Could your house cause a bidding war?

The housing market is booming, as more and more buyers are taking advantage of the low mortgage rates. The competitive market caused about 42% of people who purchased a house in 2020 to engage in bidding wars! Can you imagine how great it’d feel, having people fighting over the chance to buy your home?

However, if you don’t take the time to increase your home value, the offers you get won’t even come close to your asking price. To help out, we’ve created this short guide, all about sprucing up your home’s appearance, without breaking the bank. You can make a big profit selling your home, but only if you’re able to stand out to buyers in the competitive housing market.

Read on to learn how to increase the value of your home on a budget.

Spruce up the Bathroom

You can start increasing the value of your home by sprucing up your bathroom. However, instead of taking on a major bathroom renovation, you can focus on low-cost upgrades that make a big impact. For instance, you could begin by choosing a color to paint your bathroom.

When you’re choosing a color for your bathroom, think about the mood you want it to evoke. Do you want a calm, serene bathroom scene? If yes, then explore paint colors like gray, beige, or sea green. Whereas, if you want a refreshing beach feel, you could choose light-colored shades like baby blue or yellow.

Replace Toilet Seats

Next, unless they’re already fairly new, you should replace all of the toilet seats in your house. Loose toilet seats can create safety hazards, while also making it difficult to keep things hygienic. 

Install Blinds

Installing wood plantation blinds is another way to transform your bathroom space on a budget. We find that classic white plantation blinds tend to work best, no matter what color you decide to paint your bathroom.

Bar With Hooks

Lastly, you can also try installing a simple bar that has hooks. Potential buyers will be able to imagine what life would be like in a bathroom where towels never wind up on the floor! Instead, fresh, dry, towels and robes will always be hands reach away.

Keep up With Home Maintenance

Another way to increase your home value is to stay on top of your home maintenance checklist. To help you out, here’s a quick home care checklist:

• Clean furnace filter
• Clean the reusable air filter
• Check water softener
• Clean showerheads
• Inspect sink drains for clogs
• Clean fireplace flues
• Seal drafty windows
• Powerwash exterior
• Inspect the roof for broken shingles
• Fertilize your lawn
• Clean kitchen exhaust fan

Lastly, in addition to the list above, you’ll also need to keep up with the maintenance of your garage door. By regularly lubricating the tracts of your door, and keeping them clear of dirt and grime, it’ll open and close with ease when buyers are around.

Improve Curb Appeal

Next on our list of tips to increase the value of your home, let’s talk about curb appeal! Take a moment today to look at the outside of your home from the curb of the street. Take note of any landscaping that needs attention, and scan the driveway for any clutter or debris. Next, check the sidewalk to see if there are any weeds you can take care of.

If you think your yard isn’t welcoming enough, try planting a tree or 2. For the best results, have the 2 trees frame either your entryway or house. Next, flower boxes are a quick, cheap fix when you need to make your yard look more inviting. Once your yard’s looking spiffy, you can start focusing on your home’s exterior.

After power washing, the windows and siding of your house, consider whether or not it’s time to paint your home. If you do decide to paint, choose a color that will help your home stand out to buyers. For instance, you could choose a bold color like red that contrasts with your house’s shutters, trim, and doors.

Paint the Front Door

If you don’t want to paint the entire exterior of your home, you can still impress buyers by simply painting the front door. If you don’t have a storm door or glass door between your front door and the outside world, you’ll need to choose exterior paint.

Next, to avoid unsightly knicks and scratches, we suggest you choose glossy paint. Flat and eggshell paints are more prone to knicks, whereas glossy ones are more resilient. After you paint the door, let it completely dry before you reattach the hardware.

Affordable Kitchen Renovations

Last but not least, your kitchen is one of the best places to work on increasing your home’s value. You can start by looking at the condition of your kitchen cabinets. Replacing kitchen cabinets can wind up costing you a fortune. That’s why instead of buying new cabinets, we suggest you give your current ones a makeover!

Simply remove the cabinet doors, strip them, and repaint them. If your cabinet doors are too rough looking to spruce up, get rid of them completely. By removing the cabinet doors, you can create an open shelving concept throughout your kitchen. All you’ll need is a colorful wallpaper to line the back of the open-faced cabinets, and your kitchen will look like an entirely new space.

Finally, you’ll want to replace items in your kitchen that look outdated. For instance, if you have an old looking black splash with busy colors, it can wind up making your kitchen look old. Instead, go for a simple, sleek black splash that only uses 1 color.

Increase Your Home Value Today

It’s exciting learning how to increase the value of your home. Instead of having to put off projects because they’re outside of your budget, you can finally start taking action!

Go ahead and pick 1 of the ideas from this article that you can do to increase your home value. Next, pick a day this week that you can start the project. For some of the simpler projects, you can even involve the entire family, making it a team project!

Are you ready for more helpful tips and tricks? Stick around and read another article then!