So where is the difference in value between one house and another? This is good to know if you want to sell your house, but especially if you want to buy a house.
I’m going to explain it to you.
Maintenance
Every home needs maintenance. I notice that many people are doing the wrong maintenance. For example, trying to replace or patch up something cosmetic before the sale that will do nothing to the value. Maintenance involves things that you need to maintain structurally sound to ensure that your home is not damaged. Consider:
– Roofs (such as replacing old bitumen roofs)
– Cleaning gutters
– Perform exterior painting
– Rainwater drains: blockages and repairs
– Replace plumbing where necessary
– Facade Maintenance
– Check the work every few years
– Sweep the chimney
– Maintaining wooden floors indoors
– Cleaning the oven
– Replace rubbers fridge, bathroom doors
– Check grouting bathroom where necessary
– Replacing leaking or broken windows
– And many more
We also like to see back that most of this kind of maintenance is done by professionals and there is a neat file with invoices and warranty certificates. Why professionals? Because as a seller, you’ll fall through with the buying broker and/or the building inspector if bad work starts costing you money.
Has it been handled with love?
In follow-up maintenance, we would also like to see that the home was handled with love. You can bet that if, when you enter the house, the socket fronts are missing, the stained-glass windows look smashed and the toilet brush is black, then the whole house has been so mistreated. I see it almost every week. You don’t have to be a third medium as a viewer to have this raise doubts and reservations.
Confess your color
Is it a “chore house“? Fine, then let it also be a nice chore house where the buyers can indulge themselves quite a bit. I’d rather not have a brand new pink kitchen in an illogical place that has to be taken out again.
Is it a “move-in ready” home? Then you also have to make sure it is finished. No leaky windows, no smelly sewer, no defective furnace, no outstanding chores. Simply: finished = finished.
Is the home well maintained, but is everything just old and out of style? So say this honestly on Funda; ‘well maintained but in need of modernization’. In practice, people often do not recognize that their home belongs to this group. Then, if expectations are not managed properly for the real estate agent from the beginning, that home will be overpriced and as a result, long for sale and not sold. I also mentioned this in this earlier blog that people praised their homes too highly.
Confess your color and you’ll get the most out of the sale.
Outdoor space
Very dull, but if you have a house of 120m2 and there is a garden of 20m2 then this house will always (now and in 100 years) remain the odd one out and sell badly. So does a home with no outdoor space. Yes an east-facing garden scores lower than a sunny garden, but that is surmountable.
Location
This is an inside joke that everyone gets. Location, location, location. A home in a popular neighborhood in or around the center surrounded by pleasant amenities scores better than a home in the middle of nowhere.
Location
A home where there is constant traffic noise and vibration scores much lower than a home on a pedestrian street 100 meters away. Personally, I am not usually a fan of homes on through roads.
Classification
Is the house logically and efficiently laid out. Is the space used smartly, are the bedrooms big enough, are the traffic areas (stairs, landing, corridors) in smart places, etc.
But we also look at whether the spaces are in the right proportions. I recently went into a family home that had a ballroom of a bathroom, while lacking 1 bedroom.
Sell Fitness
Has the property been properly prepared for sale? See our article on getting your home ready for sale.
Well marketed by the broker
Very important that:
-The asking price is not set too high, but also not too low
-A professional presentation (photos, texts, etc) has been made
-The bidding strategy is good, but more importantly, so is the selling broker. Unfortunately, there are plenty of sales agents running around who don’t smell opportunities and therefore don’t take advantage of them.
Which for more tips on selling your home this blog.
Is it a good investment?
And then the last and most important tip: always buy a house that you can also sell well again! Rather spend a little more for that property that does have a garden, that is logically laid out, that is NOT on wooden posts, that is NOT on expiring ground lease, that is in a WANTED location and also where ALL the pieces and documents CLICK like a bus. When buying a home, the rule is: pennywise, pound foolish.
I know a house costs an awful lot of money these days, but don’t start cutting back on the wrong things. Always get professional assistance from a well regarded/recommended buying agent and ask why he thinks this is such a good investment and not the other home(s) you saw together.
Goodluck! And for more questions, send me a message or give a call.