We are all aware that home sales for the last few years have been abysmal. The good news is that sales are picking up dramatically and homes are selling. The bad news is that the best homes are the ones that are going to sell first. Is that really bad news?

Take a Close Look

If you’re considering selling your home, take a good hard look at the house. Think about what you can do to make the house the appealing. Look at it from the eyes of your prospective buyer. What do you see? Is the carpet clean and pristine? Is the paint chipping? Are the gutters sagging? Does it look like somewhere that you’d like to live? You can fix that and it may not cost as much as you might think.

New Carpet and Paint?

One of the best ways to improve the value of your home is with new carpet and a fresh coat of paint. All of the staging crews in the world will tell you that quality carpet and a very clean interior are going to sell the house. New carpet and paint tells the buyer the home is well kept and  is going to provide solid value.

If want to make a great first impression and your carpets aren’t all that they should be, consider whether you should be having them professionally cleaned or whether it might be most cost effective to simply replace the ones that are most worn.

Replacing just one carpet in your home, specifically the living room carpet, can give the impression of a very well kept home. Most of us have entry way stains that may not be easily removed. Professionally cleaning the rug can have a good effect in some cases, but in others, replacing the carpet is going to be the best option.

The average living room carpet can cost between 400 and 800 dollars to replace. That same small expenditure can bring in an additional 4 or 5 thousand dollars when it comes to pricing your home.

The cost of most updates to your home, particularly carpet, will be well covered in the sale price. If you’re considering a home sale, making your home look its absolute best is the surest way to raise the market value of the home and to give it the kind of appeal that is going to sell the home rapidly.