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Low Cost - But Big Impact Remodeling Tips

By
Real Estate Agent with Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, TREC #0492321

Low Cost - But Big Impact Remodeling Tips


In today’s market, many buyers are very selective of the homes that they choose to purchase for their Dream Home or even for that very First Home. Homeowners who need to sell their homes can add a few low cost, but big impact projects to help sell their homes faster in today’s market. The areas that get the most attention are the kitchens and bathrooms, but adding light fixtures, new hardware, and new flooring can go a long way too.

10 Big Impact Low Cost tips

Here are 10 Big- Impact, and Low Cost Tips for remodeling your homes provided by my friends and contacts at Independence Title Company. Spruce up your homes Today!

Low Cost - But Big Impact Remodeling Tips
In today’s market, many buyers are very selective of the homes that they choose to purchase for their Dream Home or even for that very First Home. Homeowners who need to sell their homes can add a few low cost, but big impact projects to help sell their homes faster in today’s market. The areas that get the most attention are the kitchens and bathrooms, but adding light fixtures, new hardware, and new flooring can go a long way too.

Here are 10 Big- Impact, and Low Cost Tips for remodeling your homes provided by my friends and contacts at Independence Title Company. Spruce up your homes Today!

1.  Tidy up kitchen cabinets.
Since potential buyers do open up kitchen cabinets, it just makes good sense to tune-up your kitchen cabinets with some new paint, stain or varnish. Home owners can add roll out organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff.

2. Add or replace tile
Re-tiling can be very inexpensive and really make those floors stand out more. Home owners can shop for bargains and catch sales at Habitat Home Centers for discounted and discontinued tiles. Buy low cost tiles to replace a dated back-splash, or add a new one. One can also update tiles in the bathrooms too. These Habitat Home Centers offer home improvement thrift stores to sell both new and used home improvement materials to the public. San Antonio has three locations to serve the local residents.

3. Add a breakfast bar
When a all separates a kitchen from the family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar. Adding an granite top breakfast bar can be as cheap as $600 or less.

4. Install granite tile instead of a slab
Granite kitchen counter tops are nice, but they can cost you up to $5,000. Instead, home owners can install 12-inch granite tiles for about $300 in materials and get a very nice look for little money spent.

5. Freshen up a bathroom without re-tiling
For all those dated bathrooms, one can start by adding a new medicine cabinet for about $100 to $150, new light fixtures for another $100, new faucets for $50 to $75, and a new vanity for about $200 to $300. Instead of replacing the tile, one can lightly scrape and regrout all the existing tiles. But you will have to buff it out to avoid any haze look, and it will look brand new. You could also install glass shower doors. A French door adds a lot of panache and elegance for $250, and people will notice the door, and not the tile. All this can be done for less than $2000.

6. Freshen up those basements if you have one.
Those basement floors can be painted  with waterproofing paint, and made to look fresh. The basement doesn’t necessarily have to be finished, but it does have to be cleaned up.

7.  Add a room
Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom for just the price of creating a wall. If you can find that unused space in your home, adding a new room may be very inexpensive.

8. Spruce up cabinets fronts
Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. Reconditioning is the least inexpensive move for under $1,000. When the wood starts to look shabby from the use of contaminants in the air, you can take out the nicks and scratches, recondition with oil, and put new hardware on it. For a cost of about $1,500 to $4,000, owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for about $4,000 to $12,000 owners can have all the cabinets refaced.  By refacing, owners can change the color of the cabinets by replacing the door and having a new skin put on the boxes.

9.  Replace light fixtures
Light fixtures can be replaced in the foyer, bathrooms and the kitchens with very little money. Owners can replace those track lighting in the kitchen with new recessed lights for around $500 to $700. Pendant lights can also be installed over a kitchen island or peninsula for about another $700.

10. Tech-up the garage
Replacing the garage door opener with a remote touch-pad entry system will usually run around $400 to $500, and it will make your garage look super high end.

(Information was provided by Independence Title Company and REALTOR® magazine)

Comments(26)

Praful Thakkar
LAER Realty Partners - Burlington, MA
Metro Boston Homes For Sale

Jerry, this one goes to my 'seller folder' for the tips on what to do before they sell their home - thanks for sharing all the tips (I know there are many more, but these are very important ones.)

Aug 11, 2011 04:10 PM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Hi Praful. Every seller needs to have some of these tips to help them sell their homes in today's tough markets. Buyers can be very picky, but homes that show some of these simple remodeling tips will certainly sell faster than those that don't do anything to "Spruce it Up".

Aug 11, 2011 04:22 PM
Dan Edward Phillips
Dan Edward Phillips, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, CA - Eureka, CA
Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, CA

Hi Jerry, excellent input for home owners who are planning to sell in the near future.

Aug 11, 2011 05:20 PM
Anita Clark
Coldwell Banker Access Realty ~ 478.960.8055 - Warner Robins, GA
Realtor - Homes for Sale in Warner Robins GA

Good tips for homeowners looking to upgrade, refresh, or better prep their home to sell.

Aug 11, 2011 10:24 PM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

To be honest, I disagree with most of this list, given the title and many obvious items are missing.  #1 and #9 make sense.  The rest are either expensive unless you do them yourself, and if you do, they will prob. be a disaster which is almost worse.

The obvious stuff if missing from this list: 1) clean, 2) declutter, 3) paint, 4) paint front door, 5) refinish floors and/or rip up dirty carpet, 6) basic curb appeal stuff, 7) replace fixtures on kitchen cabinets, 8) reglaze/reface tiles if they are ugly color such as pink, green, yellow. 

I think the orginal author did a very poor job on this and knows very little about home improvement, the costs and the impact.

Aug 11, 2011 11:02 PM
Janet Jones
Just Your Style Interiors, LLC - Kihei, HI
Home Staging, Interior Redesign Kihei, Maui, Hawaii

Hi Jerry--I think this is a very good post to make sellers aware of what they can actually do that will improve how their house shows for resale. 

Aug 12, 2011 12:33 AM
Juan Bassett
Long & Foster - Germantown, MD
GRI

All good points Jerry.  A lot of owners worry about cost when it doesn't have to be that way. Most of the time it's just a matter of details.

Aug 12, 2011 12:47 AM
Marco Giancola
Beachfront Realty - Miami Beach, FL
Realtor (305)608-1922, Miami Beach Florida

#'s1, 5,7 and 9 I will agree with are good ideas but not so sure aqbout the others there Jerry. Just sayin:)

Aug 12, 2011 02:44 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Thanks, Dan. There is always things home owners can do to spruce up their homes to help with the sale.

Aug 12, 2011 03:30 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Hi Anita. I just thought I would throw a few ideas and suggestions out to home owners who were looking to Tidy up their homes.

Aug 12, 2011 03:31 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Hi Debbie. I certainly love your list better than mine when it comes to cost savings. I got many of these tips from a REALTOR® magazine.

Aug 12, 2011 03:35 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Thanks, Janet. I just wanted to offer home owners a few ideas for remodeling that wouldn't cost a lot of money.

Aug 12, 2011 03:39 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Thanks, Juan. I have always thought that doing things yourself would save lots of money. Home Depot and Lowes used to have classes on how to do many of these things. One would only have to spend money for the materials, if they did all the work themselves.

Aug 12, 2011 03:41 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Hi Marco. I appreciate you input. Debbie had some Great input also in comment # 11 above. The whole idea was to find ways to spruce up a home without spending a lot of money. Cleaning, Painting, and Replacing light fixtures and hardware might be the least inexpensive things to do.

Aug 12, 2011 03:44 AM
Tom Arstingstall, General Contractor, Dry Rot, Water Damage Sacramento, El Dorado County - (916) 765-5366
Dry Rot and Water Damage www.tromlerconstruction.com Mobile - 916-765-5366 - Placerville, CA
General Contractor, Dry Rot and Water Damage

As a contractor, I am in full support of all these items. :)

Thanks for the post Jerry.

Aug 12, 2011 07:38 PM
Toni Weidman
Sailwinds Realty - Trinity, FL
20+ Years Selling Homes in New Port Richey, FL

Lots of good tips here, Jerry. I think the main idea is to get them to do something to make things looks bright and shiney; and these would definitely do it.

Aug 13, 2011 12:39 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Thanks, Tom. It's good to hear from a contractor that these are some good items for home owners to consider to spruce up their homes.

Aug 13, 2011 04:46 AM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

You are absolutely right, Toni. Getting them to commit to doing something to spruce and brighten up their homes was the idea.

 

Aug 13, 2011 04:56 AM
Evelyn Kennedy
Alain Pinel Realtors - Alameda, CA
Alameda, Real Estate, Alameda, CA

Jerry:

I am bookmarking so I can pass your blog along to sellers who want to do some work but not a lot.

Aug 29, 2011 12:21 PM
Jerry Newman
Brown Realty, 210-789-4216, - San Antonio, TX
Texas REALTOR, San Antonio Military Relocation

Thanks, Evelyn. Hoping your sellers will benefit from some of these low cost remodeling tips.

Aug 29, 2011 04:31 PM