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Get Your Home Ready for Sale with these 10 Upgrades

Last updated on September 12, 2018 By Millennial Boss 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you purchase through my links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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What home upgrades do buyers love to see? Kitchens, Light Fixtures, & Bathrooms.

This year we were able to sell our home for $100k more than we paid and received multiple offers at list price within 6 days.

Here are the 10 updates we made to get our home ready for sale.

 

Get your house ready for sale with these 10 updates | #homesale #homerenovation #realestate

 

1.  We replaced carpet with hardwood floors.

We wanted a living room that looked a bit more luxury and upscale than a typical family room.  The hardwood floors helped achieve that look.

Tile brass fireplace makeover

Hardwood flooring stain choices - this is Jacobean

We also added hardwood floors in the master bedroom for the same reason.

 

2.  We chose an attractive stain for the flooring.

This floor is stained ‘Jacobean’ and we LOVE how the stain was dark but still showed the grain.

This is a Jacobean Floor stain that we used when adding new hardwoods to increase our home value for resale

It took me forever to pick the stain but there was something about the coffee coloring in the Jacobean stained floors that I really liked.

I have no regrets with that color.

3.  We removed ALL the brass from the house.

This included updating the shower enclosure to remove the brass,  spray painting the brass door handles, and painting over the brass in the fireplace mantle.

Brass is very 90’s and buyers hate it.

We used Rust Oleum black paint for the fireplace and Rust Oleum spray paint in satin nickel for the door knobs and shower enclosure.

My husband did this project 100% himself.

Before brass fireplace makeover

How to paint over brass fireplace

brass door handle update

Tape the shower door before spray painting it to cover the brass update brass shower door

Here are how-to tutorials to paint over brass:

  • Painting over your brass fireplace
  • Updating your shower enclosure to remove the brass
  • Spray painting brass door knobs for under $30

4.  We cleaned up the landscaping outside the house.

We purchased little rocks from Home Depot and bought this whiskey barrel and planted flowers.  This provided the curb appeal we needed for the house.

We also removed and replaced any small bushes that weren’t green or looked bad.

Landscaping updates to make when selling your home Landscaping tip when getting your home ready for sale

We wanted buyers to envision themselves hosting people on the patio so we also added in-ground lighting. It wasn’t very expensive to add a few lights.

All in we probably spent a couple of hundred dollars on landscaping.  This was WAY less than the $1500 we were quoted from landscapers to basically just mow the lawn and weed.

5.  We added a Nest Thermostat

We thought the Modern Smart Home Look would appeal to buyers so we bought a Nest.  The thermostat was super easy to install and can be controlled from a phone.

Nest smart Home is a great upgrade to make when selling your home

You can buy a NEST on Amazon here.

We believe it did make our home look and feel more modern.  Smart homes are definitely trending and I’m kind of jealous now that our new buyers have this because I want one!

6.  We got inspections of the furnace, water heater, and AC.

You can pay less than $100 for someone to come out and look at the furnace and the HVAC and provide some sort of report that they’re in working condition.

We printed out the reports and left them out for buyers to look through when touring the house.  Our agent also sent the documents to buyer’s agents after contract.

Why did we do this?

We remembered being impressed the previous sellers provided this information to us when we bought the house.

It’s more for peace of mind than anything else since buyers will do their own inspections.

These reports can be especially helpful if you’re worried buyers will be turned off that the furnace is old (which was a concern of ours since our furnace was in good condition but at the end of it’s working life according to standards – 15 years).

 

7.  We added subway tile to the kitchen.

white subway tile kitchen makeover

I’m so upset we didn’t do this update when we lived in the house. It’s GORGEOUS and I love it.

By the way the grout is platinum in color.  It took me awhile to pick the grout so sharing in case that makes it easier!

platinum grout on white subway tile | kitchen makeover

8.  We replaced the lighting fixtures with modern ones.

I am in LOVE with this lighting fixture from Amazon.  It’s not that expensive and looks great.  We’ll definitely be buying this for our next house.

Update the light fixtures when selling your home I LOVE this modern farmhouse style light fixture! Made my kitchen look so good

The color for the light fixture is barnwood & oil rubbed bronze.  It comes in multiple colors.  Buy the light fixture here on Amazon.

 

9.  We took down the curtains and curtain rods.

Our home stager recommended we do this and we 100% agree.  The house appeared lighter, bigger and brighter without the curtains.

 

10.  We paid for modern home staging.

I’m a Magnolia fan and am obsessed with the modern farmhouse decor that Joanna Gaines made popular.  Many of the staging companies I saw though had more dated pieces and style.

Then I found Maple & Moss designs in Colorado Springs and knew that I had found our stagers.

We paid a reasonable price for really high quality staging and it made all the difference.

get house ready for sale upgrades

I’m obsessed with all of the pieces she used!

 

The Result… our home was ready for sale!

We got multiple offers at list and it went under contract in 6 days.

List price was $100k more than we paid in 2014.  I call this a win!

What are your tips for getting a home ready for sale?

How I got my house ready for sale and got 3 offers at list price

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Millennial Boss
Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.
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Filed Under: Home

About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle.

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Comments

  1. Angela @ Tread Lightly Retire Early says

    September 12, 2018 at 1:52 am

    It’s crazy how much more you can sell a house for when you don’t ignore the superficial cosmetic stuff. And now you need to come over and update my house ?

    Reply
  2. Kate says

    September 12, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    These are fantastic tips. We recently took a huge loss selling a home, and I’m still feeling the (emotional and financial) pain from that. I agree that a good home stager can make a big difference!

    Reply

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About Millennial Boss

Julie paid off nearly $100k of debt and is on her way to financial independence. She is the creator of the Make Money with Printables side hustle course where she teaches people how to sell printables on Etsy and blog as a side hustle. Learn more..

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Please note that Millennial Boss has financial relationships with certain merchants mentioned. Affiliate links may be used and commission earned in this post. While all attempts are made to present correct information, it may not be appropriate for your specific circumstances and information may become outdated. Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

About Millennial Boss

Millennial Boss is a lifestyle and personal finance blog created by Julie, who paid off six figures of student loan debt and is now on the path to financial independence and early retirement through side hustles. She lives in Seattle and teaches others how to start blogging and sell printables on Etsy.
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