Real Estate Agent's Advice on Home Upgrades

Upgrading a paid-off house for sale needs strategic improvements, not personal preferences, advised by experienced real estate agents.

### Real Estate Agent Advice: Upgrades for Selling Your Home
* 🏡  When considering selling your home, it's crucial to find a seasoned real estate agent who will provide **honest advice**, rather than just telling you **what you want to hear**.
* 💰  Upgrades that add square footage, such as **finishing an unfinished room**, can significantly **increase the value of your home**.
* 🎨  Be cautious with preferential upgrades, as **personal taste may not appeal to potential buyers**. It's best to present a **neutral "blank canvas"** for buyers to envision themselves in the space.
* 🖌️  Simple changes like **painting walls, repairing flooring, and updating window treatments** can make a **big difference** in how your home is perceived.
* 🪑  Real-life example: A real estate agent suggested changing wall colors to **offset brown cabinets and countertops**, refinishing hardwood floors, and **removing outdated window treatments** to enhance the appeal of a home.
* 🤝  A good real estate agent will provide **specific recommendations on what improvements or repairs are necessary** to maximize your home's sale potential.
* 💡  Ultimately, the goal is to make cost-effective upgrades that will **increase the home's value** without overspending on **personal preferences** that may not appeal to a wide range of buyers.

[Music] This one is from tabs in her voice. It says, So I'm saving for a new house. Should we do any upgrades to our current house to get more out of the sale, or should we sell it as is? It's currently paid off and probably valued around 200k, and they are dinks, double income, no kids. Let me, let me say something. When you go to find a real estate agent, I need you to find a real estate agent that doesn't just tell you what you need to hear. Mhm. Um, I've worked with what's fun. You want to hear. You need to find somebody who's a little more seasoned. Um, the, you will find who the good real. I have worked with a number of real estate agents, and they're not all created equal. And the ones that are good, they're really good. I've had, I've had two really great real estate agents I've worked with, and both of them, like, I think about this transaction recently down in Florida. She's still, I mean, she logistically, she's organized, but she

also didn't pull punches on things that we were maybe blind spots or not thinking about. So if you find somebody who is not going to tell you just what you want to hear, because there are some real estate agents say, Hey, when you say I want to list the house for this, like, Yeah, that's great, and like, Wait a minute, are you do you have any supporting on that? It maybe they might not, they might just say, You know, we'll just put out there and see what happens. That's not what you want your real estate agent. And then if they say, Hey, can I just sell the house as is? Sure, why not? You want your real estate agent look at your house and be like, Look, this is what you need to do to get this house sold. It's either going to be at this price point, it's going to be this improvement or this repair. And a good navigator who's actually in the market knows what's going on will be able to answer those questions for you. This is back on that spectrum of.

do-it-yourself versus bringing in somebody who's done this hundreds, if not thousands of times. And I'm just telling you from all the real estate transactions I've done, a really good agent who is not, you know, just doing it to try to get the business but actually is an expert in their field is priceless when it comes to those improvements. Yeah, in my experience, there are, you use the word upgrades, but I'm going to say improvements or just like repairs is a good one to use. There are ones that make sense to do and there are ones that I think probably do not make as much sense. In my experience, if you have something that you can add square footage, like, okay, I can finish an unfinished room and then I can list the house as more square footage than it is currently, that might make a lot of sense to do. If you paint the walls or not update the flooring but you get the flooring, you know, either repaired or cleaned or if you like

stretch the carpets and have really good deep carpet cleaning. I think a lot of those things can be incredibly valuable. What I would be nervous about if I'm thinking about upgrading is upgrading something that's going to be a preference piece. Like, oh, okay, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to take that tile out and I'm going to replace it with this backsplash that I love. Well, just 'cause you love it doesn't mean that the person coming in and buying the house may love it. So, I would be very, very careful doing preferential upgrades right before you sell because I've seen friends who fall into this trap. They, you know, they love, they really, oh, our bedroom, we're going to paint it black and it's going to be awesome 'cause we love this. And then the The Powder Room, we're going to do like this really dark red color and people were like, I don't love that. Like, it did, it just didn't show as well. So, ultimately, they, they had to paint everything back to like whites and

Grays and go back to neutral so I would think long and hard about what you want. This is what real estate agents told me when someone comes to look at your house to buy it. You want to present as much of a blank canvas as you can so they see themselves in their house, not themselves in your house with the stuff that you love, with your preferences. So, again, I think it's back to a really, really good real estate professional should be able to tell you, Yes, do this, yes, do this, yes, do this, no, I wouldn't do that, no, I wouldn't do that, maybe that doesn't make sense. When I sold my Atlanta house, um, Joe who's I said I had re two really good real estate agents. Joe Chapman was one who helped me out in Georgia. He'll love that, gave him a shout out, but he, he came into my house, he goes, Look, your cabinets are brown, your granite countertops are brown, everything in this house is brown. I'm like, Well, how do I fix that? And he goes, Well, we can't fix.

that because it'd be too expensive. But what we can do is, we can change all of your wall colors 'cause paint's cheap. To where we'll go to this new gray type color that takes the accent away from those brown cabinets and the brown countertops. And sure enough, we did it. We put this new paint color, completely changed the way the house looked on the inside. And also, I had some issues with the hardwood color. The hardwoods there out were the wrong color. He said, Let's refinish the hardwoods. I had the right type of hardwoods that we could refinish. So we did those two changes. And then the house showed and looked like a completely different place. He also, like we had some window treatments that were at the time we built the house, we thought they were great because they had this, you know, cute little chickens on them and stuff like he's like, We got to take those down. Those there just nobody's going to want to buy that country treatment some.

chicken. Well, it was. It was like roosters. Roosters were really popular for a season back in the early-mid 2000s. So, I love that he was honest enough to tell us not what we thought we needed to hear. He actually told us what we needed to do to sell the house, and it worked, and it was a completely different place. And, um, and it helped us sell the place. I love it.

Should We Do Some Upgrades Before Selling the House or Sell As Is?

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The Money Guy Show

A couple is considering selling their paid-off house to buy a new one and is seeking advice on whether to upgrade before selling.

They are advised to find a seasoned real estate agent who is honest and provides valuable insights, rather than just telling them what they want to hear.

The recommended agent should be able to guide them on the necessary improvements or repairs needed to sell the house at the right price point.

The Value of Home Improvements When Selling

A knowledgeable and experienced real estate agent can be extremely valuable in determining which home improvements are worth investing in.

Adding square footage, painting, and repairing or cleaning the flooring can significantly increase the value of a home.

However, it's important to avoid making preferential upgrades that may not appeal to potential buyers, as this can be a costly mistake.

Neutralizing the decor in your house can help potential buyers envision themselves in the space.

A real estate agent can provide valuable advice on inexpensive changes, such as using neutral paint colors and removing outdated window treatments.

Making small, affordable adjustments, like refinishing hardwood floors, can significantly improve the overall look of the house for potential buyers.

The Popularity of Roosters in Early 2000s Home Decor

Roosters were a popular trend in home decor during the early to mid-2000s.

Being honest about the need to feature roosters helped sell the house.

This honesty transformed the place and ultimately led to a successful sale.