One of the most important things to keep in mind is the paint job. Ideally, you should get both the interiors and the exteriors of your house painted. A fresh coat of paint can give the whole house a fresh and vibrant look. If you do the paint job yourself, you stand to save a lot of money that you would have otherwise spent on professionals and buying the paint is not very expensive in itself. Also, this is likely to be the biggest expense in your renovation.Just look at your house from an outsider’s perspective and find as many flaws as you can, like broken tiles, torn curtains, etc. Just ensure that these minor details are fixed.

After that, your job is to make the house look welcoming and inviting look. Try some clever lighting to highlight the best features of the house and dim lighting to create the perfect mood in the right places. Bring fresh flowers into as many places in the house. They make their surroundings look fresh and bring good energy. Apart from that just make sure that everything is spic and span and stays that way until the house gets sold.

Fredericksburg Home Buyers:

Once a buyer has become interested in buying your investment property, the real negotiating points come into play. Curb appeal draws them in and helps to give them a psychological connection to the house. Practicality quickly becomes important as they start to add up the cost of appliance replacements and plumbing fixes and will want to start deducting these costs from the price they’ll pay for the house.

Have the house as fully insulated as possible. Good insulation is a great selling point for both winter and summer energy savings and look over the furnace to be sure it operates correctly, also change the filter if it has one. Go all around the house and feel the windows and doors for any air leaks that may be causing loss of heating or cooling. Install weather stripping or caulk as appropriate.

Check the plumbing. Look over all of the fixtures and look under the sinks for leaks. If something is leaking, fix it. You can use Teflon tape on the fittings to help seal them and keep them from leaking, but if you have to unscrew the fittings the tape allows you to easily do so.

Install storm windows and storm doors if the house has them. If the house doesn’t have them, it’s a good idea to get some. When a house is sold with the storm windows, storm doors, and screens it is a definite plus.

Check the gutters and clean them out. If they need replacement or repair, invest the time and money to do so. Rusty and poorly maintained guttering is an eyesore and the buyers will notice. Leave them up if they are in good shape and paint them if you have to so they look respectable.

The septic system, if the house has one, should be pumped out and inspected if it’s old. Make sure there is no odor or backup. Slow draining sinks should also be taken care of. Any time a buyer can find functional flaws in the house, they feel that they can start discounting their offer accordingly. It will cost you much less to make these repairs than it will if the buyer wants money off for the flaw.

If the shower doors are made with frosted glass, you can replace them with clear ones. This will give a cleaner look, as frosted glass is somewhat outdated. The runner rails for the glass doors have a tendency to get pretty ugly after a time and those can be cleaned with patience. Use a good bath fixture cleaner and a descaling product if the hard water has left scales.

There may be rusty spots on fixtures and the door rails. They can be rubbed out with steel wool gently to remove the rust. Try using a toothbrush to get in between the rails. Those are tough spots to clean because cleaning pads and sponges don’t typically fit easily.

Use a lime or descaling product to clean the grout between the tiles. Bleach can do the trick sometimes but test first to be sure it works. Again, try the toothbrush trick on the grout, too. It’s a perfect fit for most grout and makes it easy to scrub.

Use caution when using caustic bathroom cleaner products because there is a tendency for baths, especially in older homes, to have poor ventilation. The fumes from these products can harm you if you breathe them in. Never mix bleach with anything but water. Turn on a bathroom fan if there is one and open the door and window. If it’s an interior bath with no ventilation to speak of, place a box or other kind of portable fan in the doorway facing out of the room to dispel the fumes away from you.

Faucets are an easy replacement chore. They can be purchased relatively inexpensively, or you can buy the newer versions that can be quite pricey but are very attractive. Tall faucets and unusual sink bowls are also stunning.

Replacing doorknobs and cabinet handles can give the room a new look. If you have a vintage or Victorian look in the home, a glass doorknob is an awesome way to take the room back in time. That would go well with a claw foot tub. A more contemporary home would be well served by a brushed copper or aluminum look.

Replace caulking around the bathtub to really clean it up. Put in a new toilet seat. If you can spend a few hundred dollars on a bathroom remodel, it will help the house show well.

Invest in a grill and/or a service bar. You can assure yourself that you will earn rich dividends on these thoughtful investments. A swing or rocking chair is not a bad idea too, if you do not mind spending a few extra dollars. If you have a small television set at your house that is an extra, consider shifting it to the patio to make it look like a mini home theater!

Get rid of all the unused items that you have stowed away in this part of your house. Clean it thoroughly and see to it that before a showing, the flooring, windows, walls and doors are neat and tidy. If you have some dull furniture in there, putting a bright table-cloth over it would do wonders to liven it. The lighting in your patio must make a statement. It is advisable to keep this part neutral so that the buyers are able to adapt the patio to any occasion. A well-designed lamp is a nice lighting mode, as are plenty of small yellow bulbs built in the ceiling.

Paving is a major concern for owners. Laying bricks and natural stones over concrete is highly popular because it is both- reasonable and low-maintenance. Getting professional help for doing up your patio is highly rewarding in the long-run: so don’t itch to spend some more time and energy on this aspect.

That sounds like a very good reason to pay attention to your entryway. The look of the front entrance from the street, the front door itself, and the space just inside the front door are what are seen in those crucial first few seconds. First impressions are critical, just the way first impressions are important when one meets people. You’ll want potential buyers to have a wonderful first impression of your house for sale.

There is a way to make that first impression stick. The entry door should have a covering or overhang of some sort to protect you from the weather. Everyone can remember one time or another that they have been stuck in inclement conditions while trying to dig their keys out of a pocket or purse. An overhang is a great way to say ‘welcome home.’

If there is no front porch, you can add a deck. Dollar for dollar, decking is one of the best returns on your investment money. Even if you live where winter is harsh, the potential buyer will imagine himself relaxing on that deck when spring breaks and barbecuing on it in the summer.

The front door itself can be an immediate eye catcher. Any plain color home will stand out if you paint the front entry door feng shui red or slate blue. Use a color that contrasts, but complements, the house paint. If you paint only the door in that way, it automatically draws the eye to the entry.

Place a few flowers or shrubs on either side to accentuate the entry. If you use a type of plant that is easy to maintain and shape you won’t spend much time keeping it looking great.

Lighting is of utmost importance here. Replace a porch light with a new one for a fresh look. Be sure to use the right light fixture for the style you wish to create. Rustic lanterns are great on casual entries. Modern fixtures with cleaner lines are designed to spruce up a more contemporary looking home.

Whatever you decide to do to upgrade your entry, remember to keep the first impression rule in mind. Go out to the street and take a look at what it looks like from there.

Think with your head and not your heart when it comes to business- even if the object in business in is your own home. If the inclusion of some furniture, cushions, carpets etc. help you get a better deal, don’t haggle over these petty things- unless they are especially important to you. Save your precious time, energy and money on the larger things rather than the smaller ones. Whether it’s your own offer or the buyer’s, try to exploit every opportunity that comes your way to your own benefit.

You must be able to communicate your needs and priorities very clearly to the buyer. Be very forthright about your requirements to the buyer and also have a thorough understanding of what he has on his must-have list. Accordingly, both parties would not, then, propose deals without due concern for each other and also prevent any awkwardness settling in between them.

Be willing to accommodate a little; negotiation after all is about “give and take”. Don’t be absolutely inelastic- if the buyer is offering to low prices, instead of refusing it pointblank, try bringing it up to a figure (maybe midway between the list price and his offered price) where you both can mutually benefit. If things look absolutely bleak, don’t hesitate to walk away, but make sure you never end any professional equation on a bitter note.

Everybody wants to get a good price when selling a house. So naturally the house is painted; the furniture and fittings are spruced up; the garden is mowed, raked and trimmed; the exterior is given a face lift; and repairs are carried out. But there’s still more that you can do that might help you get a better price for your house. And most of these don’t involve patching or painting any part of the house. So make that extra effort – it’ll be well worth your while. [..more..]

Fredericksburg Virginia: To understand how a buyer will look at your house, put your self into his shoes. Then we will be able to make out any problems which may have been over looked by us. It is very easy for us to over look certain aspects of our home because we see them all the time. Hence it is recommended to ask a friend to give you a fair run down on the house. Some of the most insignificant issues which may look small for us may cause the sale to fall apart. [..more..]