What’s Hurting Your Home’s Value (and how to fix it)

Five Things That Can Lower Your Home’s Value

When it comes to maintaining or increasing your home’s value, you probably think of major renovations, curb appeal, and market trends. But there are some other factors that can decrease your property’s worth. If you are planning to sell your home, here are five things that can potentially lower your home’s value.

1. Excessive Personalization

Your home should reflect your personality, but overly customized features can make it harder to sell. Bold paint colors, built in entertainment centers, and unique room conversions (like turning a garage into a home gym or craft room) may not appeal to the average buyer.

How to Avoid This

• Stick to neutral color palettes for walls and flooring
• Choose removable or easily reversible customizations
• If you have already made major modifications to your home, consider reverting them before listing

2. Poorly Maintained Landscaping

Curb appeal plays a huge role in a home’s value and a neglected yard can be a major red flag for potential buyers. Overgrown lawns, dead plants, or a shabby looking exterior can suggest to buyers that there may be deeper maintenance issues inside the home.

How to Improve Your Exterior

• Regularly mow the lawn and trim the hedges
• Remove dead plants and weeds to keep the landscape neat
• Invest in low maintenance plants to keep the yard attractive with minimal effort
• Take care of any peeling paint around the exterior

3. Unpleasant Odors

Lingering smells from pets, smoke or strong cooking odors can deter buyers and could potentially lower your home’s value. Smells can seep into carpets, walls and furniture making them difficult to remove. You may not even notice these smells, you’ve become “nose blind” to them.

How to Keep Your Home Smelling Fresh

• Deep clean carpets, drapes and upholstery regularly if you have pets or smoke
• Use air purifiers to help to eliminate persistent odors
• Open windows as often as possible to improve ventilation

4. Outdated or Poorly Done Renovations

While DIY projects can save you money, poor craftmanship can be a big turn-off for buyers. Improperly installed flooring, messy paint jobs, and poorly installed tile work can make your home look neglected.

How to Ensure Quality Updates

• Stick to projects within your skill level or hire professionals
• If your previously DIY projects are not up to par, consider having them professionally redone before listing
• Consider updating fixtures to modern, timeless choices

5. Nearby Vacant or Neglected Homes

Your home’s value isn’t just about your property-it is also affected by the neighborhood. Nearby foreclosures, vacant homes or homes in disrepair can make the entire area look less desirable, which can impact your home’s worth.

What You Can Do

• Stay engaged with your local community and encourage neighbors to help with the neighborhood upkeep
• Report abandoned properties or code violations to local authorities
• Maintain your own property’s curb appeal which may encourage your neighbors to do the same

Even small details can significantly impact your home’s value. By addressing these potentially missed factors, you can better protect your investment and attract buyers when you do list your home.

If you have questions, or are thinking of listing your home (even if it’s not for years) let us know, we can help!