Remodeling & Renovations

Damp Environments

If you are a typical home buyer, you are likely to eliminate a home with a basement that has water stains or mildew on the walls or floors. Before you completely rule out a home that you really like because of a water issue, you should get an expert's opinion.

A basement can often be dried out easily. A new set of gutters, repairs to a plugged up outdoor drain, or simple regrading of soil around the foundation may solve the problem. A home inspector or water-proofing company can give you an idea about what is causing the dampness, as well as how much you will have to pay to waterproof the area. Sometimes the home owner will consider negotiating the repair costs with the buyers, especially if the alternative is no offer at all. If the house is a "fixer-upper" and priced accordingly, you could get an excellent value that more timid buyers might pass up.

Don't Over Improve

You have received some extra money! You want to remodel! If you are planning a major renovation, take a few sensible precautions before having plans drawn up and signing on the contractor's dotted line.

Any time you do any significant remodeling, you run the risk of over-improving your home. I will be glad to provide you with a market analysis of what your home is worth. I can tell you about neighborhood trends and discuss the recent sales of homes in your area. If your neighborhood is experiencing healthy appreciation, making major changes to your home might make sense. However, if there is not much difference between the prices of remodeled homes and those which have not been renovated, expensive changes may be hard to recover if you sell your home soon.

Enhancing Your Home

A moderate climate can help your home sell, but wherever you live, you can enhance your home's hidden potential by bringing the outside into your home. Minor remodeling projects can be tailored to suit your taste and budget.

Study the placement of your home on the property. A small window can be made larger to let more light into a room and expand the view. You can create an entertainment area for guests by installing a sliding glass door which opens onto your garden or adding a patio or deck. The addition of a skylight in a dark room can make a dramatic improvement.

You can also consider ways to enhance the outdoor features of your home and integrate them into the living space of your home. Such improvements can often greatly increase the value of your property.

Fixer-Uppers

There are a lot of "diamonds in the rough" for sale. Such a "diamond" may be in a great location, have large sunny rooms and a big yard, but may also have awful wall paper, old carpeting, and uninspired bathrooms. If you can look beyond the surface, you may see a house with incredible potential that could be transformed by a little "elbow grease", paint, and new carpets. If a house is structurally sound and all the systems are in good condition, it may be only a few cosmetic repairs away from being fantastic! A home that does not show well is usually priced accordingly. If the price doesn't reflect the condition of the house, the seller may be more willing to negotiate than a seller who has made a considerable investment in preparing a home for the market.
So bring your imagination with you on your next house hunting trip! You may be pleasantly surprised.

House Repairs

Typically there is a chain of events that occurs when an offer comes in on a home. After a meeting of the minds, the buyer often brings in a home inspector who usually finds a few items that need to be repaired. The Realtor gives the homeowner a list of the requested repairs. What comes next?

The seller takes care of the repairs in most transactions. Many sellers wait until the week before the closing to call someone to do the work (they want to be sure that they are going to make it to the closing table before they spend money on repair work).

If you are responsible for making repairs to a home you are selling, make sure you have the work done well in advance of the closing date by licensed professionals who will stand behind their work. If the work is done at the last minute and is incomplete or unsatisfactory, it could cause complications at the closing. You should provide the buyers with all the receipts and the names of the persons to contact in case there is a problem with the repairs.

Kitchen Catastrophe

You have found an almost perfect house--the right number of bedrooms and baths, a wonderful family room, a great back yard. Your pulse rate increases as you imagine your furniture in the living room, your "excess" neatly stored in the huge attic, and your tulip bulbs blooming in the garden. However, the kitchen looks like the original one and it was built long before conveniences like dishwashers or microwaves.

If you have fallen in love with a house with an ugly kitchen, you should consider renovating it. Contact a contractor for expert advice during the structural contingency period. Re-doing a kitchen can be a major undertaking, especially if you move walls around. If you put in new appliances, cabinets, and flooring into the existing space, it can be done in a shorter period of time and for a small fraction of the cost. Kitchen improvements are considered excellent investments.

Major Fix-Ups

You have decided that it is time to sell your home. After taking an objective look around, you realize that you have a lot of work to do in order to prepare your home for the market. If it will take more than just cleaning to get your home for showing, it may be time to call in two professionals--a home improvement contractor and a professional Realtor.

The ideal listing has a modern kitchen and bath, fresh paint, and beautiful wood floors or wall-to-wall carpet. Your Realtor can offer suggestions about what your house needs, what colors or cabinet styles are popular with buyers, and tips on cost-effective improvements. The contractor can work with you to put your plan into action. If you feel that the costs or disruption of a major remodeling project would be overwhelming, you have the option of marketing your home as a "fixer-upper." If you decide to sell your home "as is", your agent can prepare a market analysis to give you an idea of what you can expect to net from the sale of your home

Preparing For Sale

Realtors sometimes receive calls from people who are asking for advice on what they should do to prepare their house in the Overland Park area for the market. They may have settled for living in a "less than optimal" circumstance for years, and are now going to spend money to make it nice for someone else to enjoy.
If you are considering painting, updating the kitchen, landscaping, or any other improvements that would increase your home's re-sale value, think about making those improvements while you are still there to enjoy them. Create your own dream kitchen or Jacuzzi, your garden deck, or restore your wood floors now. Maintaining your property well will make your home more enjoyable, will help maintain the property values in your neighborhood, and will expedite the sale of your home when you are ready for a move.

Professional Advice

Before you undertake a major renovation or redecorating project, call a professional Realtor for advice about how your plans will impact the marketability of your home. We will be glad to provide a free consultation with no obligation--even if you are not planning to make a move in the near future.

Sellers often spend a lot of money on changes that won't increase the value of their homes. They may customize their home by creating unusual room arrangements that won't work for most buyers or by adding bold wall paper that may not have wide appeal.

Overall appeal should be your main consideration even when you are remodeling for your own enjoyment. You should also consider if you could recover your expenses if you were to sell the house soon because personal circumstances or career opportunities can create unexpected changes in your housing needs.

Remodel Or Move?

Your family has outgrown your home in the Overland Park area, but you have roots in the community that make it difficult to leave. Is remodeling the solution?

Get professional advice before you jump into a major renovation project. Decide what changes you want to make, and get bids from several contractors. When you have an estimate on the cost of the project, talk to your Realtor to determine if these changes will be cost-effective. Over-improving your home may make it difficult to get your money back if you sell it soon.

It is a good idea to talk with friends who have remodeled to get a realistic picture about working with contractors and to determine how disruptive the project will be to your family life. Remodeling a home is a major undertaking, so be sure that it is the best solution for you.

Show And Sell

Realtors are often asked "What is the best way to show and sell a home?" Almost every Realtor can tell you a story about meeting with a prospective seller who has just completed a lot of work to prepare their home for the market. It can be difficult for a Realtor to tell the seller that their renovations were not the best changes to effectively market their home.

If you are considering making any improvements prior to selling your home, the best advice is to consult with your Realtor before you make any changes. An experienced Realtor can provide you with information that can help you decide what kind of improvements will set the stage for a sale. Whether it is paint and wallpaper, remodeling the bathrooms, or updating the kitchen, your Realtor can guide you toward "neutral" choices which can assist the buyer's imagination.

Water Problems

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE?

Sometimes there are defects in a house that the homeowners no longer notice, such as small leaks in the roof or a basement that only gets damp when it rains. When the house is on the market, they don't have a real sense of urgency about having such defects repaired. The Realtor feels quite differently, however.
When buyers are deciding which houses deserve serious consideration, any kind of water problem may appear to be much more serious than it really is. The sellers may regard a damp basement as simply a sign that it's time to clean the gutters or check the soil buildup around the house or a leaking roof as a call for new flashing. But to someone who has never owned a home, these defects can be taken as signs that the house may not fulfill their primary need for shelter from "the elements." People may be perfectly willing to rent a home with minor water problems, but they are likely to pass up the same house if they think it won't keep them perfectly dry.

Wet Basements

A wet basement ranks up there with a leaky roof as a major cause of concern to prospective buyers. If you have a water problem, it is unlikely that it will go unnoticed. If the buyers don't notice the problem at first, they will when they take a closer look. Buyers are very vulnerable to attacks of "buyer's remorse", so they might use this as justification for backing out of the transaction.

You should handle any water problems before your agent begins to market your home. If you have a problem with the basement, honesty is the only policy. Be ready to provide a receipt from a reliable waterproofing company showing what caused the leakage and what was done to correct the situation. Wet basements can usually be handled by rather inexpensive means. If the dampness is caused by clogged gutters or misdirected downspouts, it may be corrected by building up the soil around the base of the house. Your Realtor may be able to provide you with a list of companies that specialize in making wet basement problems go away.