The Only 3 Things That Really Impact Your Home Value

There are a lot of factors in what determines your home value, but there are only three things that really make the most impact on the value of your home and how much equity you're going to be taking out of it.

#1: Competition

There's always competition for property, but typically the competition is between buyer and seller; the two of them fighting it out amongst each other. The buyer is focused on what the seller wants, what's the best price I could get, what offers should I make to get the best value?

Well, the number one factor here is you have to take the attention of the buyer, away from you as a seller, and instead pin buyer versus buyer. Creating a buyer versus buyer environment where you take control of the sale and have them fight it out amongst each other is the number one thing.

#2: Eliminate Deferred Maintenance 

These are things that are broken, torn, and obvious. Don't think about things like the oven, for example. The oven may not function, but you don't have to place that much focus or attention on it in terms of preparing for the sale because nobody's coming to your house and baking cookies during the showings. Of course, you'll want to disclose this and it will have to get addressed, but it's not going to impact what buyers will offer. However, when there's something that's just clearly out of place and distracting people's visual experience, it gets them into a place where they're thinking to themselves, “how much will it cost to fix this?” Plus, it starts to get worse from there because of course, they start to wonder what else in the house doesn't work. What else hasn't been taken care of. Ultimately ends up costing you a lot more, than had you just taken care of it.

#3: Condition

The number one way to impact condition is staging. A lot of people will go to someone's house and say, "I'm thinking about maybe fixing up this bathroom here or doing something with the kitchen counter over there." The thing is, that's thousands of dollars sunk into one space and while just that will be upgraded, the rest of the house is the same. If you want to improve condition, which of course improves marketing, and then ultimately improves the showing experience, utilize staging. There is no better investment in your home sale than having the home staged. For a fraction, typically of what you're going to pay to do one little powder room, you elevate the entire property.