Maximizing the value of your San Diego home is important if you're in the market to sell it.
Making a few improvements can help increase your home's value, but hiring a professional real estate agent is in your best interest. They can put their knowledge and expertise to work to get the most value for your home and make it more attractive to potential home buyers.
Working closely with a realtor and following this comprehensive overview can help you increase your home's real estate market potential.
Evaluate your home's potential
Your home is worth the amount that buyers in the San Diego market are willing to pay for it, and that's typically not clear until you list it on the market and offers start coming in. However, there are still ways you can evaluate the value of your home without having to put it on the market first.
1. Assess the strengths of your home
When you understand your home's strengths, you'll be more equipped than others to benefit from a successful home-selling experience. Before the real estate agent lists your property, you'll want to sit down together and determine your home's strengths and weaknesses. Once you've identified them, your agent will highlight the strengths to draw in potential buyers.
2. Understand the San Diego real estate market
With San Diego being such a popular place to live due to its miles of quaint coastline, year-round sunshine, and outdoor lifestyle, it's a little easier to place a steeper price tag on your home. Home buyers expect to pay more for this way of life because it's one of the most expensive places to live. Home buyers can spend as much as 119% more for homes in San Diego than the national average.
Knowing your home's market value is essential in the decision to sell your home. Your home's appraised value should be based on current market conditions; this number will change each time market dynamics change. Your real estate agent will research updated statistical data and market trends and visit comparable homes in the area to determine market value. The assessment of the appraised value that follows can then help determine the pricing strategy that will offer maximum market gains.
3. Identify potential property upgrades or improvements
Most homeowners undertake upgrades and remodeling projects not just to improve their living space but also to boost the value of their homes. However, not all home improvements and upgrades are created equal when it comes to adding value. Some could decrease the value of your home.
There are a couple of ways to look at a project's returns. These are how the project increases the market value or total resale value of your home or the project's return on investment (ROI).
Make improvements and repairs
Home repairs and improvements take planning. It's not something you just jump into without putting some careful thought into it. Some modifications may not add substantial value since they're too personalized, not within the average buyer's taste, or aren't in line with the value and style of other homes in the area.
1. Choose the right improvements for your San Diego home
When it comes to increasing your home's value, certain improvements are better than others, such as kitchen renovations, since the kitchen is the most-used room in any home. Buyers will often seek out updated, modern kitchens. Therefore, you may substantially increase your home's appeal by doing a kitchen renovation. A bathroom remodel is another profitable investment. Similar to the kitchen, the bathroom is used frequently and valued by home buyers. A stylish, updated bathroom can greatly appeal to potential buyers.
Additionally, you can make a big difference in the resale value of your home by adding energy-efficient enhancements. Increasing numbers of home buyers are looking for clean power sources or green features.
Installing a new roof, upgrading your insulation, or putting in a more energy-efficient HVAC system can profoundly impact your home's value long-term.
2. Budget for improvements and repairs
Some experts suggest putting away 1% to 2% of your home's purchase price yearly for regular maintenance projects such as new appliances, sewer updates, or roofing repairs. All these types of projects come with a several thousand-dollar price tag.
3. Hire the right professionals and contractors
You've spent months dreaming, planning, picking out samples, and saving; now is the time to start your big project. Whether you're looking to put in a new addition to your home or a bathroom remodel, you'll want the expertise and skills of a professional home improvement contractor.
When you're having your initial conversation with the contractor, you must go over all the project details from start to finish and discuss your goals with them. Be upfront about your budget and check their credentials, licenses, etc.
Staging and presentation
Professional home stagers know the San Diego real estate market. They have a specific understanding of local home buyers and how to strategically arrange the rooms of homes for sale. Each home staging strategy they develop is highly customized for each home.
Home-staging strategies to maximize appeal
You can boost your home's real estate market potential and increase its appeal with the following home staging tips:
1. Depersonalize and declutter
Decluttering is possibly the simplest and most impactful way to enhance your home's appeal. The worst thing you can do is have photos of a cluttered home in your listings. Sometimes, it takes removing unnecessary furniture or extra items to change a home's look and feel.
2. Focus on rooms with high ROI potential
Not all rooms in a home are valued equally. Generally, having a beautifully updated and designed bedroom won't affect your home's sale price as much as a new bathroom, kitchen, or outdoor living area would. This is partially due to the added inconvenience and cost of updating bathrooms, kitchens, and outdoor areas but also due to how much time is spent in these spaces.
3. Accentuate or add lighting
While some homeowners prefer blocking out light in certain areas of their homes, you can't deny that natural lighting is a desirable feature in a home. Because of this, assessing your home's lighting is a good idea before your real estate agent lists it for sale.
Pricing and marketing your San Diego home
Pricing your home can be a complex process. You don't want to price it too high where you'll scare potential buyers away, causing it to sit for months on the market. But you also don't want to price it so low that you're underselling its value and making it appear as if there's something wrong with the home, such as structural problems. Along with strategically pricing your home, your real estate agent will want to market it creatively.
1. Use your goals and market conditions to set the right price for your home
San Diego's current real estate market conditions will determine your list price. This is essentially what home buyers are willing to pay for homes like yours. When you set your price, consider certain factors, such as your home's condition, size, features, and location, as well as the prices of comparable houses in the area, current market trends, and your desired timeframe to sell. Your realtor will help you determine the best list price.
2. Create effective advertisements and marketing materials
Over the past decade, home hunting has become increasingly digital. Home buyers are turning to the Internet for information supporting their purchasing decisions. Around 90% of home buyers went online while shopping around for homes. Therefore, it only makes sense to leverage digital marketing.
Digital marketing materials may include the following: online ads, videos, newsletters, email nurture campaigns, social media posts, an SEO-optimized website, and high-quality photos. With digital marketing, your real estate agent can convey credibility, emotional connection, factual accuracy, and expertise while making a striking impression.
Let Nick Emerson help you maximize your home's real estate market potential
When selling your San Diego home and maximizing its real estate market potential, working with a professional San Diego real estate agent is key to success. Throughout the process, you can draw on their experience and expertise to ensure you reap all the financial rewards of your greatest asset.
Remember, a qualified real estate agent will recommend improvements to help increase your home's value, offer insight into current market trends, and negotiate on your behalf. So, by relying on a real estate expert like Nick Emerson from the Emerson Group and following these key takeaways, you'll be that much closer to closing on a profitable sale of your home. Contact Nick today to get your home-selling process started.
*Header photo courtesy of Nick Emerson
