Improving The "sellability" Of Your Home

By Author: Jason Delmar
Total Articles: 335
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Like the rest of America, I am also feeling the pinch of the economic down turn and the dramatic drop in the housing market. I am one of the rare people that have a house that is too big for what I need, so I was thinking about selling it. With the housing market being what it is, I figured I could probably find a really good deal on a smaller place that was more suited to my needs. What I didn't take into account was what happened to the value of my home! What at one time was worth $350,000 is now being appraised at $270,000... ouch! I know that I am not the only homeowner facing this problem, but it still doesn't hurt any less.

While the house is in great shape, my real estate agent had some suggestions on how to make sure that it would sell. I was open to any suggestions at this point. Most of them were minor improvements that I could tackle on my own, but the one that surprised me the most was the fact that he suggested replacing the kitchen cabinets. While my home is fairly new, the builder certainly didn't use high grade cabinets. They still looked pretty good, but it was obvious from ...
... the first look that they were contractor grade cabinets and didn't have a wow factor. He said a $20,000 investment could easily produce a $30,000 return. While that sounded great, I certainly didn't have $20,000 sitting around to do it!

Now that knew what kind of return I could get from upgrading my kitchen, I started for the most cost effective way to remodel it without spending as much as my agent suggested it would be. I found a great deal on flooring, which I decided to install myself. A friend of mine was able to get me a deal on granite countertops, which would save me a couple hundred dollars, so that was perfect. When it came to the kitchen cabinets, I was still coming up with a cost of atleast $12,000 for name brand cabinets, which was still more than I wanted to spend.

I started reading articles on the internet about Ready-To-Assemble cabinets, and how much money I could save. The savings sounded great, but I had some real concerns about the quality and the fact that I would have to assemble them myself. I spoke with a couple of contractors who had used them on other jobs, and they reassured me that the quality was there, but I still wanted to see for myself. I decided to order a cabinet to see it first hand. I really was impressed.

When all was said and done, I ended up spending right around $10,000 for the kitchen remodel, and my house was appraised at just under $300,000 (not a bad bump up in value). I put my house on the market, and even in this horrible economy, I was able to sell it in under a month. I was able to find a house that was just the right size for me, and now I have a lower mortgage payment. So even though the housing market may not be a sellers market, by making some improvements in the look and feel of your home, you too might be to improve your chances of getting some extra value out of your house if you are planning on selling.
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