Preparing Your Home For Sale On A Wise Budget

If you're planning to sell your Old Del Mar home in 2008, it's time to start thinking about how to make your home stand out from the rest.

But beware: Owners of Old Del Mar homes aren't able to recoup as many improvement costs as they did in recent years, according to a recent study by Remodeling magazine. In selling an Old Del Mar home, it's more important that it's neat, it's clean and it looks spacious, rather than making sure it's the top of the line.

The thing I find with sellers, if they do a lot of remodeling, they will take the cost of the remodeling and add it to the cost of the home and ask the buyer to pay for it. But often they're not going to get that higher price.

To keep costs down and remodel wisely, consider the following tips:

• Ask for advice. Talk with your Realtor as early as six months before listing the home. She'll make a list of improvements that will make a difference. Cleaning the carpets, painting the walls and removing wallpaper are common fixes, if they're needed. But prior to any remodeling, de-clutter your home and rent a storage unit if necessary to hold extra stuff while the home is on the market

• Dig deeper. It also could pay to look below the surface by getting a home inspection before listing the property. That way, problems that could hold up a sale are addressed in advance. Some estimate that for every dollar of perceived defect, buyers want a $2 to $3 discount. If that's true, it might pay to spend $2,500 replacing an old furnace.  If there's a problem with an essential element of the house, a buyer might think "if that was neglected, what else was?"

• Look outside: Pay attention to exterior details such as the condition of siding and windows. According to Remodeling magazine, a wood window replacement recovers an average 81% of cost at resale and a siding replacement recovers an average 83%, some of the best payoffs in the survey.

• Spend time in the bathroom. Freshening up the bathroom doesn't have to be expensive, but can be important. People will put up with a lot of cosmetic challenges in a house if they know they could use the bathroom right away. It's important for the bathroom to be clean, but also consider replacing cracked tiles, as well as the sink and the toilet -- if they need it. A toilet, for example, can cost less than $250.

• Keep it small in the kitchen: Remodeling magazine found that homeowners could recover 83% of the cost of a minor kitchen remodel at resale compared with 78% of a major kitchen remodeling. I caution clients not to replace refrigerators, stoves or dishwashers. Buyers considering remodeling the kitchen will likely have their own preferences. Along those same lines, replace a countertop if it's crumbling but not if its only fault is that it's outdated. Even then, seriously consider material costs, there's no need to update to granite unless the competition has granite countertops as well.

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