If you’ve ever watched the Home Improvement Show, then you’re all too familiar with Tim Taylor’s somewhat crazy ideas to integrate his slogan of “More Power” with his own home improvements. Despite his lunacy in many of his undertakings, he had a keen understanding of what it means to add value to his property. Crucially, he had a vision. He wasn’t afraid to do something different if it meant increasing the value of it in the long run.

Life changes rapidly and, often, unpredictably. You’ll never know when one of those changes will require you to move. That is why it is important to be ready to adapt to these changes by thinking ahead about how you can add value to your house now for that later time when you’ll have to put your house on the market. Here are a few proactive steps you can take for that future moment right away.

Increasing Curb Appeal

Already from step one, developing a cycle of good habits pertaining to taking care of the exterior of the house is essential. If you don’t get into them now, when you want to sell the house, it will become more stressful to change when the time does come around. The key thing here is to make your home from the outside not just appealing but, more importantly, memorable.

Power wash the house, clear the roof and clean out the gutters, tidy up the landscaping, and identify something distinctive to the house that makes it pleasantly stand out from those around it. Allow the house’s personality to come out by drawing attention to a particular feature of the house, or even making the main gateway to the house – the front door – a focal point.

Updating the Kitchen

Kitchens are the hub of relationship building and community-related events. We’re Americans. We find ways to work food into every possible event we do, and the food we make is a gateway into friendships that last. This may be one of the reasons why kitchens are such a pressure point on peoples’ lists of things that “must look right” in a house. You don’t have to have the most modern kitchen in the world, but make sure that it looks like it is from this decade. Keep it bright, cheery, clean, and spacious.

• Cabinets
• Countertops
• Refresh the paint
• Identify dated appliances
• Refinish or redo the flooring

This will probably be one of the larger investments you make in your house, so it would be wise to start thinking and planning now for how you want your kitchen to look when you eventually put the house up for sale.

Improve Home Efficiency

Although there are moments when you should just fix something to the way it was originally when certain appliances or ecosystems in your house begin to break down, see if there is a new standard of doing things that will make the house more efficient and modern. You shouldn’t have to buy into the latest trendy style, because those will come and pass before you can blink, but make enduring changes to your house that will increase its overall integrity. Things like:

• Energy Efficient Windows
• Updating the electric and plumbing infrastructure
• LED Lighting
• Properly insulating the house
• Keeping the house cool with strategic landscaping choices to shield the house from too much sunlight

These are things you can do as they come up, but keep them in the back of your mind as areas to improve upon.

Hire a Home Inspector

You may be completely unaware of where to start on any home improvement projects, and conversely, oblivious to some glaring structural issues with your house. A home inspector is trained to be perceptive of the tiniest details that will have major implications on the future livability and saleability of your home. If you think you know your house “like the back of your hand”, you don’t know the back of your hand as good as you thought. Use the home inspection as an opportunity to learn more intimately about your house, and educate yourself on what quirks may need to be corrected before the time comes in the distant future to move.

With a vision for your home better crafted, a plan of action is now in place that will boost the value of your home. And if that moment finally arrives for you to put your house on the market, come talk to us at Homes Warsaw, and we will be able to help you sell your house for what it’s now truly worth.