How We Saved Money Preparing Our House for Sale

How We Saved Money Preparing Our Home for Sale

My husband and I are planning to sell our house in the next few months, but we were concerned about how much we would need to spend to get our house show-ready. Luckily, we called our realtor first and learned we don’t have to spend that much money. Here’s how we saved money preparing our house for sale.

About Our House

We bought our house in 2014. While not quite a handyman special, it needed some improvements. For instance, the kitchen cabinets were a pale wood with the varnish rubbed off. The living room was sponge painted in orange, brown, and cream. The bathroom light fixtures looked like they belonged in an actress’ dressing room. The carpet was worn and worse for wear thanks to the previous owners’ dog.

Improvements We Already Made

For the last two years, we knew we would soon sell our home, so we started making improvements as time and money allowed.

We made several improvements:

How We Saved Money Preparing Our House for Sale

  • replaced the 20-year-old shower with a tile shower
  • painted the exterior of our house,
  • replaced the sponge-painted living room with neutral cream walls,
  • painted two other bedrooms in the home,
  • replaced carpet in two bedrooms with laminate wood flooring,
  • painted the kitchen cabinets white, and
  • added backsplash to the kitchen

Improvements We Still Needed to Make

As much as we improved the home, we had a laundry list of items we still felt we needed to improve before we put the house on the market

  • Replace the bathroom dressing room lights,
  • Landscape the front yard,
  • Replace the bathroom vanities,
  • Replace the living room and bedroom carpet,
  • Replace the sliding glass door in the living room,

The Most Important Way We Saved Money When Preparing Our House for Sale

My husband and I couldn’t decide if we should call the realtor first or make the repairs first. In the end, because we want to get the house on the market soon and we weren’t sure what repairs should take priority, we called the realtor first. That was the smartest move we could have made.

The realtor saved us thousands of dollars by focusing only on what repairs and improvements were essential to put the house on the market.

For instance, instead of replacing the sliding glass door, her repairman is going to replace the door track so it moves more smoothly.

She suggested we put one piece of landscaping in the center of our yard and forget the rest.

Rather than replacing the carpets, she said all they needed was deep cleaning.

She did agree that the dressing room lights needed to be replaced.

Luckily for us, she has a general contractor who can make many of these repairs instead of us wasting time calling around trying to find a reliable person.

Final Thoughts

If you’re planning to put your house on the market soon, I hope learning how we saved money preparing our house for sale helps you. Call the realtor first before you make repairs and replacements. You may find in this seller’s market, you have less to do to make your home show-ready than you would have expected.

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