Planning to sell up in the new year? If so, now is a strategic time to get your house looking top-notch. House hunters often start searching in January because they see it as an opportunity to have a fresh start.
To get a higher price for your house, it could be wise to do a little bit of DIY in advance of getting it valued. But where to start?
Focus on the key rooms
There are some key parts of the house where people expect real quality. Generally, house viewers love to see up-to-date bathrooms and kitchens.
If you want to give the kitchen a full update, you’ll need to decide on a new theme and choose new worktops. A laminate worktop is the most affordable option, followed by wood. For premium materials like quartz and granite, you can expect to pay a little bit more.
And if you want a complete update for either your bathroom or kitchen, it’s a good idea to arrange it before the festive season comes into swing. This means you’ll get everything finished in good time. Try to research thoroughly though and not make any impulse decisions. Of course, you may find the “part update” option more cost-effective, now that the cost of labour and materials has increased so much. This is a perfectly legitimate approach.
Paint for the kitchen
To appeal to the house hunters of 2024, you may want to repaint it in a colour that’s currently popular.
Stark white kitchens are not currently very sought after. However, off-white and wooden brown tones are very on-trend. Earthy green shades are all the rage for kitchens at the moment!
Of course, if you’re just part-updating your kitchen, it’s probably important to you that your new paint looks good with the current fixtures. If your kitchen furniture is already neutral, you’ve got lots of freedom to paint those walls in the latest colours.
Replacing small bathroom items
Bathrooms are also a huge selling point, if done right. Revamping a whole suite can be costly, though. Thankfully, it’s easy to get hold of individual items that need to be replaced, like soft-close toilet seats and shower doors. It’s usually fairly straightforward enough to fit items like these, also.
Sometimes it’s the small details of a bathroom that make it look dated. If it’s a long time since you changed the bathroom tiles or flooring, consider swapping these out for something more modern.
Most people expect good ventilation in a bathroom as standard. If yours still doesn’t have an extractor fan, this could be off-putting to potential buyers. They don’t want to have to splash out to fix a damp problem further down the line. So, this is one more thing you might want to consider.
Before you put your house on the market, decide which updates it needs the most to make it stand out to potential buyers. Getting this done before the new year could be the best way to get ahead of the game.
