When you’re ready to sell your home, it’s important to have its value appraised by a real estate agent so you know what price to try to obtain for it. Sometimes, the value of a property can be less than the owners want or imagined it would be, and this can be a problem for many reasons, including the fact that, if the property isn’t worth enough, you may not be able to move home at all (especially if you are in negative equity). With this in mind, it’s crucial to understand what it is that will cause your property’s value to decrease. Read on to find out what some of the reasons might be. 

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The Front Yard 

When you’re looking for properties online or when you drive around searching out for sale boards, you’ll make a snap decision about those properties just because of how they look initially. Without even going inside or reading the description, you’ll already have formed an opinion. 

The thing to remember is, people are doing the same thing with your property. If the front yard is a mess, they will assume that the rest of the house isn’t worth as much as prettier, tidier, more looked after properties, even if they are on the same street. It’s incredible how something like mowing the front lawn, tidying the flowerbeds, fixing your driveway, and painting your garage door can make a difference to your property’s value, but it really can. 

Clutter 

When someone comes to view your property, they need to be able to imagine all their possessions and furniture in place of yours. They need to be able to imagine themselves living there. If they can’t because the property is too cluttered, they may just bypass it and look at something else. There is a lot of competition when it comes to selling property, so anything you can do that will improve the look of your house will improve its value, and improve the likelihood of it selling. 

Since you will be moving anyway and will need to pack everything up, the time just before an agent is due to value your property is the right time to arrange skip bin hire and remove anything from the house that shouldn’t be there. Not only will this increase its value, but it will make it a more pleasant place to live while you’re waiting to sell too. 

Deeper Problems 

Cosmetic changes are one thing, and they will undoubtedly improve the value of any property when they are dealt with. However, if you have bigger, deeper problems that will cause any new owner to have to spend a lot of money to put right, then the value of your home will decrease to make up for that. The prospective buyer will know they will have to spend money after moving in, so buying a cheaper house makes sense. 

There are a few options here. Either you can sell your house for less money and accept that there is work to be done, or you can do the work yourself and sell the house for more money. The choice will depend on how much you have to spend to fix the issues and how much value that will add to the property. If you will make more than you spend, then it’s a good idea. If not, you may have to cut your losses and sell cheaply.