If you’re looking to sell your Sydney home any time soon, there are some improvement tricks that you can use to uplift the overall look of your home to potential buyers and improve the overall resale value of the property. Here are Wizard’s Top 10 Tips for increasing the resale value of your Sydney property.
Sydney Home Improvement: Remodel the Kitchen
It’s just as the saying goes – the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach, therefore home improvements in the kitchen are the most likely to pay off when it matters. That said; don’t go overboard when it comes to renovating your kitchen. This is a room that should look like a place for people to come together and eat, but it shouldn’t make the rest of the house look grey in comparison. While great huge stainless steel fittings and appliances look great, remember that the home is most likely going to cater for a small family and not a small army, so the kitchen should be fitted out to suit.
Sydney Home Improvement: Put a Bathroom On It
If your home currently only has one bedroom, ask yourself ‘why?’ and then maybe consider adding a second one. You can recoup a substantial amount of your investment by adding a second bathroom – around 80-130%, actually!
When looking for room in your home that could be better used as an extra bathroom, consider ‘extra’ rooms or underutilised spaces. If you’re tight on space, a toilet and sink may prove sufficient – slightly larger spaces could benefit from having the works done: a full bathtub and sink.
Sydney Home Improvement: All Hands On Deck!
Sydney’s real estate agents are constantly saying that people selling their homes should add a timber deck in order to increase the value of their property, and they’re right – reports have said that these sturdy outdoor entertainment areas essentially increase the value of your property dollar-for-dollar. Why is this? With staycations becoming more commonplace in Sydney, backyards around town are now being renovated to create outdoor living and entertainment areas – an extension of the inside, if you will. The costs of adding an outdoor deck to your home will vary depending on how complex you want the structure to be. As with the kitchen, you want the area to stand out, but not so much so that the rest of the house loses value. Wizard Home Improvements are the experts when it comes to outdoor entertainment areas and can lay down a deck to suit any backyard and any budget – call us today to see how we can help with increasing the resale value of your property.
Sydney Home Improvement: Repurpose a room
Space in Sydney doesn’t come cheap, so why waste what little square meterage you have by leaving it unused? If you’ve got a dust-collecting area, come in with a lick of paint and you can convert it into another bedroom or even as a second living room – those slanted roofs are perfect for projecting movies on to! Before you get too excited knocking down walls and installing new light fixtures, think long and hard about the ways that you (or potential buyers) would use the space. Versatile rooms have greater appeal to potential buyers.
Sydney Home Improvement: Be Green, See Green – Make Your Windows Energy-Efficient
Most people in Sydney have cottoned on to the fact that climate change is a real thing and, in order to reduce their carbon footprint, are purchasing with energy efficiency in mind. Investing in windows with a WERS (Window Energy Rating Scheme) label on them – the Cooling Star shows how well they stop the heat from entering the house, and the Heating star shows how well they keep the heat in. The maximum rating is 5 stars, which is a sign of the best possible performance. You can expect to recoup 60-90% of your costs when you invest in energy-efficient windows.
Sydney Home Improvement: Stay Warm When It’s Cold, Cool When It’s Hot
Sydney prides itself on its old terraces and workers cottages, but if yours is lacking basic insulation and has old doors that let in plenty of hot and cold air, home inspectors working with potential buyers will note this. Homes that are not modified with energy efficiency in mind cost more to live in and maintain. Updating your home to save energy is not as expensive as you’d think, and it pays off in the long run. Our suggestion for energy-efficient windows is a good start, but you could also add insulation into your roof, seal cracks around the house, etc. If you need to replace your hot water heater, it pays in dividends to purchase a high-efficiency water heater – this cuts energy bills down by using more economical methods of heating water.
Sydney Home Improvement: Make A Lasting First Impression – Curb Appeal
Just like in life, first impressions matter when it comes to prospective buyers and your home. When prospective buyers are pulling up to the property, it’s likely that they’ll make their mind up whether or not they’ll consider putting in an offer within the first 30 seconds. Even if you think that you’ve done a good job of maintaining it over the years, it doesn’t hurt to do a quick bit of spit and polishing before the first inspection – gurney down the driveway, trim the trees, you get the idea. Anything to make it look as new as the day you bought it.
Sydney Home Improvement: Bits and Pieces
The most basic, banal-seeming updates and chores will actually be the most influential on the overall value of your home. Freshen up paint jobs and make sure to cover up any minor holes or dings that have settled in over the course of your stay. Replace rotting wood, get rid of any mould that you find, do the upkeep that generally gets overlooked but is important to the integrity of your property’s structure. General maintenance is inexpensive and a well-maintained house will be of greater value than a similar house that has forgone regular maintenance activities.
After living in a home that you’ve been in for a while, it can be hard to let go – especially once it’s clean and freshly renovated! However, once the offers start rolling in you’ll realise that the time and money spent on your project was all worth it. Just by putting in a little bit of consideration for design and a little bit of elbow grease, you can watch your home transform in front of your very eyes and increase its overall value. All of the renovations we’ve listed are relatively (some with a bit of additional help) and offer large returns on investment.
If you’re seeking help with home improvements before selling a property, contact the team at Wizard Home Improvements today. We have more than 20 years experience in design and construction work and are specialists in improving the look and value of your home.
