Tricks to Boost Your Old House Value

Boosting the value of an old house is not as easy as it seems. On the one hand, every improvement that you make can increase the total value but the increasing value is never a true objective. It comes down to getting a great ROI and for a lot of projects, the money invested will not give a positive return. Still, without these investments, it will be nearly impossible (if not completely impossible) to sell the place.

This situation, as a whole, means that you need to be extra resourceful. What you’re looking for are home improvement projects that give a great amount of value for a relatively small investment. Even if you aren’t getting a perfect ROI, the scenario will increase the value of the place and ensure that you find a buyer in time. With that in mind and without further ado, here are several tricks you can use in order to boost your old house value.

1. Exterior

The first impression matters. If the home in question appears ruinous from the outside, you will have a hard time persuading a potential buyer otherwise. There are several ways you can go on about this.

Pressure washing is one of the most cost-effective methods you have available. All it takes is for you to buy or hire a pressure washer and you can scrub years and decades of dust, dirt and gunk off your home’s façade. The best thing is that you can also apply it to your driveway, thus giving an entire area a facelift.

Landscaping, even basic tasks like mowing and hedge pruning can make a massive difference in the overall appearance of the place.

Probably the biggest difference that you can make is to engage in some basic roof repairs. Since the roof is of the major concern to a potential buyer, it is one of the ways to increase the appeal of the place quite drastically. Even roof painting can make a world of difference.

2. Key areas

Try roleplaying as a potential buyer. Approach your home from the outside, enter the building and ask yourself, which are the first areas I would show interest in. The most obvious answer is – the kitchen and the bathroom.

Why is this the case? Well, remodeling these two areas can be incredibly expensive. However, by introducing a couple of simple repairs, you could perhaps persuade them that a major remodeling project is not necessary (or at least that it can be postponed for a couple of years).

Attempting to make DIY repairs in these areas could be potentially dangerous. For this very reason, it’s important that you contact a skilled electrician and a skilled plumber. Consult them on the subject matter and try to be honest with your intentions for the place. These experts may further advise you on the most cost-effective course of action.

Lastly, make a room-by-room tour and check which details attract the most attention. Also, do they attract your attention in a good or a bad way?

3. Check the lights

Previously, we’ve talked about consulting an electrician, however, a potential buyer probably won’t be skilled enough to diagnose a serious problem on the grid. What they can (and most likely will do) is going around the place, flipping the light switch in every room.

If the lights don’t work, this will not just be a minor problem. In fact, it’s an indicator that the place might be in a ruinous state. If you are listing your home to sell, you’re waiting for a potential buyer to arrive and the lights still don’t work, this merely indicates that you’re investing zero effort to sell it. It also plants a seed of doubt in their mind about what else is faulty in your household.

Switching to LED lights is one of the ways to make the place greener. It also reduces the power bill, which makes the place even more appealing.

4. Refinishing wooden surfaces

Refinishing wooden surfaces is a simple way to give your home its old shine on a budget. This is also one of the reasons why wood is both eco-friendly and a great choice for your interior design.

First of all, if you have a hardwood floor, it all comes down to the amount of effort that you’re willing to invest. If you sand off the top layer and refinish it with quality wood paint, you’ll make your hardwood floor look and feel like it’s brand new. This would increase the value of the place rather dramatically but the effort it takes to do so can be quite gargantuan. Also, the cost of having a professional restore it could potentially be astronomical.

Keep in mind that this is not applicable just to the hardwood floor. Interior doors, doorframes and furniture can be treated in the same way, as long as they’re made out of wood.

In conclusion

The very last thing worth bearing in mind is that both time and effort can be converted to money. Your hour has value, especially if it’s one of the few hours of free time that you have available. Always take this into consideration while managing your resources since oftentimes saving money means doing things by yourself.