Clients ask me often how they can determine their home’s resale value. Resale value is the amount that your home will possibly, maybe, hopefully sell for in the future. For this reason, I like to think of this amount as a magic crystal ball number, because that amount is not known or necessarily foreseeable. And the thing is you may have purchased your home for a certain price, but that amount can change dramatically by the time you’re ready to sell due to its fluctuations in resale value. Even though we can’t concretely state the cost of what your home will be able to sell for, there are things you can do to improve the aesthetics and condition of your home to raise its resale value, so when it’s time to sell you can sell it for a high-value price and perhaps, even make money on your investment.
Upgrades
Anything you can do to improve your home so it’s better and more desirable than when you first bought it is considered an upgrade. You can make cosmetic upgrades to your home such as updating the flooring, appliances, tiles or carpeting with higher quality items, which will improve the aesthetic of your home. Perhaps, you can touch up the paint on the walls or do some minor repairs here and there. Upgrades also refer to more major transformations like renovations and structural rebuilds. Maybe, you decide that you want to renovate your kitchen to modernize and elevate its design and functionality. Or, you choose to tear down a wall to visually open up the space, creating more of an open concept layout. Renovations are a fantastic way of enhancing the beauty, visual appeal and ultimately the value of your home.
Storage
Ah, storage. Something that there sadly just isn’t enough of here a lot of the time in NYC. Sufficient storage is crucial for potential buyers of your home as they need to feel that there are enough designated areas where they can place, organize or hide their belongings. The storage can be in any room of the house — the bedroom, kitchen, basement, in closets or cupboards. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s there and it’s essential to raising the resale value of your home. When potential buyers tour a home and determine that there isn’t enough storage space for their belongings, it’s unfortunately a huge turnoff and they are therefore discouraged from buying it.
Condition
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s imperative to maintain the condition of your home so it’s still in great condition or even better, when it’s time to sell. If you buy a house in terrific condition and then beat the heck out of it — well, of course it’s not going to sell for as much. So, don’t let your kids draw on the walls, don’t allow your dogs to chew up your decor, etc.. Keep up with the condition of your home, while making improvements over time, so your home is in tip-top shape, as close to pristine condition as possible when it’s time to resell, and you can sell it quickly for a high value.
And please, whatever you do — don’t smoke in your house! Just don’t.
Location
Location is also integral to a home’s resale value. Ideally you are able to purchase your home in a prime location or at least an up-and-coming, secondary area that is projected to appreciate in value with real estate values that are rising, This way, you’re not putting a bunch of money into an asset that won’t yield as much as you put into it, and you may even be able to make money on your investment.
Outdoor Space
Clearly, there is only so much outdoor space to go around in NYC as well. So, if you have an apartment with a balcony, or a small terrace — any amount of outdoor space is better than not having any at all, and will help improve your home’s resale value when you put it back up onto the market to resell it.
Up the Charm
Let’s just say there is a fine line between uniquely charming design and whatever falls into the territory of quirky, bad and…just, sadly unsellable decor. An example of unique design features that would enhance the charm of your home and its value would be pre-war architecture. And then you have examples of bad design such as doors that lead to nowhere, dark rooms lacking sunlight — talk about spooky! Not good people. Those sorts of features fall into the category of weird, eccentric and well, probably not too sellable, which could potentially hurt the value of your home.
Moral of the story? When you are first purchasing your home, keep these things in mind to ensure that you are making a smart investment that is likely to retain or appreciate in value over time. And continue making improvements to your home so you can enhance its resale value when it’s time to resell.
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