Top 5 Repairs Every Home Owner Should Make Before Listing

Hot Topic of the week:  Top 5 Repairs to make before listing house for sale

Regardless of your financial situation, all home owners want to get the absolute highest price for their home.  It rarely makes sense to do big renovations before selling, but there are several items that will prepare your home for sale with a minimal budget.

1. Curb Appeal:  All of us have curb appeal improvements that can be made - Now is the time to make them!  Fresh paint on that front door, clean the windows, pressure wash the house and walkways, and tend your landscaping.  Fresh flowers, trim back hedges, bump up your watering schedule, fresh mulch, and a little fertilizer will take your curb appeal to the next level.
2. Interior Painting:  All those baseboards get dirty and nicked over time, so this is a good time to lay down a fresh coat of paint.  Any rooms that get heavy traffic are subject to needing a repaint.  All funky colors, wall designs, stencils, and wall papers should be "neutralized", AKA:  Get rid of them!  More than anything though....fresh paint!
3. Flooring:  Carpets can slowly deteriorate even in the cleanest of homes.  Have a good look at your carpets and determine if they should be replaced.  Some Realtors will recommend saving the cash and allowing for a "Carpet Allowance", but I think this is wrong.  I'd always side on raising marketability of the home and reducing the barriers to the sale.  Get the carpet replaced, have tile steam cleaned, and tend your wood floors.  
4. Smelly Smelly:  All houses have their own distinct smell, largely based on the owner's lifestyle.  Pets in the home?  It'll smell like it.  Smokers?  Yes - it'll smell like smoke.  Heavy cooking?  Yes - that sticks around.  Old house - yes, it'll smell old.  How do you combat this?  This is very difficult as you usually are living in the home.  The best way is to paint, clean carpets or replace, have all fabrics including draperies and bed spreads laundered, and use some form of scenting within the house.  I recommend orange scent as there have been some fairly significant signs that orange alone is the cleanest smell and inspires customers to spend more...No kidding!  
5. Clean like never before:  It's nothing more than sweat and elbow grease, but this alone will take your home up a notch.  If you can't clean to the extreme, hire someone who can!  You need windows cleaned, everything dusted including under furniture, sliding glass door tracks, every square inch of the kitchen and baths, and shine up everything....faucets, soap dishes, trash cans, etc.  This is by far the easiest to do, yet I'm always amazed at the poor cleanliness condition of 90%+ of homes on the market!  Do yourself a favor and get in the top 10%!

If you are ready to "sell my house", or need contact info for repairmen that can assist you, please don't hesitate to connect with us.  If you are looking for a home in Jacksonville, visit our Jacksonville Real Estate search page.