Increase the value of your house with DIY
December 15, 2011Do you want to redecorate your house but are not sure where to start? This can be done without great expense and quite quickly. You can find the goods you need in your local Do It Yourself shop and at good prices in most cases to help make your property look better and increase its value.
The place to start is by using paint to freshen up your rooms. The equipment you need will probably only cost 10 or so and paint does not have to be very expensive either. Always see if you have any old paint that you can reuse and remember you can get pre-ready colours at a good price in most shops.
Now what about the floors. Could your carpets do with a shampoo and clean? If necessary could you replace some or all of the carpets? Or perhaps it would be easier to just take some or all of them up and if there is wood below then what about sanding them down to give them a fresh new look. You can hire a sander very inexpensively. Make sure you look particularly at the most used parts of the house like the hall which will be the first thing that a potential buyer sees when they come round.
Next consider the Kitchen and Bathroom tiles. It is so easy to make them look like new. All you need is a grout cleaner and some elbow grease. Total cost probably only a fiver. Use a scrubbing brush to do the job. No need to even buy a new one if you have an old one available. It will probably do the job. The tiles will soon look like new.
The Kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house when it comes to selling so if it looks like it could use improvement but do not have the money for a new kitchen use these simple tricks to smarten it up. Put new handles on the draws and cupboards. Paint the cupboard doors before you do that. See what a difference this makes.
Another simple trick to make the house look bigger is to create more storage space. Storage space is always a big plus for a property anyway. This is especially true for the bedrooms and living room Even putting up a few shelves and tidying up your papers and bits and pieces and throwing away rubbish can make such a difference to the look and feel of the room.
Do you have children? Have they expressed their ” artistic genius” on their walls? Potential Sellers may not see this as cute but simply messy. All you have to do to get rid of this is clean it up with sugar soap. This is such a simple way of improving your home and you may even persuade the kids to join in if you make it a game.
Good light is always a factor in making a room bright and cheerful even if it is actually rather small and does not get good natural light. This does not need to be expensive because you can use simple paper lamps rather than costly new light fittings. This is because paper shades give the best light.
Now the house is looking better do not forget about the garden. These days a garden is often a key consideration for buyers especially those moving from a flat. So what about doing some simple gardening to make your garden look more attractive. Some weeding and mowing make such a difference. Also useful is hiring a jet wash to clean up your patio if you have one.
See what you can achieve for a total outlay of less than 100 You have watched the programmes on telly now apply these tips for yourself and reap the benefits. You can probably do all these jobs in one weekend and if you get some members of your family in to help make it a fun thing to do and end up with a more valuable house.
Marcus Selmon writes for Just Commercial Mortgages the UK’s No1 site for the latest commercial mortgage rates and commercial property finance news



