Why you have to spend money on your Chicago home when selling

You might cringe at the thought of sinking money into a Chicago condo or single-family home that you’re planning on selling. After all, you plan to move from your home. Why should you put money into it now?

The answer? If you don’t, you won’t sell your home for top dollar. You might even struggle to find a buyer at all.

This feature by RealtyTimes does a good job of explaining why it is so important to spend the money necessary to make your home look its absolute best before you sell.

As the story says, buyers will decide when your home sells and for how much. These buyers don’t care how much you’ve spent on upkeep while you’ve owned your home. They don’t care how much you owe on your mortgage. And they don’t care how much money you need to make on your sale.

They only care about what your home is worth today and how much work they’ll have to put into the property after they buy it.

That’s why it’s so important to offer a home that is as move-in ready as possible. Buyers will be far more likely to make a higher-priced offer if they know they’ll be moving into a home that doesn’t need much work.

This means fixing any broken appliances, damaged windows or scuffed hardware floors. It also means adding fresh coats of paint to weathered walls and ceilings and replacing furnaces or hot water heaters that are near the end of their expected lifespans.

It could also mean spending money on staging your home so that it looks its absolute best. A professional stager will make your home’s rooms look airy, bright and inviting. This will lead to the best possible photos on your home’s online listings, something that is more important today than ever. Without photos that showcase your home’s best features, you’ll struggle to attract buyers today.

Our advice? Be ready to spend at least some money to give your Chicago home a pre-sale makeover. It will pay off in the long run.