Highest ROI Improvements for Sale

Every seller thinks their property is the best house in the neighborhood. I’ve been to properties where dead rodents are in the toilet, and the sellers won’t settle for less than 200K above market value. It’s just the way things work in my job - emotional attachment to properties is a very real thing and their homes are part of their identities. As a result, very few sellers are self aware of their true property value. However, to tame my most audacious and analytical sellers, I like to message one simple fact: there are a few simple improvements sellers can make that can make a seller’s price pipe dreams come true. In other words, price is inextricably linked to value. Sounds obvious, but let’s dive into this a bit. 

When advising seller clients, one of the most common questions is “What should I do to get the house ready for sale?”. While some agents like to infuse their personal design sensibilities into their listings (“oh my gosh this light fixture is to DIE for!!!”), I like to keep things simple. It’s my job to net my sellers the most amount of money for the property. Therefore, I will only advise improvements that are proven to translate a healthy ROI once the house is publicly exposed. I have organized these improvements into tiers of importance and net returns:

Tier 1 | Highest ROI | Paint and Staging

• Paint: Everyone complains how every house for sale is painted white. At some level, these whiney open house enthusiasts are correct - white interior is extremely boring. That being said, there’s a very good reason to paint all the walls white. It makes every room appear brighter, larger, and eliminates any distractions from the floorplan. It also creates the perfect canvas for any staging and artwork suitable for the home’s architecture. Now, not all homes require this - sometimes original wood panelling deserves its place in history and leaving the original integrity intact is the right move. Also, not all shades of white are created equal - every house should be customized based on the way natural light hits the common areas. 

• Staging: Many of my sellers still think that staging is unnecessary. From their perspective, sellers pay an exorbitant fee to move their furniture out so some hot shot designer can move their furniture in. On the surface, it appears silly. That being said, staging is consistently the best investment a seller can make. Once again, it makes the home feel larger, brighter, and therefore more valuable. More importantly, it fulfills the imagination of anyone that walks through the door. Today’s millennial home shoppers react very positively to nice staging. One may conclude that millennials have no imagination, but I didn’t say that, did I? One more advantage that is rarely mentioned: sound. An empty vacant house gives off a slight echo when conversations occur. With furniture, rugs, and artwork, the sound is contained. Everything feels cozier and more intact. In other words, it’s more “homey”. 

Tier 2 | High ROI | Floors and Kitchen Prep

• Flooring: this one is obvious. Once you paint the walls, stage, it’s hard to justify wood floors that are scratched and stained. It adds the extra “umph” the house needs to make all surfaces consistent. Also, it is shocking what new carpets will do to a property. 

• Kitchen Prep: I’ll let everyone in on a little secret here. If a home has older cabinets and without a clear path of how to prep it for sale - just paint the cabinets, put on new knobs/pulls, replace the sink and faucet. Voila. Full transformation.

Tier 3 | Custom Work - High ROI if Needed | Counters, Tile, Etc

• Same dilemma as above: once all this prep is performed, it’s difficult to leave the 50 year old cracked brown tile. Those counters will have to be replaced, but this is not true for every house. This same outlook applies to backsplashes, shower tile, bathroom vanities, etc.

• Generally speaking and in my opinion, it’s ok to leave most bathroom work to the buyers. However, this very much depends on how severely ugly (and functional) the bathrooms are (see rodent issue above). 

• Sometimes I find very custom things in a house. Example: I had a client who was very much into cuckoo clocks. There were no less than 35 cuckoo clocks in the living room, and they were fixed to the wall. As difficult and costly as this may be, it is absolutely in the sellers’ best interest to remove highly custom touches. 

To conclude - every house has unique strengths and weaknesses. Although the approach is always customized for each property, my preparation approach will always optimize a homes strengths and lessen the effect of any weakness a home has. With only high net-return improvements, a seller’s return is maximized. Feel free to contact me for more info or advice. 

Alex Narodny

[email protected]

415-847-0309