By spending a relatively small sum of money to make strategic improvements to your property, you may be able to increase its value by far more that the cost of the improvements while reducing the time required to sell your property.

Not all improvements are cost effective and some are not recommended because prospective buyers have different taste. Following is a list of items every seller should review. Clearly, most will not apply to your property, but some may.

Note that for a small fee there are some maintenance companies that will do the work and will wait until escrow closes to get paid. They will generally want to see a signed listing agreement before offering this arrangement of course, some of the suggested items, you may be able to do yourself.

Making improvements before selling your property has an added advantage which can be best explained by providing an example:

Assume the seller of a home makes invests $40,000 to make improvements which result in a $50,000 price increase. When the buyers obtains their loan, they will probably be able to borrow up to 80% of the additional $50,000 or $40,000. In short, they come up with no additional cash and can finance the improvements at a low interest rate over 30 years. Both the sellers and buyers benefit.

Sellers should consider making the following improvements and/or repairs before offering their home for sale: