Every year, over five million homes are sold throughout the United States. Are you getting ready to sell your home? Do you have concerns about how much money you’ll get from it once you put it on the market?
If you’re unsure what makes property value decrease or increase, keep reading. Explained below are some of the most common factors that can affect your property valuation. You’ll also learn some steps you can take to increase the resale value of your house.
What Affects Your Property Valuation?
There’s a lot that goes into determining the value of a property. The following are some of the most well-known factors that you ought to keep in mind as you prepare to sell yours:
Neighborhood “Comps”
One of the first things you need to consider (and that real estate agents will take into account) when figuring out the value of your property is the cost of comparable houses in your neighborhood. These are also known as “comps”. Basically, if a property similar to yours (in terms of size, features, age, etc.) sold for a particular price, that will influence how much yours sells for.
Location
The location of your property plays a big role as well. If it’s located in a neighborhood of other, more expensive houses, chances are it’s going to sell for more money than a house built in a neighborhood with cheaper homes.
There are other factors that influence the value of houses in your area. These include the quality of the local schools, employment opportunities, and how close it is to things like entertainment options and shopping centers.
Home Size
Of course, larger homes tend to have a higher value associated with them than smaller homes. Buyers pay careful attention to the square footage of the house, as well as the amount of land surrounding it. If you have a large backyard, for example, or several acres of land attached to your house, it might have a higher value than another property of a similar size.
Usable Space
In addition to square footage, there’s also the usable space of your house that needs to be taken into account. Usable space refers to the areas of the house in which people actually live.
Areas like attics, garages, and unfinished basements often aren’t included when calculating a house’s usable square footage. The measurements of these spaces will get subtracted from the total number of square feet available.
Age
The age of your house can have an impact on its value as well. If you have an older home, though, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with a low valuation. Certain aspects can help to raise the sale price of the home, such as the addition of new appliances or new roof installation.
Condition
The condition of your home matters, too. An older home that’s in great condition could easily sell for more money than a new home that was trashed by the previous owners. When older homes are well-maintained, they can even be more valuable in certain situations since they’re more unique and have a distinct style to them.
Upgrades
The number and type of upgrades you’ve invested in for your home will affect its valuation a great deal. If you’ve upgraded all of the appliances, for example, you can raise its valuation. The same goes for things like additions that increase the amount of usable square footage in the home.
How to Increase Your Property Value
Some of these factors are beyond your control, but there are also steps you can take to increase your property’s value before putting it on the market. If you want to do this, here are some things you can do:
- Boost curb appeal with landscaping or exterior updates
- Invest in interior upgrades (new kitchen appliances, new carpet, etc.)
- Take care of serious repairs, both interior and exterior, that make the house lower maintenance (repair the roof, replace the water heater, etc.)
- Increase its energy efficiency
- Build onto it or finish the basement to increase the amount of usable space
Some of these projects can be very expensive and time-consuming. They’re not accessible to everyone, but they’re worth considering if you’re hoping to up your house’s value.
An Alternative to Expensive Repairs
Now that you know more about what can affect property valuation, as well as the steps you might need to take to increase your property’s value, what do you think? Does that seem like something you can do? Do you not have the time or budget required to improve your house before selling it?
If this is the case for you, you’re not out of luck. You can still get a significant amount of money for your house if you sell it to a real estate investor.
Real estate investors, sometimes referred to as cash buyers, will give you cash for your house and buy it as-is. This gives you an opportunity to start over in a new place with cash in hand.
You also don’t have to worry about investing a ton of time and money into getting your old house ready to sell. It can be a great compromise for those who are short on money or who want to get out of their house in a hurry and move on with their lives.
Sell Your House Today
Are you ready to sell your house? Do you suspect that your property valuation isn’t as high as you’d like it to be?
Instead of spending lots of money and time trying to improve your property and increase its value, sell it to us instead. We buy houses in Austin as-is for cash.
Contact us today to learn more about how this works and to get a free, no-obligation cash offer. We’ll get the process started right away and get you money for your house in no time!