When trying to get your home to live up to the beautiful designs you find on Pinterest, it can feel like you’d have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to see improvement. This is luckily not true: homes are selling fast in San Francisco, and even a small DIY home improvement project for beginners can be enough to make a valuable bump in interest from buyers. Learn about and try one of these projects before you sell!
Pressure-Washing Siding and Walkways
As long as you follow the guidelines, a rented pressure washer can help you remove dirt, debris, and moss from siding and turn older, greying walkways into bright concrete again. While these aren’t the kind of changes that make people see a different feature to the home, they give a general first impression of the home being both younger and of it being well-maintained – just be careful not to damage siding by holding the pressure too close or at the wrong angle.
Effective, Well-Maintained Landscaping
Even if you have a very small lawn, you can do a lot to make it look good. If you’ve never been one for a green thumb, you can still commit to mulching beds, mowing the lawn, and reseeding small patches of the lawn that have gotten thin. If you want to put a little more into it, consider asking a nursery employee or landscaper what kinds of plants would thrive in your soil and planting some already-in-bloom perennials right before listing. Yes, your future buyer might do something different with the landscaping, but they’ll see it in its best state when they come for a showing.
Replace Worn Front Doors
Replacing a door is really a matter of finding and purchasing the right door and making sure you have a way to transport it home or get it delivered, so you don’t have to make a huge effort on your own. This is a particularly good update, however, if your old door is incongruous with the look of the house now, is very faded, or has peeling paint of any kind. While of course any weathered portion of the home could benefit from replacing or repair, the front door gets an outsized amount of attention – think about what your potential buyers look at while they wait for the start of a showing!
Replace Damaged Storm Windows or Screens
Extreme weather and just regular life can damage storm windows or screens, and the overall look from outside can be a little weathered even if you’d never notice it inside. Take a weekend to evaluate whether any of your windows are in dire need of a screen or storm window update; unlike installing entirely new windows, this is a project that even an inexperienced DIYer can usually handle with the help of some trusty Youtube videos and excellent measuring skills so that they get the right shape and size of windows.
While these may not sound like “fancy” Pinterest projects, rest assured that they can make a big impact on a small budget, even if you are very close to starting to sell your home.
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