How To Fix A Home To Max Profit On The Cheap…
What would be a strategy for buying a home if you only planned on living there for a very short amount of time? This scenario comes up a lot of times with military families that have orders for two years that may or may not extend past two years. Often the question becomes, do we rent or do we buy?
Well… when you go to sell your house, it will cost you about 10% There are Realtor fees, buyer’s closing costs, transfer taxes, + miscellaneous fees. Those are not required fees per se, but that’s just on average would it cost to sell your house in Maryland in 2019.
So the day you buy your house, you have to basically overcome a 10% deficit (if you use a VA loan it could be 13.3%) The national average of a 20 year over year home price increase is 2.5% so you could say after two years you’ve overcome 5%. How do you overcome the other 5%?
Payments? No, on a 300k loan after 2 years you have paid down about $11,250 just shy of 3%
So when you’re buying a house, what are you ging look for? You want to look for a home that is got a great layout and has a lot of appeal but there are some cosmetic things in the home that makes the desirability and the “perceived value” not the appraised value lower (it’s dated and ugly…)
For instance, it might have laminate countertops, mismatched appliances, ugly carpet, wallpaper, strong paint colors, old fixtures etc.
In those situations, typically you can come in and do minimal cosmetic work and get a huge return on your investment!
Let’s talk about a few things that you would probably want to avoid. This would typically include big-ticket items like needing a new septic, well, roof, replacing all the windows, or replacing all the siding… If you replace those things with new, you’re not going to get you your money back most of the time.
So the things that you can gain the most value with the shortest amount of effort or the least amount of money would be cosmetic upgrades starting in the kitchen. The number one thing would be granite countertops. The next thing that you want to do is appliances and not necessarily go buy brand new appliances, just get used appliances. The hot new thing in flooring is laminated vinyl planking, it’s waterproof, it’s easy to put down, it’s click-and-lock so most homeowners (even me 😁) can do it.
A few more real quick:
Sheet vinyl in the bathrooms, replacing faucets, door handles, light fixtures, ceiling fans, and of course lots of painting.
If you are looking for some advice on how to get your home fixed up for sale, get in touch with us and we would be happy to help you make some $$$ when deciding how to fix up your home even if you’re not selling for a long time…
