Should You Fix Up Your Home or Sell It As Is?
Trying to decide whether to sell your house as is or invest in repairs? Your choice will likely depend on a number of factors, including the condition of your house and the state of the housing market.
Before you put your home on the market, learn which home improvements can boost the value of your home and improve the odds of a quick sale—and which may turn out to be a waste of time and money.
Key Takeaways
- Consider the state of the real estate market to decide whether to sell your home as-is.
- Keep in mind that buyers may not want to purchase fixer-uppers.
- Some improvements offer a high return on your investment, including replacing windows and siding.
- At a minimum, consider repairing anything that’s broken or worn out, like windows and light fixtures.
Ralene Nelson, REALTOR®
JUST LISTED – 127 Alpine Drive Rio Vista,
2bd/2bth/1,462sq.ft.
Located in the Active Adult Community, Trilogy at Rio Vista. Don’t miss out on this gorgeous home, completely renovated, from the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, window coverings, all fixtures, all new interior & exterior paint. Painted in soft colors, new tile flooring & heated flooring in master bedroom & bath. The kitchen was gutted, new cabinets, quartz counters, sink, and appliances. Large fenced backyard for your pets leased solar & patio. Two-car garage with golf cart space. All appliances convey. HOA has 2 pools, spas, gym, tennis bocce, etc. READ MORE
SOLD – 131 Sequoia Ct, Rio Vista
In town Rio Vista, super family home, large lot for garden, play area, and RV parking. 3 bedroom, 2 baths some upgrades. Carpet throughout with vinyl in kitchen & baths, wood-burning fireplace in the family room. Kitchen cabinets are painted white with new countertops & a new built-in oven. Backyard offers so much space for gardening and entertaining. Automatic sprinkler system both front & back. Could have RV parking on both sides of the home. Several fruit trees, avocado trees and shed.
SOLD – 21 3rd Ave Isleton
Diamond in the rough. Home has been vacant for a few years waiting for someone to bring it back to its former state of loveliness. The home features a great location and original wood floors. The home needs many improvements and sits in a flood zone, but excellent location for a family cabin just blocks to the delta. Perfect for the DIY’er, investor, handyman, or contractor. READ MORE
Real Estate News
30 Tips for Increasing Your Home’s Value
Home Improvements: Under $100
Tip 1: Spend an Hour With a Pro
Tip 2: Inspect It
Tip 3: Paint, Paint, Paint
Tip 4: Find Inspiration
Tip 5: Cut Energy Costs
Home Improvements: $100- $200
Tip 1: Plant a Tree
Tip 2: Low-Maintenance Landscaping
Tip 3: Money-Saving Luxury
Tip 4: Improve the Air Quality Inside Your Home
Tip 5: Save the Popcorn [Ceiling] for the Movies
Home Improvements: $200-$400…
A Guide To Decluttering To Sell Your Home
If you are looking to sell your home in the near future, or if yours has been on the market with no bites as yet, you’ll be wanting to get the maximum sale price in the quickest time for it – to make it an easy transition to your new home – especially with the market like it is at present.
There are a variety of things that are out of your control when selling your home, including market conditions, location, price bracket, etc… – but the one thing that is totally within your control and that you can really do something about is the look and feel of your home (inside and out).
In this post, I want to explore the reasons why it’s really worth spending time on your home before you leave it, and what a good declutter can achieve – both for you and for your potential buyers!
21 Plants to Add Instant Curb Appeal When Selling Your Home
Boxwoods
When you’re ramping up your curb appeal, start with evergreens that give structure to your yard. Boxwoods make great foundation plants and come in many sizes, so you can also add them to beds and borders.
Mix in annuals and other plants with year-round interest, says Julie Arnold Camp, a realtor with Better Homes and Gardens Metro Brokers in Atlanta. “Annuals give color during the length of the listing. Using pots is also a good idea to add seasonal color, or to add color to an area that has no interesting character.” Tip: flats of annuals are usually cheaper than individual plants.
Roses
Roses aren’t attractive in the winter, and even when they’re blooming, they often need pruning, fertilizing and spraying. But some roses, like the Knock Out family, are low-maintenance, which many homebuyers know and appreciate, and they produce spectacular flowers from spring until frost.
Tip: Smaller Drift roses, which mature around 18 inches tall, are also easy to grow and make a pretty groundcover for sunny spots.
LEARN MORE: Growing Double Knock Out Roses
Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas give you a lot of bang for your curb-appeal buck. They’re easy to grow, need little care and put on a spectacular show when they bloom. Most of these flowering shrubs prefer morning sun with afternoon shade and are hardy in Zones 4 or 5-9. ‘Invincibelle Mini Mauvette’, shown here, is hardy in Zones 3-9 and takes full sun.
Tip: If you use lush, leafy hydrangeas to camouflage an unsightly foundation, leave a couple of feet between the plants and the house so they have room to spread.
Front Door Urns
For fast curb appeal, post urns on each side of your front door, and plant them with feathery-textured Pinpoint Blue false cypress. These evergreen shrubs grow into tall, narrow columns, so they won’t block your entrance. Here, they’re underplanted with ‘Spot On’ lungwort (Pulmonaria); the pink buds will open into blue flowers. The urns also hold yellow pansies, creeping phlox, calibrachoas Superbells Honeyberry and Shadowland ‘Autumn Frost’ hostas.
Tip: Urns are also ideal for growing topiary plants.
Hostas
Bare spots under your trees don’t make a good impression when you want top dollar for your home. Tuck shade-loving hostas into those areas, or use them around shrubs and in borders. Their flowers aren’t showy, but their leaves, which come in shades of green, gray, blue, cream, and yellow-gold, are standouts. Choose small, medium or large varieties; most are hardy in Zones 3-9.
Tip: Add containers of shade-loving begonias and impatiens for pops of color. Shown here: Shadowland ‘Autumn Frost’ and Shadowland ‘Coast to Coast’.
Annuals
Inexpensive annuals are easy to establish, and they make good fillers when your bulbs, perennials or flowering shrubs stop blooming. For fast curb appeal, pop them into containers, hanging baskets or window boxes for splashes of color. Marigolds, petunias and geraniums are popular and easy to grow.
Tip: If you’re selling in the cooler months, try flowers like pansies and mums or ornamental kales and cabbages. Supertunia ‘Bordeaux’, pictured here, blooms profusely until frost.
Daylilies
Sun-loving daylilies add cheerful color to your home when they’re planted in masses. These tough perennials tolerate heat, drought and many pests and diseases. Grow early, mid- and late-season varieties, and you’ll have a flower show that lasts for weeks.
Tip: If your home doesn’t sell, divide the clumps after the flowers fade and you’ll have extra daylilies to plant. This variety is Rainbow Rhythm ‘Going Bananas’.
Porch Planters
You’ll probably stage your home to help buyers imagine living in it. Why not stage your porch, too? Fill big planters with fabulous flowers like SunBelievable Brown Eyed Girl Helianthus and add a comfortable lawn chair. These award-winning sunflowers bloom on compact, multi-branched plants from spring to frost.
Tip: Cut the blooms for indoor bouquets, too; the plants can produce up to 1,000 flowers in just one season.
Ornamental Grasses
Easy-to-grow ornamental grasses boost your home’s curb appeal with interesting textures and add movement to the landscape as they sway in the breeze. Use them for a contemporary look in beds or large containers or let them soften a rock garden or bed mulched with coarse bark, stone or gravel. Graceful Grasses ‘Sky Rocket’ combines here with Supertunia Mini Vista petunias in indigo, violet and white.
Tip: ‘Sky Rocket’ turns brown in the fall, but you can find winter-hardy, ornamental grasses that stay attractive year-round.
Mixed Pots
Stately urns or traditional stone and resin pots of flowers and foliage will catch a buyer’s eye, but they don’t suit every home style. Galvanized tubs, half barrels and other informal containers add charm to cottages, ranch houses, mountain retreats, log cabins, farmhouses and more. This blue-purple butterfly bush, Lo & Behold ‘Lilac Chip’ Buddleia, grows 18 to 30 inches tall and plays nicely with red Superbena Scarlet Star verbena and Superbells White calibrachoas. The butterfly bush is hardy in Zones 5-9, while the other plants are annuals in cold winter areas.
Tip: When combining plants, be sure they have the same basic needs for water and light.