Improve your home to sell without over capitalizing
Category Blog
While the current, virtually standstill, national economy continues to prevail, there has been a significant increase in the number of houses coming onto the already oversupplied Johannesburg/Sandton residential market.
As a result, buyers have been - and remain - spoilt for choice as competition between sellers continues to intensify.
One of the best ways a seller can improve both the appeal and the value of the 'for-sale' home would be to upgrade the security system. These days, this is a vital component of a best-price sale.
Ideally, it creates a home in which the owner is responsible for his or her own security - even if it is in a gated estate, where responsibility lies with third-party service providers and equipment. These include
1 Boundary wall
2 Electric fence
3 Perimeter beams
4 Outdoor lights
5 CCTV cameras
6 alarm connected to armed response
7 Panic button
(acknowledging 24/7 assistance here)
(A man called Jerry Smith once said: "Security is not expensive. It is priceless". It has also been said that "...a house without security cannot be a home.")
Buyer resistance
Another important factor to take into account is that there is widespread buyer resistance to internally dark houses.
Rooms that have been painted in dark, sombre colours should be re-painted in lighter hues. Hedges and bushes that block out the sunlight should be cut away - without spoiling the garden landscape.
Furthermore, it is relatively safe to spend money on upgrading kitchens, and/or bathrooms, if the current value of the house falls into the bottom 60 per cent of residential properties in the area.
Always bear in mind that too much upgrade investment in the wrong suburb will be difficult, if not impossible, to recoup - so check home prices in the area before you spend a cent.
In normal market conditions, the general rule is to invest no more than 25 per cent of market value of the home on improvements and renovations. In the current market, more prudence is probably warranted.
Furthermore, care should be taken about over-costly use of the '3 Fs'- fittings, fixtures and finishes - as well as buying too heavily into today's fast-moving trends in technology and design.
Waiting hopefully
The bottom line is that the long-standing process of expanding and modernising a home, and then sitting back and waiting hopefully for the inevitable return on investment, is itself becoming obsolete as new technology continues to roll out.
Above all, take care to avoid the pitfalls of re-decoration.
For instance, if a house has a fairly fancy kitchen - with colourful tiles and wooden cabinets - and you come along and change it into a bright white kitchen, you will have removed something that already had a value. It's not as though it was an old kitchen.
Similarly, changing the tiles on an already decently-tiled patio will not necessarily increase the value of the home. It is simply window dressing.
Author: Ronald Ennik
