By Melissa Dorman, March 25, 2021
Home repairs are important to keep up on, in general, but they’re even more important when you’re preparing to sell your home and hold an open house.
Prospective buyers won’t ignore even minor problems in a house, from broken light switches to leaky faucets, so you’ll want to have your home in tip-top shape before holding an open house. To get the best results, allocate about a month’s worth of time and enlist the assistance of a Realtor to guide you through the process of maintenance and repairs.
If it has been years since you’ve last had a professional home inspection, you should consider doing so before you start on the home repairs.
Improve your curb appeal
You will want to make your home look appealing from the street. Fix peeling paint, mangled gutters, and roof and siding issues.
Consider landscaping your home, particularly if it doesn’t have amazing curb appeal. Especially when the weather warms up, it’s important that homes look inviting from the outside.
Paint, refinish and polish
Once inside, buyers will first notice the walls and flooring, so you’ll want to get them looking nice and neat. One simple home repair you can do to freshen up your house is to apply a new coat of paint.
Painting may be the number one, low-cost fix that a seller can do. A fresh coat of neutral color paint will do wonders to make the home look cozy and inviting. Give it a little color (not too drastic) and allow it to air out for a few days before the open house.
If you have hardwood flooring, have it refinished before the open house. Replace areas of tile or laminate flooring where it looks damaged, cracked or worn. For carpets, have them professionally cleaned. If stains remain, you should probably replace them altogether.
Update your interior
Go through the home and replace outdated fixtures with more modern ones. Also check the bathrooms and replace cracked mirrors, dated medicine cabinets, and old fixtures and cabinet hardware.
Fix small things like burned out light bulbs, running toilets, broken light switches, leaky faucets, broken window blinds and loud exhaust fans. Not only will buyers remember these small things, but minor repairs can add up for a buyer, so getting those out of the way early can make your home more appealing. If your appliances are outdated but you don’t want to spend the time replacing them, consider offering a credit instead of buying new ones.
Consider staging
Staging is not cheap, but it’s definitely worth it. Staging highlights the best features of your home and draws attention away from awkward spaces, narrow rooms, and really showcases your home in the best light. You can expect your home to show very well and buyers will be much more engaged and excited about your home.
Melissa Dorman
Broker | OR & WA
She/They
Ten years ago, Melissa was living in a slum in Kolkata, India, helping over 200 women escape sex trafficking by providing alternative work at a social business.
It was there she discovered her passion for financial education as a means of empowering people to move out of poverty. After graduating from UCLA with a Masters, Melissa spent 5 years working as a Social Worker; assisting clients facing homelessness, in jail, or at a psychiatric facility.
As much as she loved the work, imagining saving for retirement on the meager salary of a social worker was becoming grim. That's when Melissa discovered "passive income." In no time, she fell in LOVE with real estate as a vehicle for wealth. Soon after, Melissa began locating off-market multi-family properties to purchase through creative financing strategies and win-win opportunities. Two years into investing, Melissa quit her day job as a Social Worker to become a full-time broker and investor. Initially, she was drawn to people in difficult circumstances, so she developed extensive experience assisting families facing foreclosure, short sales, and probate. Melissa is well versed in helping her clients overcome complex real estate challenges.
Currently, Melissa is teamed up with Super Broker, Yascha Noonberg at Living Room Realty. Together they assist clients to achieve their real estate dreams, including how to strategically buy and sell a personal residence to maximize profits. Far from the slums of Kolkata, her greatest passion now is empowering other working professionals to develop passive forms of income through buying multi-family properties in Portland.
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- T: 503-567-4697
- melissa@livingroomre.com
