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13 Ways to Maximize the Sale Price of Your Elm Springs Home

People are drawn to Elm Springs, Arkansas for its rural feel, beautiful countryside, and family-friendly activities. The schools in Elm Springs are highly rated, and it’s the perfect area for anyone who loves the outdoors.

If you’re selling a home in Elm Springs, it shouldn’t be hard to find potential buyers, but it’s important that you get the best possible price. Thankfully, there are many things you can do to maximize the selling price of your home.

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1. Make repairs

Most home buyers don’t want to deal with major repairs, so if you don’t fix key things prior to selling, you’ll have to lower your price. Buyers are more likely to make a desirable offer when you’ve already taken care of serious issues. For instance, don’t leave it up to the buyer to replace the roof, fix the siding, or update the plumbing.

Small problems need to be addressed as well. Take inventory of all the small issues around your property, and fix anything that potential buyers might notice. For example, check all outdoor hose bibs for water pressure and make sure they don’t leak. If you’ve neglected any dead outlets in the house or basement, have them fixed. If the toilet is cracked, replace it. If there’s a drafty window or door, fix it properly without workarounds.

2. Upgrade the bathroom(s)

People spend a lot of time in the bathroom, so make sure it’s functional and aesthetically pleasing. Update all the fixtures if they’re old or cheap, and upgrade all curtain rods, mirrors, and towel racks in a matching style. If your bathroom already looks nice, you can add a towel warmer for some extra luxury.

If your tub and shower are in bad shape, it’s probably time for a full bathroom remodel. If there are no major issues, all you need is a fresh coat of paint, new caulking, and a deep clean.

If your bathroom fixtures are arranged awkwardly, consider a remodel. A poorly arranged bathroom can be a deal-breaker for potential buyers, and you might need to lower your price to get it to sell.

3. Perfect the interior aesthetics

Walk through your home and look for small things that might catch a potential buyer’s attention in a negative way. For instance, scratches on the wall, cracked tiles, dented doors, missing drawer or cupboard handles, peeling paint, and anything else that might make your home look bad. Fix all of these issues so you can present a clean, beautiful property.

4. Hire a staging company

If you’re not living in your Elm Springs home when you put it on the market, hire a company to stage the furniture and décor. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, staging helps a home sell 30 times faster and can increase the sale price by an average of 20%.

Staging your home is more important than you might think. People are predominantly visual, and visual cues override other senses and information. If your home is empty, people won’t feel as uplifted and excited as they would if it was beautifully staged. If you have bland, boring, or mismatched furniture, it will drop the mood.

Your home needs to impress potential buyers visually from the start. People will be more likely to make you an offer when they can see the potential in your home, and that requires visuals. Staging your furniture and décor professionally is the best way to create a specific experience that elicits those feelings of inspiration in your potential buyers.

5. Hire a professional photographer and videographer

Professional photos and videos are underrated now that everyone can take pictures with a cellphone. The truth is, professionals do far more than just snap some photos. They know exactly how to frame shots to capture each room from the best angle. Professionals know how to set up the perfect lighting to make sure photos are crystal clear, colorful, and appealing. Lighting takes experience and expertise to get right, and no matter how good your cell phone’s camera may be, without lighting expertise, your photos will be sub-par.

Where professional videographers are concerned, many of them specialize in doing drone fly-overs, where they capture a full 360-degree view of the property. Photographers also use drones to capture photos from angles not possible from the ground. Properties look different when you’re eye-level with the edge of the roof. And if your videographer uses a drone, you can get photos of the roof.

6. Install energy-efficient appliances

Many buyers expect the home they buy to come with basic appliances, like a refrigerator and stove, and sometimes a washer and dryer. If you’re going to include appliances in the sale, which you should, upgrade them to energy-efficient units.

Energy bills are more expensive than ever, and home buyers love seeing energy-efficient appliances in the homes they’re considering. At the very least, having an efficient refrigerator, washer, and dryer would be ideal since these appliances tend to use the most electricity. If there’s a built-in spot for a microwave, you should install an energy-efficient microwave as well.

7. Optimize the lighting

Great lighting makes a huge difference in a home, and if your property doesn’t have nice lighting, it’s worth upgrading. For example, make sure all your rooms have overhead lighting, and get the kind of fixtures that will emit good lighting throughout the space. Not all light fixtures, like lamps and chandeliers, are ideal.

The rooms that need good lighting the most are the bathroom, bedrooms, living room, and kitchen. The easiest way to upgrade the lighting is to hire a professional to assess your space and revamp the lighting throughout your home.

8. Declutter and depersonalize the space

Appearances are everything, and people will perceive the value of your home as lower if it’s messy. Nobody wants to see clutter and personal items while touring their potential new home. It may be normal for some people to leave their personal belongings in the home while showing it, but it’s going to lower your sale price. If your house looks junky, you won’t get the higher offers you’re hoping to get. Your bedrooms should be free from dirty clothes, visible personal items, and your bathroom should be completely empty.

If you’re still living in your home while it’s on the market, it’s understandable that you’d have your belongings in the house. In that case, do your best to clean things up as much as possible. Go to Home Depot or Walmart and buy a bunch of plastic storage tubs and use them to store your loose belongings while potential buyers tour your home. You can stash them in the garage or a bedroom closet out of the way until the tour is over. It’s a little extra work, but it will help you get the maximum sale price for your home.

9. Give attention to curb appeal

Great curb appeal is one of the easiest ways to maximize the sale price of your Elm Springs home because it’s something you can control. When potential buyers pull up to your home, they should feel good. It should evoke a feeling they’ll want to experience on a daily basis when they come home from work, school, or running errands.

When you create a pleasant first impression from the moment people park, people will feel more drawn to the property. If your potential buyers don’t feel amazing the first time they pull up to view your home, it’s going to diminish their overall experience no matter how amazing the inside of your home may be.

You can increase curb appeal in the following ways:

  • Paint the home’s exterior.
  • Pressure-wash the surrounding sidewalks and driveway.
  • Fix or replace the siding.
  • Repair missing or broken shingles.
  • Clean your gutters.
  • Replace broken or rusted gutters.
  • Rebuild brick chimneys.
  • Replace ugly doors.
  • Install plain window coverings.
  • Clean up the yard.
  • Cut the grass and weeds, and trim tree branches.

Most of these tasks can be outsourced to someone else if you don’t have time. Either way, it’s worth the effort.

10. Paint the interior and exterior

A fresh coat of paint will go a long way in creating amazing first impressions for your potential buyers. It not only looks good, but it gives people the impression that your home is well taken care of.

If your current paint job looks dingy, dirty, or is peeling/cracking, it will diminish the experience people have when viewing your home.

11. Fix or replace the roof

Your roof is one of the most important things to fix before you put your home on the market. All roofs have a finite lifespan, and if yours is nearing the end, or if it’s showing signs of serious wear and/or damage, getting it replaced or restored is a good idea.

Out of all major repairs, potential buyers dread fixing issues with the roof most because usually, roof problems come with serious damage. For example, what seems like a small leak can actually be hiding rotten sheathing and joists. Most people know that when they buy a home with a bad roof, they’re probably going to find hidden water damage.

12. Plant shade trees

It’s never too late to start planting trees on the property. Ideally, it would be nice if you already planted trees for privacy and/or shade, but even if you haven’t, it’s not too late. When potential buyers look at the property, you can point out that in several years, the trees will provide them with the perfect amount of shade or privacy, and they won’t have to do anything but water and trim the trees as they grow. Shade is a big perk for potential buyers who plan on living in their home for a long time.

13. Take care of any mold problems

Even though Arkansas doesn’t require property owners to remediate mold, it’s something you should do anyway. Many people choose to merely disclose the presence of mold, but if you want to maximize the sale price of your home, take the initiative to remove the mold.

Get a professional inspection to test for mold, and if there is mold present, get rid of it and fix the source of the problem. For example, if the kitchen sink leaks under the cabinet, remove the mold and fix the leaky pipe so the mold doesn’t come back.

Price your home right for the perfect sale

After you’ve done everything possible to make your home look beautiful and entice potential buyers, make sure you price it correctly to sell. If you price it too high, it will sit on the market too long. If you price it too low, potential buyers may be suspicious and avoid making an offer. If you do manage to get an offer, you’ll just short-change yourself.

Ideally, you should work with a local Elm Springs real estate agent to avoid the mistakes that can prevent you from getting the sale price you deserve. If you’re looking to sell your home, we’d love to help! Our experienced Elm Springs real estate agents can help you with everything from listing your property and staging it to pricing it right and ensuring everything goes smoothly. If you’d like an easy, stress-free experience selling your home in Arkansas, contact us now to learn more.

Ethan Emerson
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