What to fix before you sell: 7 improvements that are essential.Most common problems that made a home sale fail.
… A successful solution
The question is: What repairs should you make before listing your home for sale?
- Faulty wiring
- Poor leveling and drainage
- Roof problems
- Poor foundation
- Faulty maintenance
- Home plumbing repairs
- Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning problems
- Conclusions.
Considering the expense of moving into a new home, it’s no wonder you’re reluctant to spend money on the home repairs you leave behind. After all, you’ve learned to live with the toilet handle that needs to be shaken and the outlet that hasn’t worked for a decade. New buyers will have to accept the quirks of your home.
They probably won’t. In fact, those small (and sometimes big) repair problems you’ve tolerated can discourage buyers from bidding or even lead to a low appraisal that can end the deal.
If we are back on the market because we have these repair problems, any other buyer who comes to buy our property will want these problems fixed.
Sales operations that fail due to repair and appraisal problems occur more often than you might think. It is reported that 23 percent of property sales fell due to home inspection and environmental issues.
Another 14 percent did not take place due to appraisal problems. That’s a total of 37 percent of completed sales related to a repair issue that the seller could have addressed before listing the property.
Most common problems that made a home sale fail
In many communities, you are required by law to notify potential buyers of repair problems, and they will likely ask you to do them before the sale. The same is true even for those repairs you don’t know you need.
Once you have accepted an offer, the buyer will hire a home inspector who will find a large number of repair or maintenance problems. The buyer will ask you to make those repairs or accept a lower offer.
It is important to note that bidding lower is not always an option for the buyer. Buyers who put in the minimum amount of money upfront have fewer funds available to make repairs.
These buyers are looking for move-in-ready properties so that they can include the costs of repairs in their mortgage instead of paying them out of pocket.
If you don’t want to lose, it’s best to make sure your home is in tip-top shape.
… A successful solution
This is a letter recommending Special Solutions for the remodeling and repair of your home. We hired them to completely update and remodel our kitchen and make major exterior repairs. Enrique and all his people were punctual and displayed a good work ethic. Schedules were set, adhered to, and completed on time, as promised. These people are recommended.
No two houses are alike, whether yours is unique or is part of cookie-cutter urbanization. This means that your home is going to have its own set of repair problems to address. So how do you find the repair problems that could ruin your home sale?
The answer: Research the most common problem areas that home inspectors find.
These problem areas are:
- Faulty wiring.
- Bad leveling and drainage.
- Roof problems.
- Foundation problems.
- Bad maintenance.
- Defective plumbing.
- Air conditioning problems.
Faulty wiring
Electrical problems are of great concern, causing more than 51,000 electrical fires a year. Solutions to electrical problems range from simple, inexpensive fixes to costly wiring changes. The cost of rewiring a 120 m 2 HOUSE exceeds $ 10,000 on average.
Fortunately, this is almost never a requirement. Even homes built with unsafe aluminum wiring during the 1960s and ’70s are protected by current code and do not need to be replaced.
Most likely, the electrical work you need will be smaller, such as:
- The lack of nuts and cable strips.
- Boxes and junction boxes open or damaged.
- Frayed cables.
- Faulty switches, plugs, and outlets.
A qualified electrician can handle these jobs, which will cost you an average of $50 to $ 75 per hour, plus the cost of materials.
Another expensive electrical repair you may come across is if your circuit breaker doesn’t meet your home’s amperage needs. 100 amps are advised, however, larger homes may need a 200 amp breaker. Circuit breaker replacement can cost anywhere from $500 to over $ 2000.
Poor leveling and drainage
In simple terms, leveling and drainage refer to the way that water, such as from rain or melted snow, moves away from your home. This encompasses:
- The rain gutters.
- Downpipes.
- The way the lawn slopes to direct the water into the drains.
Clogged gutters, downspouts that don’t direct water away from the house, water stains in the basement, and spongy dirt around the foundation are all signs that you have problems in this area that need to be addressed.
These fixes can be as simple as cleaning gutters or adding downspout extensions and gutter grates to avoid clogging.
If your drainage problems are caused by a non-sloped or reverse-sloped patio, you will need to consider re-leveling your lawn. A project that costs an average of If you haven’t reviewed your grading and drainage situation in a while, poor drainage may have caused more serious problems with your roof or foundation.
Roof problems
Clogged gutters cause water coming out of the roof to back up and pool around the edges. This can lead to water damage to tiles and wood rot in fascia boards, eaves, and overhangs.
Your roof can also suffer other damage, such as curved tiles/tiles caused by the sun, storms ripping off parts of the roof in places, or damaged flashing around the vents. If you leave these damages unrepaired for a long time, you will end up needing a new roof.
Depending on the type of roof, a new roof can cost between $4,000 and $12,000. However, if you have a small water leak in your home during storms, don’t automatically assume that you need a new roof. You can most likely fix your roof problems by replacing damaged joints, tiles, and shingles, and it will cost you an average of $ 600 for a qualified roofer and materials.
Poor foundation
Inadequate drainage around the exterior of your home is one of several causes that can lead to foundation problems, both minor and severe. If you’re lucky, your home’s foundation problems will be minor, caused by a home’s natural settling over time.
However, basic foundation repairs can be expensive, as filling a single crack can cost between $800 and $1,500. And that’s not even counting the added costs, like lifting the foundation and the fees of a structural engineer to assess the damage.
If your home has serious foundation problems, chances are you’ve already seen signs of damage. Some signs of foundation problems are:
- Remarkably sloping floors.
- The doors and windows do not close properly.
- Cracks in its interior walls.
- Gaps above the cabinets.
- Visible cracks in the exterior foundation.
In the worst case, you end up paying more than $10,000 or more, and these repairs are vital. A heavily damaged foundation jeopardizes the structural integrity of the entire home, which can make it nearly impossible to sell if not repaired.
Faulty maintenance
These cosmetic problems may seem minor:
- Peeling paint.
- Worn rugs.
- Damaged tiles.
- Cracked pavements.
But there is a possibility that they will derail your sale. This is especially true if your buyer has a loan, as there are banks that have a higher evaluation standard than conventional loans.
Giving your home a mini-facelift also has the added benefit of making your property more attractive to buyers.
The first cosmetic repairs to consider is a new coat of paint and replacing the carpet if it is more than five to seven years old.
If your kitchen and bathrooms are older, you can give them a fresh look with a few inexpensive upgrades like new light fixtures, faucets, and cabinet pulls.
However, don’t spend more than a few hundred on upgrades to make your home more attractive, as you are unlikely to see a return on that investment.
These updates increase the appeal, but not the value of the steak. Buyers may be drawn to the property because it has cosmetic upgrades, but they are not necessarily going to pay more money for them.
Home plumbing repairs
If you have a water leak in your house and it is not raining outside, then you probably have a plumbing problem. And if you have a plumbing problem, you are going to have water damage.
Water damage is of particular concern because moisture can lead to bigger problems such as mold and dry rot.
The cost of repairing water damage depends on a number of factors, including the source of the water, the size of the damaged area, and how long the damage has gone unnoticed.
Aside from water damage, plumbing problems range from minor repairs, such as leaking faucets or toilets, to damaged pipes that need to be replaced.
Some leaks can be fixed fairly inexpensively by replacing worn parts, such as the washers on a faucet or the wax ring on a toilet.
More complex problems, like unclogging drains or replacing pipes, require the services of a licensed plumber, which costs between $ 70 and $ 125 an hour.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning problems
You can’t sell a home with a failing heater in the dead of winter, which is why it’s so important to make sure your HVAC system is in good condition. A new HVAC unit can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $11,000, including installation, so it’s an expense to avoid if you can.
If your system is running inefficiently or not currently working, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need a new one.
A qualified technician can do repairs on your HVAC unit. You just have to be prepared for the expense, as you will pay a flat fee for the service call, plus additional fees for any necessary repairs or parts.
Aside from the ventilation provided by your HVAC unit, your home likely has additional ventilation. This includes kitchen and bathroom fans, as well as attic vents to prevent overheating.
If a home inspection indicates poor ventilation, it can be remedied with additional attic ventilation or simply by removing obstructions from existing vents.
Conclusions.
Now that you know what to look for, how can you detect these problems in your own home? Unless the problem is obvious, your inexperienced eye will most likely not be able to find all the repair needs.
One way to know for sure is to do a preliminary inspection of your home, so that the most important problems can be fixed before you put the property up for sale.
Once you have received the inspection report, it is best to review the results with a technician. With his knowledge of the current market and his experience in evaluating home inspection reports, a specialist technician is well equipped to advise you on which repairs need to be done before listing the home and which ones can be included in the sale.
