Regular home maintenance check-up is very important in every house to spot minor problems in the interiors and exteriors of the house, as well as the plumbing, wiring, roofing and other house areas that aren’t visible. Make this a routine and a regular maintenance check-up as problems often occur at any time of the year. You can do the checking on your own or hire an expert to do the job for you, but for an additional cost.
If you plan to do the house repairs on your own, but don’t exactly have the idea where or how to start, Sara Elliott of How Stuff Works has listed the most important home repair skills you must know. Read the article below to learn more.
5 Home Repairs You Really Should Know How to Do Yourself
Whether you want to paint a whole room or just need to cover a nail hole, nothing helps to maintain or improve the appearance of a room like paint. You haven’t owned a home very long if you don’t have paint spattered work clothes in your closet and a couple of paintbrushes in your basement or garage.
Sprucing up your rooms with paint is one of the best ways to show your home to advantage, but before you start collecting color swatches, there are some things to keep in mind. Painting, when it’s done well, can increase the value of your home and add style and flair to your space. When the job isn’t done well, and it’s easy to see roller marks, spatters, and sloppy trim paint, it’s almost as bad as leaving cracked and peeling paint on the walls.
You’ll achieve the best results when you prepare for the job. Where painting is concerned, prep is king. Good preparation takes time, but it also makes the actual painting easier.
4. Dealing with Doors
You have doors all over your home, and even though they look innocent and simple, doors need occasional maintenance and repair. From squeaks to sticking, door problems are usually minor but can be a nuisance.
Wooden interior doors aren’t exposed to the elements, but they’re still subject to seasonal climate changes. In humid weather, wooden doors can swell if there isn’t enough room to accommodate expansion between the door and the frame. Inspect the door to make sure there aren’t any loose hinge screws or deteriorated hinges that could be causing the problem. See full post here…
When it comes to home repairs, there are certain tasks you must know how to do regardless of the condition for they are very important. That includes fixing broken doors, paint jobs, plumbing problems, etc. Knowing how to do these utilities can save you time and money rather than hiring someone to do the job for you.
Doing these repairs and maintenance little by little will put you on a huge advantage the moment you decided to sell your house in the future. However, the above mentioned are only the basics. If you plan to sell your house, there are other maintenance routines you must do, and Jamie Wiebe listed the most important repairs to make before selling your house.
6 Important Repairs to Make Before Selling a House
Image Courtesy of AlexRaths/iStock
There are some important repairs to make before selling a house, so don’t be in too much of a hurry to get your home listed. Selling your home might feel like a rush to the finish line. The market is hot right now, you think—so you should hurry up while you can still get a good price. Or perhaps your dream home was just listed, but you can’t move in until your current place sells … so you should expedite this, right?
The problem is, if you move too fast, buyers see right through the fact that you skipped important home renovations. And this, my friends, might end up costing you time and money. Lots of both, in fact.
So take the time to sell your home right. These six important repairs to make before selling a house will make your home sell faster and for more cash. And some of them aren’t even very much work.
1. Spruce up the grounds
This is one of the easiest—and cheapest—tricks in the book: Good landscaping can add up to 28% to overall home value. Why pass up free money?
“When it comes to houses, they are often read by their cover,” says Helaine Newman, a Realtor® in Fairfax, VA. “Homeowners should make sure their home is nicely landscaped so buyers want to come in.”
Hire a landscaper to give your front yard the once-over, or just clean up the details yourself (e.g., edge the lawn, plant flowers), and update the outdoor furniture on the front porch to give the space a fresh, “buy me now” appeal.
2. Love the hardwood
Still rocking that old-school carpeting? Get rid of it, like, yesterday.
“One of the biggest turnoffs for buyers is dirty old carpet,” says Newman. “To get the best price possible, it is worthwhile to invest in wood floors.”
Right now, carpeting isn’t just an aesthetic choice—it’s a choice that can actively turn away buyers who can’t see beyond it. Instead of noticing what a wonderful, light-filled living room you have, they can think only about just how much money it will cost to get rid of that nasty old carpet. Do it yourself and save them the trouble. What you have underneath might be far more presentable, with a bit of cleaning and refurbishing. If it isn’t, a new floor is a worthwhile investment. Click here to read the rest of this post…
By the term important meaning that they must be done with utmost urgency. Don’t be in a hurry to put your house in the listing page. You might get tempted with the high home prices, but fixing your house will increase your house’s value. Check out this article written by Jack Guttentag about fixing the home before selling it.
Fix Up a Home Before Selling It, or Not?
Houses almost always look better when furnished than when empty — they also look larger! If you are moving to another residence and plan to take your furnishings with you, if possible, arrange things so that you show the house before you move out of it.
However, if your house also has structural defects that are costly to fix, as mine did, the challenge is in deciding whether or not to fix them before sale.
Structural Defects: Every house has defects, some obvious and others hidden. Both types will affect the price a buyer is willing to pay. It is a mistake to think that a potential buyer will assume that the only defects that exist are those that are visible.
Serious buyers will most likely invest in an inspection by a firm that specializes in such services. The firm retained by my buyer produced a document of 22 pages of small print, plus many photographs. Buyers that don’t retain an inspector will probably assume the worst about the unseen condition of the house.
When it Pays to Fix the House Before Sale: There are two circumstances that favor fix-up before sale. One is where there is a large variance in the cost of the fix-up, and a potential buyer is likely to over-estimate the cost. In the case of a septic system, for example, the cost depends on the condition of the soil, and if the seller knows that the condition is favorable and the cost low, it makes sense to fix it before sale.
The second and probably more compelling circumstance is where most potential buyers have the capacity to make only a small down payment, and are therefore not in a position to fund the cost of major repairs after purchase. By making the repairs before sale while setting a correspondingly higher price, a buyer is in effect financing the improvement in the mortgage. If a buyer with limited cash had to make the improvements after purchase, the financing costs would be substantially higher.
When it Pays to Sell As Is: I sold my house as is because I had already committed to a new one and wanted detachment from the old one as soon as possible. Furthermore, the buyer who fell in love with my old house had the financial capacity to pay for all needed improvements. She didn’t need the larger mortgage that would have been obtainable if I had made the improvements. In addition, one of the required improvements to my old house was to a deck, which could be done in a variety of ways based on individual taste, and it made no sense to do it according to my taste. Read the entire article here…
There you have it, regular home repairs, fixing and maintenance is crucial not just to preserve the home’s condition and durability, but also its worth. Also, doing repairs little by little is much cheaper and efficient than doing the major fixing, or worse renovation if fixing does not work anymore. Always think ahead, when the time comes you want or need to sell your house, you don’t have to do rush repairs that also adds additional cost.
IF you have done all the needed repairs and is ready to sell your house but don’t know where to start, Dependable Homebuyers can help you in that matter. We have helped hundreds of people who want to sell their house fast in Baltimore and other areas. Visit our website https://www.dependablehomebuyers.com to get started.
Dependable Homebuyers
1402 Belt St, Baltimore, MD 21230
(443) 266-6247
