You’ve decided to renovate your home, but before you begin, have you considered if it will bring down your home’s market value, especially if you choose to sell your home at a later stage?
Think about whether or not the improvements will add value or not, and if it will help you sell your home more quickly and for more money. Potential buyers might find your renovations unattractive unless your home is situated in a sought-after neighborhood. Buyers will then maybe overlook your colorful walls or ugly kitchen countertop.
Home designers and real estate agents generally advise you to keep resale in your mind when renovating, especially if you plan on selling your home in the future.
Read further for examples of renovations that can hurt your resale value and keep your house on the market for long.
1. Converting Your Garage into Additional Living Space
Your garage space can offer you endless possibilities, such as a gym or living space. But not all buyers want the extra space and prefer a garage for cold and rainy temperatures. If you live in cold weather climates, the garage will be more valuable than an additional room. Nobody wants to shovel snow off of their windshields in the middle of winter when they can keep their car parked in a garage.
Potential buyers might also prefer to go to a gym on their way to or from work, or maybe they don’t enjoy working out. They might not even have a use for the extra living space, so instead, leave the garage alone if you know you’ll be selling your home at some point.
2. Combining Rooms
Avoid temptation by combining two bedrooms to form a master closet. Eliminating living space or powder rooms can chase potential buyers away. Buyers could be looking for a home to raise their kids in and will need the bedrooms.
3. Too Much Color
There’s nothing wrong with having your walls every color of the rainbow while you’re living there, but once you choose to sell, consider painting your walls in neutral colors. Your tastes might not appeal to others’ preferences. Paint that’s not neutral colors can give buyers a negative impression of your home, even if they can still paint the walls themselves.
When you start repainting your walls, consider hiring a professional to do the job for you, as chips in the wall or uneven colors can make your home undesirable.
4. Forego the Swimming Pool
Pools are expected in warmer states such as Florida and won’t scare off buyers, but it would make no sense to have a pool in Massachusetts. Pools can get seen as an expensive problem in areas with cold temperatures, where every season you have to open and close the pool.
Potential buyers might also see a swimming pool as a costly maintenance issue that they don’t want to deal with themselves. Buyers may also not want to deal with the added insurance costs.
5. Renovations Without Permits
Renovations usually require permits from the municipality to ensure that home improvements are up to code. Before your house gets sold, you might need to get a home inspection done. Buyers could also ask for copies of permits if renovations got done.
There are several costs involved if there was unpermitted work done when selling a home and the city needs to tear out and redo the work. They can even levy a fine should they feel the need.
6. Ditch the Carpets
Even though having carpets in some areas in your home is nice, you should avoid carpeting your whole home. Carpets tend to be unattractive to first-time home buyers, and they might be looking for lovely hardwood floors instead.
Carpets are off-putting to most people as it’s unattractive and can make a room look dated. Carpets in your home can decrease your home’s selling price, whereas hard flooring in your home can increase its value.
7. Avoid the Wallpaper
Texture and patterns on wallpaper can make a potential buyer feel overwhelmed when entering your house for the first time. Add to that, removing wallpaper can also be a pain. Wallpaper could become a dealbreaker for many potential buyers.
If you are selling your home, consider getting the wallpaper removed and paint the walls in neutral colors.
8. When Landscaping Goes Wrong
Many homeowners think they’re improving their home’s value with landscaping, but instead, expensive landscaping can decrease its value and increase maintenance thereof.
Not everyone shares the same preferences, so your landscaping might not be attractive to potential buyers.
Instead, keep your garden neat, tidy, and simple, with low maintenance, and remove any decorations that can chase buyers away.
Can’t Sell Your Home in Massachusetts Due to Recent Renovations?
If you quickly need to sell your home in Massachusetts, contact us! We will save you time and money and prevent you from paying for any renovations that need to get fixed up.
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We buy houses all over Massachusetts and would love to hear from you if you are in the market to buy or sell a home.
To get your free no-obligation cash offer, contact us today for a consultation at 781-309-7085.