Many buyers have a maximum budget in mind. If you want to move quickly and avoid disappointment, it helps to know your house’s approximate value before you place it on the market.
Appraisal value is a highly important factor that influences the selling and buying of your home. It is like a compass that helps you lead successfully in the real estate industry.
Appraising the home yourself can give you an idea if changes or improvements you make will increase the value of your home and how long it may take for them to pay off.
This factor should be given a lot of attention in order to make your home more appealing to buyers. The presence of home appraisal value allows you to seal various deals easily without experiencing any difficulty with house purchase.
Understanding what house appraisers look for when evaluating your property and making those changes is the greatest method to enhance your home’s assessment value.
This article is about how to increase the appraisal value of your home. There are ways that you can increase the value of your home.
What a Home Appraiser Does
A home appraiser determines the market value of a house. They estimate how much a house should sell for if it were on the market for sale.
This is not the same thing as what someone paid for a house–especially with a foreclosure, where the person might have paid far less than it would be worth now.
An appraiser will look at all sorts of features when estimating market value: recent sale prices in the area, physical characteristics of the home, and even neighborhood demographics like average income levels.
What Do Home Appraisers Look For?
No two appraisals are the same, but appraisers look for the same basic things when they’re evaluating a home’s value.
They want to know what type of construction goes into your house, how old it is, and any major improvements you’ve made to it including carpet, painting, hardwood floors, crown moldings, appliances, fireplaces, sunrooms, windows, exterior landscaping etc.
All of this information can help them determine how much your home is really worth!
When Does a Home Appraiser Happen?
Homes that are appraised get their value determined based on what comparable houses sold for.
There will be a time when you want your home to be appraised, whether it is because you are selling your home or you need information for an insurance claim.
Homes are often appraised before they sell, so it is important that you know how to increase the appraisal value of the home.
Now, let’s look at eight methods to boost your home’s appraisal value so that you can sell it as quickly as feasible.
Improve Your Curb Appeal
A house is more than just four walls and a roof. Its curb appeal, or the way the outside of your home appears to someone driving past it, can make a huge impact on people’s decisions about buying your home.
Curb appeal is so important if you want to sell your home quickly, and for top pounds. Take a look at your house from the street…what do you see? If the paint is peeling, the garden overgrown, the roofline has trees that need trimming, or there are other obvious visual flaws, then you are telling potential buyers that this house needs work before they can move in.
Good curb appeal will greatly increase the appraisal value of your home.
Create the Right Atmosphere
Creating the right atmosphere is essential if you want to increase the appraisal value of your home. It’s all about how you design your house and the little things you do to make a good first impression.
Does your home have the aura of “lived in”? Or does it have a visual appeal? If your home is showing signs of wear and tear, or you just have not taken the time to create a warm and inviting space, chances are there is an overall low appraisal value.
Making changes to the décor and adding certain furnishings can greatly increase the appraisal value of your home. Some tips for increasing your appraisal value include changing common room colours, changing your floor tiles, adding new furniture to a specific room or two, or doing some small things like painting the front door different colours for each season.
Take a Look at Your Home’s Exterior
Appearance is important when it comes to appraising your home. An old and unattractive exterior, like peeling paint or faded siding, can really hurt the value of your home.
By updating your home’s exterior, you can not only make it more appealing, but also add an upward bump to its appraisal. Tile, siding, doors and a fresh coat of paint are all ways you can increase your property value, and consequently catch a buyer’s eye.
Document All of the Upgrade You’ve Made
Investment in home improvements is one of the best ways to increase the value of your property. But keeping track of what you spent for what improvement and when it was made can be a challenge. It is important to document all home improvement expenses with receipts.
A comprehensive list–with start and completion dates, as well as the name and contact information of people who might remember details about the renovation–is much more helpful to potential buyers than a few snapshots taken from an outdated brochure.
This will allow you later when appraisals are needed for refinancing a home, or for listing a home for sale to get the most accurate amount when claiming the differential between original cost and current market value for the upgrades made.
Deep Clean Your Home
Deep cleaning your home before you list it for sale can make all the difference between a lackluster listing that takes weeks to sell and one that attracts buyers—and excites them enough to offer their best price.
Deep cleaning means giving your space a good scrubbing from top to bottom. It may be time to wash the walls and ceiling, shampoo the drapery, or move the furniture outside and power-wash it. Cleaning odours are one of the biggest reasons home buyers have concerns about odour in a home.
Fix Small Imperfections
Small imperfections can lower the appraisal value of your home. Even small closed wall holes can vastly reduce the value of your home, because to an appraiser, they mean there is rot somewhere and they don’t know where.
Small imitations of the exterior of your home may not seem like a big deal, but they can have a huge impact on how much you can sell your home for. For example, small cracks in the driveway or unevenly shaped hedges along the property line may not seem like a big deal, but these minor imperfections will lower the value of your home.
Replace or Fix Worn Carpet and Flooring
Carpets and flooring are often the first things homeowners focus on when making home improvements. Any improvements you make to the floors of your home will have a visual impact that will increase the appraised value.
While carpet and flooring are essential components to an enjoyable home, they often need to be replaced due to years of heavy traffic wear. New carpet and flooring can add value to your home by making it look clean, tidy, and professionally cared for.
Consider Going Green
If you’re looking to sell your home and want to increase the appraisal value, there are several simple things that you can do to “Go Green”. You can go green by simply adding features like solar tiling for heating and cooling, which makes your home energy efficient.
There are other ways to go green with your property including daylighting to increase natural lighting, installing a wind turbine for clean power, and even composting.
As a homeowner, making green improvements not only helps the environment but it also gives your home an edge when it’s time to sell.
Make Sure You Use a Qualified Appraiser
Whether you’re buying a new home or just thinking about selling your existing one, it’s always smart to hire an appraiser to give you the most accurate estimate of the home’s value.
The proper examination of your home’s interior and exterior features by a qualified appraiser can increase the appraisal value of your home.
When you hire a qualified appraiser, they will examine the quality of materials used in the construction of your home and give you a detailed report on your home’s state.
This report will inform how much your home is actually worth.
Conclusion
Most renovations, from changing cabinets and installing flooring to adding a pool, increase the value of your home. This is especially true when cosmetic care has been part of the plan all along. Today’s buyers appreciate homes that look cared for and maintained…as we’ve known for years.
In this guide, you’ve discovered ways to effectively tweak your home’s appearance and enhance the appraised value. Appraisers are expecting you to perform many of these improvements.
