Exercise extreme caution

Extreme care must be taken when considering carrying out any major improvements on a property that you plan to sell.

The reality

Say for example you decide that an in-ground spa or pool may be an attractive additional feature for a potential buyer, which in some instances may be the case. But not all buyers look for these features, and in fact, some may request that the properties they view do not have a pool or spa. So let's say you go and spend the $35,000, and these are of no particular interest to the right buyer, in 9 cases out of 10 you will rarely get compensated to the full value of what it has actually cost you.

The same can be said for major renovations. A lot of the time you may save money by having a slightly lower asking price and you are not trying to cater for someone else's taste, especially when you don't even know what their taste is cause you haven't met them yet!

Let the buyer do the renovation

Let the buyer do the renovations to the home to their own taste and let them spend their own money. A budgeted renovation of $100,000 can easily blow out by 20- 30% and it is a heart breaker of a job to have to tell someone who has just spent $100,000 on renovations that they have increased the value by only $60,000-$70,000.

Presenting the home right is different

By all means do the minor repairs and general maintenance to present the home in a good light but always be mindful of large cost items as they may be hard, or impossible, to recoup.

There is no set rule for doing improvements so each case should be evaluated on its individual merit before you commit to spending your hard earned dollars.

iREC- Your Real Estate Whistleblower >

If you are currently selling, or about to sell, and would like someone independent sitting on your shoulder observing the goings on, without interfering in the process, drop us a line and see how we can assist. We understand that you might have only dealt with agents once or twice in your lifetime but we do it every day! Contact iREC and see how we can help.