips are all relatively inexpensive or just require some elbow grease, but can definitely help add value to your house or lessen the amount of time before you see that sold sign in front of your house.

Filed under: Real Estate