47 Easy Ways to Increase the Value of Your House

1. Paint to neutral. It will help your buyers envision their own, personal touch of color on a blank canvas. Wild colors, like bright red can be a major turn off. Cover it up!

2. Declutter your home to show it has storage space. If there’s stuff left out everywhere, it’ll look like there isn’t room for it anywhere else.

3. Fix small issues, like a leaky faucet, so buyers don’t think they’ll have to deal with it when they move in. Most people want a move-in ready home.

4. Use plants to make the home feel welcoming and lively. It’ll create a natural sensation and bring height to the room if they’re tall and skinny.

5. Paint the exterior of your home. This is an inexpensive way to add freshness and curb appeal to an older home.

6. Get new appliances in the kitchen. It’s a lot cheaper than having to redo the whole thing. This will turn your old countertops into rustic accents.

7. Replace the doorknobs. Doorknobs are touched often in your home and can wear down. Replacing them will modernize and sharpen out your look.

8. Replace the kitchen cabinet knobs. Make sure they go with the vibe of your home and freshen up your cabinets that way.

9. Paint your kitchen cabinets a new color. Try to keep it to a neutral, such as white, for home buyers to feel like it is a clean slate.

10. Replace or upgrade ceiling fans. These can easily go unnoticed for years, but if you add a fresh coat of paint you may find it changes the look of the room. With some fans you can even flip over the blades for a different look.

11. Replace your shower head to create better pressure. You can choose one with smaller holes to push the water out faster and improve the pressure, even in older homes.

12. Paint the ceiling a different color than the walls. Use the place no one usually looks at to change the vibe of the room.

13. Get new house numbers. A shiny new set of numbers will spruce up any worn-down, lived in home.

14. Buy a new mailbox. This will increase curb appeal and create a better first impression as you walk in.

15. Upgrade the railing on your stairs. It takes a lot of wear and tear from the years of people using it for balance. Even a fresh coat of paint will help bring back life.

16. New light switches! Modern ones with dimmers will make the house feel newer than old flick switches.

17. Install smart locks so the buyers don’t have to bring keys when they leave. This is a great way to show your house is modern, as these are the locks of the future.

18. While you’re at it, add a smart doorbell. These increase security.

19. Add more lighting to a room to make it feel bigger. Lighter walls and brightness will attract more buyers than doom and gloom.

20. Add fancy end pieces to your curtain rods. Buy some from a fabric store, and it’ll make the most boring rod a detailed attraction.

21. Add mirrors on the walls. It’ll convince buyers the space is bigger than it seems, just like they do in restaurants.

22. Dust everything. If there’s a coat of dust on your crown molding it’ll look like grandma’s house.

23. Replace all the electrical outlets. Over time their color fades and they accumulate grime and dirt. New ones also make your house look modern.

24. Buy new toilet seats. Old ones can be dented and over time they just start to look gross and dated. Nobody wants to buy grandma’s toilet seat.

25. Add some USB charging stations to your kitchen. You could also get USB wall outlets. Teenagers love this stuff. And if the teens think it’s cool, the parents are more likely to buy.

26. Get some Ikea storage bins for your closet. Especially you have high ceilings and can stack them. People will think, “Wow, that’s smart,” and, “I wonder if they can throw those in with the house?” For the right price, you can throw in anything.

27. Pressure wash the patio stones, deck, and driveway. You can rent a pressure washer from Home Depot and pay by the hour. Check out pressure washing videos on YouTube.

28. Hanging bookshelves. You can get cheap ones at Ikea. Screw them into the wall and add some fancy books.

29. Shower curtains can be replaced for five bucks and gives your tub a newly renovated look.

30. Speaking of tubs, make sure to bleach and scrub that sucker. Basic tile cleaner isn’t usually strong enough to really get that grime out. If you don’t want to do this yourself, you can hire someone for cheap to do it for you.

31. Small bathroom? Replace your sink with a pedestal sink. It’ll class up the joint and create an illusion that your bathroom is larger than a closet.

32. Do you have an old ugly fireplace in your living room? Does the color of the bricks not match the walls? Paint it! It’s cheaper than replacing the brick.

33. Bathroom and kitchen cabinets can also be painted instead of replaced. A fresh coat of paint will do wonders on any surface. Not just the main walls.

34. Old hardwood floors don’t always need to be replaced. You can sand them down, stain them and they’ll look brand new.

35. If your front porch is old and gross then you can always re-stain it instead of buying a new one.

36. Reorganize all your bookcases. Don’t sort by color, but do remove any large books/objects that stand out. Your bookcases should be as decluttered as the rest of your home.

37. Swap all hand towels for show towels. The kitchen and bathroom towels you dry your hands with are not the ones you want to have out when prospective buyers come along.

38. Install some mirrors in any room that people might think is too small. Throw a second one on the opposite side of the room and then your space will look impossibly humongous.

39. If you’re not a big art person, then just grab some nice prints from your local home store. You can get a great painting for 50 bucks. Art can make a house look exotic and expensive.

40. All furniture should be pushed up as close as it can to the wall. Even if your sofa is a kick-back sofa. Just move it back later. Pushing things against the wall creates more floorspace. More space more money.

41. Replace your exotic rugs with bland ones.  Yeah, your African leopard thing looks great to you and me, but it’s got limited appeal. You to make your house appealing to a wide audience.

42. Bad lightning will make your house look dark and gloomy. Some rooms might not have enough overhead light for an evening showing. Buy some dumpster lamps from Walmart and lighten up the place.

43. Ancient window treatments should be replaced with something cheap from a home store. Bright colors should be avoided. Stick to basic whites and translucents to allow for maximum light to come through.

44. Replace all your tiny rugs, especially in the bathroom. Old rugs are grimy, dirty, and gross.

45. Even though your front door looks okay, the door handle might need replacing. They get a lot of wear and tear from use and weather.

46. If your roof isn’t in the best shape, but you don’t want to replace the entire thing, you can always just replace the most offending shingles.

47. Parging and foundation cracks can be fixed for cheaper than you might think. You can even do this yourself.