Inexpensive Improvements That Boost Your Home's Value

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A new roof, a swimming pool, and additional square footage can all increase the value of your home in the eyes of a prospective buyer. Unfortunately, many people don't have the budget for such expensive home improvements. Here are three low-cost improvements that can also improve your home's value.

Address Basic Maintenance Issues

It's no secret that a well-maintained house is more appealing than one that is poorly maintained. However, "maintenance" is such a broad term that it encompasses some expensive improvements too. For example, replacing the roof is an expensive maintenance practice.

However, if your home is in reasonable shape, you don't have to venture into expensive maintenance. Just take care of the basic things like dripping taps, rusty gutters, and leaky faucets. In most cases, these are the first things potential customers will notice when they tour your home, and you don't want to give them an upfront reason to run away.

Make Your Landscaping Look Tidy

Just as you wouldn't have potential buyers in your house without tidying it up, you shouldn't stage your home without tidying up the landscaping too. The idea is to convince people that your home is well cared for and maintained. You don't want the potential buyers wondering if the rundown landscaping is a sign of hidden issues.

Here are some of the things that will help tidy up your landscaping:

• Trim your bushes and yard so they don't obscure the doorway and walkways.
• Trim or prune away dead tree limbs.
• Cut the lawn and define its edges.
• Weed the flower beds.
• Clean up the water features.

Leverage the Power of the Front Door

You should know that some of your buyers may make up their minds about whether to purchase the property just by looking at the front door. People deduce numerous things, whether real or imagined, just by looking at the front door. The front door can help people assess the security, the energy efficiency, and the protection the house provides from the weather. Therefore, sprucing up your front door can improve people's opinion of your entire property.

Take these measures to improve your front door:

• Give the front door a new coat of paint.
• Ensure the security light is operational.
• Repair cracks on the driveway.
• Ensure the door lock isn't rusty.
• Repair broken or cracked front steps.

Some of these are things you can accomplish on your own while others may require the input of a professional. Talk to your real-estate agent for more suggestions, especially some specific to your home, about what you can do to improve your home's value before a sale. You can also look at other homes for sale and see what their owners have done. 

26 August 2016