Home Maintenance comes first, Home Improvement second.

Thinking of selling?

Home Maintenance comes first, Home Improvement second.

If you are planning on selling your house anytime soon, basic maintenance, such as the roof and exterior painting, are more important than an awesome kitchen.

In the first year that people own their home they usually spent more than $20,000 on home maintenance. They often dream about kitchen and bath remodels, but end up up with new gutters, a drainage system to keep the basement dry, a new roof and exterior paint. In the end, as they wipe down the tacky Formica countertops and take baths in their 1950s sea foam green tub, I am sure that they wonder if they had spent that money wisely. If they had to put their  houses up for sale, would potential buyers really care about the dry basement, roof, gutters, and paint? The answer is YES.

Buyers want to take the basic systems for granted. They would prefer to have a home with a leak-free  roof, a dry sub-area and and exterior that is protected from further damage. These repairs can chew up a lot of cash quickly, and people are aware of that. As home remodeling becomes more and more of a new homeowner sport, buyers prefer to spend money on kitchens and bath remodels then on non-glamorous preventative maintenance.

Now is the time to perform needed maintenance in order to make your sale go smoothy in the future!!

Must-Do Home Maintenance Check-List:

~Take care of Dry-Rot and Termite Damage and Infestation

~Assess drainage and sub area moisture

~Make any needed Roof Repairs

~Protect the exterior with  high quality paint

That said, kitchen and bathroom remodels will continue to be two of the best investments you can make in your house. But, a new kitchen will  lose some of its glamour if there's water under the house.

A homeowner's first priority should be keeping the existing structure sound. It's important to address needed maintenance items first, and  the luxury items second.

Buyers have a limit on what they can spend on a house. If they know they don't have to spend money on the upkeep of basic systems, then they're more likely to buy the house with dreams of upgrading the kitchen or baths themselves. In fact, more than 70 percent of buyers start planning their remodel before they even close on their  sale, and it's lot more fun to imagine yourself picking out tile and appliances then sump-pumps and gutters.