Renovating a house can seem like quite the undertaking, even to a more experienced real estate investor. There’s so much to consider from damp proofing to electricity, to just making sure the color scheme looks nice.
Some of these things are obviously vital, but others, particularly cosmetic decisions, often get overlooked. This is because these decisions, at least in part, tend to come down to personal taste. Do you prefer paint or wallpaper? Carpets or laminate flooring?
These are all trade-offs and they all come with varying pros and cons.
That being said, they’re still worth looking at because the decisions you make, and the mindset that goes into them really can have a huge influence on the value of your properties.
Spacious Rooms
Another trade-off you might have to make is on space.
There are many buyers who want nothing more than wide, open, spacious rooms with large windows and lots of natural light, but that’s not everybody.
Other buyers might be a lot more concerned about what’s in those rooms – baths, sinks, showers and the like. As with the gardens, this decision largely rests on the kind of people you think you’ll be selling to, so once again you need to have a good idea of your demographics.
Energy Efficiency
If there’s one thing that’s almost universally popular it’s energy efficiency, but how you achieve that is up to you. You could prioritize insulation – which is especially important in colder areas – or else you could put your money into the appliances, like the boiler or the oven.
Of course, the extent to which you furnish the property is partially up to you, but if you’re going to be including appliances, then energy efficiency should be your highest priority. It saves the buyer money, it’s better for the planet, and it’s a great selling point overall.
If you’ve noticed a trend here then that’s not surprising. The absolute key to selling any product, from hamburgers to housing, is knowing your target audience. If you want to push the value of your properties up as high as they can go, then you need to be thinking about a lot more than just the numbers on the page.
At the end of the day, it’s simple: the best way to sell a property is to make it a property someone would want to buy.
