How To Sell Your Old House For More Money

You and I both know that we are in the middle of a massive recession that is touching nearly every part of the economy not just here in America but all over the world. People are losing their jobs at record rates and everybody's finding it a little bit harder to make ends meet. Unfortunately this recession was brought on in large part by the bubble in the housing market...

That's bad news for those of us who are trying to sell their house right now because the housing market is so depressed that many people are simply walking away from their mortgages and leaving their houses in the hands of the banks who have so many of them that they don't even have enough employees available to sell the houses at a discount. All this equals lower house prices across the board which is bad news if you're trying to sell your house and especially bad news if you're trying to sell an older home that is not as nice as many of the new ones on the market today.

That's why I wanted to write a quick article though, to give you some tips on how to get more money out of the sale of your older home. I thought I'd go over a few things that you can do around the house to increase its value relatively inexpensively.

The first thing you should do is invest in a total cleaning of the house by a professional company. This should include carpets either being steam cleaned or replaced, new painting in every room of the house, and possibly new wallpaper if your house has a lot of wallpaper.

Next you should get rid of your cat and your dog. You don't have to give them up permanently but relocate them for the time being because you may be used to the smell but a potential new buyer is not and it doesn't make sense to have your house cleaned only to mess it up again with pet odor. Send them to your parents or friends house for a month, it won't kill you or them!

Next, the exterior of your house is incredibly crucial and needs to look perfect because it's the first thing a buyer will see. This means painting the outsides and possibly replacing any shutters and it also includes cleaning and repairing the porch if you have a porch.

Finally, landscaping can make all the difference in the world. I know you think you know what you're doing when it comes to landscaping but you don't. It is well worth it to call in an expert and get their opinion because many times they can suggest a few very simple and inexpensive things that really turn around the entire yard, sometimes for even less than $1000.

So there you have several simple things that can be done relatively inexpensively that will massively increase the value of your house and allow you to sell it for much more money, especially if it's an older house.

by Jason Markum

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