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What Should I Repair On My House in Saskatoon Before Selling?

Many sellers make the mistake of assuming that any repairs they do to their house will automatically increase the money they get for the home. Unfortunately, this assumption can lead to serious upset for those that pour a ton of money into repairs and find they don’t make their money back when they sell.

Some home sellers are smart and will ask a Saskatoon real estate professional their advice before pouring any money into the home. On many occasions, I have been asked what repairs will give the highest return on investment. Some home repairs are apparent winners. Other fixes are harder to know if they will yield positive returns. And some repairs are almost guaranteed to bring frustration because they rarely result in a higher sales price. Some repairs are important to do before selling even though they may not have the highest return on investment. Why? They help the home sell!

Some necessary repairs can prevent a house from selling. Depending on the age and condition of your home, you might want to consider getting your house inspected prior to sale. Not only can you figure out before-hand if they’ll be any unexpected surprises, but you can also address them! The inspection will help in remedying the necessary repairs, but you’ll also be prepared for the buyer’s home inspection. Nobody wants to put their house back on the market due to a bad inspection. The key to picking which repairs is to know what buyers consider important—which may not necessarily be the same things that you think are important. One of the biggest errors sellers make is thinking that the repairs they want are going to be the same that buyers want.

Fortunately, you are doing your research now—before you spend a lot of money on repairs. Read on to learn what repairs yield a solid return on investment.

Factors that Can Affect the Value of Home Repairs

Before digging deeper into which home repairs offer good ROI, it is important to know that there are a variety of factors that must be considered on an individual level—things that may affect your home and repair ROI specifically. These include:

• When you are selling. The time of year you list your home may affect how much bang for your buck you get with specific home repairs.
• How the market is doing. A buyer’s market is different than a seller’s market for many reasons. The effect of certain home repairs on your home’s sale value is something that the state of the market will affect.
• Where your home is located. Buyers value some home repairs differently depending on where the home is being sold. 
• The completion you face when selling. The homes being sold in the area that is similar to yours always influence the price of your home. The inventory you are competing against will also affect the value buyers place on your home repairs.

1. Going back to hardwood floors.

There is no denying the appeal of hardwood flooring in today’s market. You will get the highest return on investment from painting. Buyers appreciate the look and the convenience of hardwood flooring and are willing to pay for it. The most cost-effective option for you as the seller is to pull up carpeting from existing hardwood flooring—if you have hardwood flooring underneath your carpets.

Getting hardwood floors re-finished is short money in comparison to what it brings for a return on investment. Even if you don’t re-finish the floors, just pulling up the carpets and showing buyers you have hardwood can make a world of difference. In real estate sales first, impressions are everything. Some buyers have absolutely no vision whatsoever. You can tell them there are hardwood floors under the carpet, but if they can’t see it, then it means nothing.

If you don’t have hardwood, then you will need to consider if installing new hardwood or something similar—like engineered hardwood flooring—would be worth it for your sale. Doing so is a question for your local real estate agent. Only they will know how much of an impact adding hardwood floors will make to your bottom line.

2. Making entertainment areas into hardwood or something similar.

If you do decide to add hardwood floors, the rooms where people spend a lot of time or tend to entertain others are the most popular areas with buyers. For example, most people love seeing hardwood floors in the kitchen, family room, and formal dining room. It can be beneficial to pull up the carpeting in these areas and add engineered hardwood flooring.

The engineered hardwood flooring options are many and can often be purchased for a reasonable price. You can also install them yourself if you are so inclined—which would put even more money in your pocket on the day of sale.

3. Paint the walls and ceilings.

There is nothing more cost effective in home sales than painting. A new coat of paint is one of the cheapest improvements you can make to your home that will make it more appealing to buyers. When buyers come to view your home, they are looking for things to complain about, and nothing is more straightforward to dislike than stains on the walls or the ceilings. Stains and other imperfections stand out, and they make the home seem dirty even if it is otherwise spotless.

Water stains on a ceiling are especially common. More often than not a child has left a curtain partially open while taking a shower. Water stains, however, freak buyers out. Nobody wants to see water stains. The fear is that the stain is not old but an active leak. Other times in cold weather climates it is not uncommon to see a water stain from an old ice dam problem. What ever the case may be it is crucial to take care of removing old water stains.

Add a fresh coat of paint to the walls, remove wallpaper and paint the wood paneling. No one wants to buy a home with old wallpaper on it, and it is hard to find a buyer that finds wood paneling appealing. Painting ceilings is a little more challenging than painting the walls, but it completes the look and ensures that everything looks nice and clean. If you have a popcorn ceiling, you should consider removing them. Just keep in mind that old popcorn ceilings may contain asbestos. Be extremely cautious when removing the old texture or hire a professional that is qualified to do it safely. With newer popcorn texture you can just scrape it off. It is a long process but inexpensive and makes a big difference in how buyers see your home.

4. Be strategic in how you remodel the kitchen.

Kitchen remodels tend to get you your money back when you sell, so they are usually worth doing if the kitchen is dated. However, it is also easy to lose money if you are not careful with how you renovate.

Consider refinishing the cabinets if you can get away with it because replacing them will be expensive. It is challenging to get a return on investment by completely remodelling a kitchen. The kitchen is the most expensive room in the house to renovate. You can easily spend tens of thousands of dollars even on a moderate size kitchen. Believe it or not painting a dark, dated kitchen, however, can completely transform it into something special. If done correctly by a highly skilled painter, it can look like new.

Basic hardware like the sink and faucet can be replaced inexpensively, but try to avoid installing luxurious appliances because buyers may not pay you for them. Installing granite counters in most areas offers significant value. It also impacts how saleable the house will be quite a bit. Depending on the price range buyers expect granite. It is a significant hot button in home sales. The cost of adding granite counters has come down in recent years.

5. Renovate the bathroom if it needs it.

Bathroom renovations also generate positive returns in most cases. A new coat of paint—lighter is better in small spaces—along with new fixtures can all be taken care of without too much expense. HGTV has some excellent examples of remodelled bathrooms under five thousand dollars. Take a look to inspire some thoughts on what to do at your place.

If you cannot get stains off of things like the shower doors, tub or sink, replace the doors and refinish the surfaces.

6. Replace the roof if it needs to be replaced.

If your roof needs to be replaced, you will make the sales process more manageable if you take care of it now. Just because the roof is old does not mean it has to be replaced soon, however. It is in your best interests to have a professional look at your roof and to discuss the results with your Realtor.

A professional roofer will be able to determine if replacement is necessary immediately or if you have a few years left. Generally, a non-architectural roof shingle will last around twenty years. Most architectural shingles will last anywhere from thirty to fifty years.

Buyers may be willing to purchase the home if it has two or three years left on the roof. If the roof needs to be replaced within a year or so, though, you will be better off having the work done prior to listing the home. Unfortunately, roofs do not have a high return on investment when you are selling a house. Most of the time when I am counselling sellers my advice will be to do nothing with the roof. I’ll tell them to expect buyers to want some kind of seller’s concession at closing. Most of the time you will be far better off negotiating a credit than replacing the roof given the cost and what you’ll get back.

7. Clean up the exterior of the home.

Your home’s exterior is the first thing that buyers are going to see when they come to view your home. The little things you do to make the home look nicer at first glance are inexpensive for the most part and can be great for helping your home stand out.

Some of the exterior repairs that you can address may include patching cracks in the sidewalk and driveway, replacing the caulk around your windows, adding new fixtures like doorknobs, painting the front door, fixing broken fences and painting them, planting flowers, adding mulch to flower beds, etc. Here is an excellent list of exterior home staging tips you can use to spruce up your house.

8. Talk to your Realtor before making any repairs.

Your agent should be well-qualified to tell you what exactly you need to do to make your home more marketable. He or she knows the market and has the insight necessary to help in your decision making. What’s important to repair in a house can vary from one market to the next. This is one of the reasons people say all real estate is local. 

Don’t, however, underestimate the things that can make a home sale fall through.

Repairs Without a High Return on Investment But Necessary

There are some repairs needed with a home that doesn’t bring a high rate of return. These are the items that buyers consider are essential to be functioning. They are considered “normal” to be working upon transfer.

Buyers generally will not pay more money for these items. Some of them include:

• A functioning septic system if sewer is not available. New septic systems have a small return on investment.
• Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the house that function correctly. Obviously, these items are vital to safety.
• Any kind of existing significant structural or mechanical defect in the home. For example, if the heating system is failing it would make sense to get it replaced.
• Any kind of problem that would prevent a buyer from obtaining a mortgage. This one is obvious. You will never sell your house for top dollar if you need a cash sale.
• If you don’t have public water and your house has a well that is not functioning properly. Buyers expect excellent quality and quantity from their water supply.
• You know you either have high radon levels in the water or the air. Nearly all buyers will want this corrected before proceeding.
• A significant electrical issue, especially if it is a fire hazard.

Mike and Crystal Green couldn’t have picked a worse time to look for a new home. In mid-February, Mike was offered a promotion to be a regional sales manager at a computer security company. The catch was the couple would need to relocate 

The Greens accepted an offer on their home two days after it went on the market in early March. But by then, the Greens didn’t feel safe flying to check out houses given the coronavirus pandemic. The government was urging workers to stay home if possible and practice social distancing when out in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

That wound up working in their favour. The Greens went online and took a virtual tour of a home they liked. It was in a new development. They were able to choose custom details via Zoom and email—and got a discount on their new home

If they closed in March, and the builder would throw in a free Whirlpool refrigerator, washer, and dryer as well.

The Greens have plenty of company on the receiving end of a wave of aggressive incentives for buyers of new construction. With a global health crisis raging and the ensuing financial fallout with many workers laid off,  homebuilders around North America are offering discounts, throwing in freebies, and covering closing costs to attract buyers and close deals.

They had to do something. Tours of new-homes have dropped and more potential buyers deciding to put off their new home searches until things truly settle.

CMHC

2020 summer edition of the Housing Market Outlook report provides forecasts for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. It builds on the Spring 2020 edition that focused on housing market activity for Canada and the provinces.

These reports give high and low range projections on new construction, home sales, house prices and rental market activity.

Housing forecast overview for Canada’s major urban centres

Read the full CMHC report here 

Buyers may also get deals on custom homes

While deals on newly constructed homes abound, buyers can also shop around for discounted lots where they can have their dream homes built.