Are you making plans to list your home later this year? If you are, you’ve probably given some thought to how you can maximize your home’s value and get more out of your sale. In addition to home upgrades and remodeling, one of the best ways to prep your home for listing is by properly maintaining it. This not only ensures your home looks great ahead of prospective buyers visiting it, but also reduces the likelihood of a home inspection derailing your sale.
While it is important, you also don’t want to sink thousands of dollars into home maintenance—you may not get all that money back when you sell. Follow the budget-friendly tips in this article to cut your upfront upkeep costs and get a higher return on your investment. You’ll be glad you did.
Deal with major problems before you list
No home is perfect. In fact, it’s those slight imperfections that some would argue make a home, well, a home. While you should do your best to get your home ready for sale, don’t obsess over or worry about dings, dents, and other minor issues: a good realtor will prep buyers to expect these things when weighing properties against one another.
In contrast, there’s a completely different class of issues you should deal with prior to listing. This includes any major issues with the structure, roof, pipes, electrical, foundation, or air conditioning repair. For most prospective buyers, these are huge warning signs and complete deal breakers. The buyer will find out about them in the home inspection, so it’s often better just to bite the bullet, fix the problem, and go into the sale process with a clean bill of health. Of course, every home and situation is different, so talk to your realtor for individualized guidance.
DIY, within reason
Over the past decade, do-it-yourself (DIY), homeowner-led projects have really taken off. Thanks to easy access to internet how-to guides and videos, more and more homeowners are taking care of their own home maintenance. This is one of the best ways to cut upkeep costs and save money. As long as you’re willing to invest the time into learning how to do something and then keeping up with it, there’s no reason you can’t care for your own landscaping, maintain your own pool, clean your own carpets, or paint your own walls.
However, there’s an important caveat here: know when you’re out of your element and are dealing with something that requires a professional. This includes anything to do with your home’s structure, electrical, plumbing, roof, or HVAC systems. Working on any of these yourself can potentially lead to disastrous consequences, including:
- Damage or the risk of damage to your home, as is the case for improperly installed wiring that could spark a fire.
- Danger to yourself, as is the case when you deal with electrical wiring or climb, unsecured, onto your roof for repairs.
- Danger to your systems, as is the case when you open up your air conditioner and furnace—doing so often voids the manufacturer’s warranty.
In other words, DIY what you can, but hire a professional for the important or dangerous tasks.
Hire the right professional
In that same vein, not just any contractor will do. If you want your home’s maintenance to be done right and without any lingering issues, you need to hire a trustworthy, experienced, and licensed contractor. Too often, homeowners—especially those planning to sell their home soon—think the best way to cut costs is to accept the lowest bid for their project. However, this decision can lead to a world of problems. First, if the maintenance isn’t handled right, it could result in issues that show up during the aforementioned home inspection, which is a bad time for any homeowner to learn their home needs repairs. It could cost you either hundreds or thousands of dollars in repairs, money off of the sale, or—depending on the severity of the issue—lead to the offer being withdrawn.
To make sure you bring on the right pro to work in your home, always:
- Get competitive bids from multiple contractors such as or companies.
- Ask each of these companies for references or prior customers who are willing to speak to their work.
- Proof of licensing, insurance, and warranties—this will obviously depend on what type of professional you’re hiring.
- Read online reviews about the company to see what all their prior customers say about them. No contractor bats a thousand, but a string of bad reviews with a common theme can let you know there’s danger ahead.
