Cliff Barron from RE/MAX here. Happy New Year everybody! Heading into the new year and things are looking bright for a lot of people - you know, getting 2020 out of the way. I'm not really doing an update today because it's the new year and I'm only going to do market updates every two weeks. I do have a tip for today, but I'm going to do stats in 2 weeks, which gives you better numbers to go with - a week is a bit short for data.
So my tip for today is about doing home improvements before selling -is it worth it? Do you get the money out of it? That's the question. A couple of examples here: I had a client recently ask me if they should do (about $100,000) renovations on their home. I said, "Let me take a look at your house first." So I took a look and then I gave them my opinion - but we'll get to that in a sec...
I had another client in Milton who asked for a home evaluation. I did an evaluation. It just so happened that the house next door had sold. My client mentioned that the neighbour's house didn't have any upgrades at all, so it was interesting that it had sold. But what happened was that they sold three months ago but the deal fell through. After the deal fell through, the sellers decided to renovate the home. They put in a new kitchen. They put about $30,000 worth of renovations into the home. And they sold it three months later for $30,000 more. So, in other words, whatever money they put in - they went through all that dust and mess and everything and they got the same money back. So, I don't recommend that.
Another example: I sold a house in around October or so - a condo townhouse in Mississauga. I sold it for, I think it was $690k. The neighbors sold theirs for $710k. They had bought it two years earlier and had completely gutted it. They spent maybe $100,000 in renovations. My client spent $0 and they ended up netting about $20,000 more, and they had an end unit.
Let me get back to that one I was mentioning earlier about, the clients who were thinking of selling in two years. For them I said, "You know what? Go for it because you're going to increase the value of your home from the renovations. Possibly. But the main thing is you're going to live with those renovations for two years. So you're going to enjoy them. That's a big thing." Then, as long as you pick nice colors and don't go with hand-scraped flooring, go with a nice light gray kind of flooring -that's what everybody seems to want these days. You have to go with very popular choices. If you're thinking of renovating a house and then selling it in three months and making $100,000 more like they show on TV (most are based in the States), that doesn't really happen up here. You're barking up the wrong tree. What you ARE going to do is you're going to sell faster. You're going to appeal to more people. You'll sell faster. You'll sell for more. BUT - you'll end up basically recouping what you put in and maybe just a little bit more.
So, if you're thinking of selling, here are my tips: If you're thinking of selling soon, first of all, look into paint. It's cheap and it's quick. And then staging -you have to get your home staged. And then, the third thing is - have it absolutely spotless. That's it! You know, you don't have to do a heck of a lot more -especially in a market right now, where the demand way outpaces supply. And with every single house that I sell I bring in my home stager. She gives a lot of pointers - and you get a professional eye on it, for sure. That's one of the services I offer and you should demand that from your agent too. But if you're not using me... why aren't you using me? That's the question!
So hopefully this helps people out and in two weeks I'll be back with my biweekly updates for Milton, Georgetown and Glen Williams, and again - HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'll talk to you guys soon.