Quote:
Originally Posted by Randall55
My advice is to keep things simple. Pay close attention to the color of cabinets and floors. The more neutral; the better. Example: White cabinets- oak-colored floors. Perfect! Buying a home with unique colors will be difficult to sell. Paint your walls the same color throughout. A light shade will make the rooms appear bigger. Keep landscaping minimal. Most people hate to take care of high maintenance lawns. Do not add a built-in. Turning your 3rd bedroom into a permanent office will reduce the amount of interested buyers. If your plans are to make money on a home, you do not have to spend a lot on upgrades. Upgrades are not a guarantee that you will make more money on the resale.
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As someone who is currently looking in the resell market, this is great advice. In particular:
landscaping...when I see a house with many bushes and hedges, my only thought is "how much will it cost me to rip all of that out and replace with something lower maintenance?"
Built-ins...People seem to love built-ins down there, but they are a major turn-off to me as a buyer (I can only speak for myself and won't generalize for the buyer market). Even though I plan to use a room as a home office, I still am turned off by a huge built-in desk/cabinet/murphy bed monstrosity in a room. I want to maintain flexibility down the road. And that means not having to tear out a built-in after I formally retire.
The places that attract us (me and wife) the most are blank slates where we can project our vision, not places where we first have to imagine getting rid of a bunch of things before we can imagine how we can implement a vision.
Back to the market, There are houses that I have been watching for quite some time now. Some are stubbornly holding on to their asking price, others are chasing the right price with either modest or aggressive price cuts. But the vast majority are not sniffing their asking price when they finally do sell. It is not 2022 any more; and from my observations, it has gotten worse (for sellers) over the last month.