1. Tidy up kitchen cabinets. Potential buyers open kitchen cabinets and look inside. Home owners can add rollout or organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff.
2. Add or replace tile. By retiling very inexpensively, you can make a room look way cleaner that it was. Every city has stores that offer $1 to $2 tile, so home owners have to pay only for the low cost tile and labor to replace a dated background or add a new one.
3. Add a breakfast bar. When a wall separates a kitchen from a family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar.
4. Install granite tile instead of a slab. Granite kitchen counter tops are the rage, but that can be a $5000 upgrade. Instead, home owners can put in 12 inch granite tiles for about $300 materials and can have a very high impact for little money.
5. Freshen up a bathroom without retiling. To update a bathroom, consider putting in a new medicine cabinet for $100-150, light fixtures for about $100, a faucet for $50-75, and a vanity for $200-300. Instead of replacing the tile, the existing grout can be lightly scraped and regrouted, which will make the tile look brand new. Installing glass shower doors makes for a brighter appearance. French doors can add a bit of flair and class for about $250, which of course will take people’s eyes off the tile and onto the doors! This bathroom remodel would run $1000 to $2000.
6. Freshen up the basement. If your cement blocks or poured concrete walls in the basement are cracked, have a contractor fill the cracks with hydraulic cement, paint with waterproofing paint, add a top coat to add color, paint the basement floor and like magic, the basement isn’t finished but certainly doesn’t have the dark, damp dungeon feel anymore.
7. Add a room. Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom, for just the price of creating a wall. For a job that can run in the low hundreds, can net you in the thousands or tens of thousands.
8. Spruce up cabinet fronts. Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. reconditioning is the least expensive move for under $1,000. For $1,500 to $4,000 owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for $4,000 to $12,000 home owners can have all the cabinets refaced.
9. Replace light fixtures. In a foyer, bathrooms & kitchens, replacing overhead lighting provides a great deal of pop for a little money.
10. Tech up the garage. Replacing the garage door opener with a remote touchpad entry system can make it look like a high-end system, for about $425.
