Tips for Home Improvements That Will Make Your House More Marketable

The real estate market is competitive. Millions of homes hit the market every year, and on top of that, new properties are constantly being built. When you’re selling a house, you want to take every step to beat the competition. Before you list your house, check out the following home improvement steps to enhance its appeal. 

Upgrade Your Kitchen

There are two rooms in the house considered most important to buyers: the kitchen and the master bathroom. Make these your priority. Easy fixes for the kitchen include replacing old appliances, installing new cabinets, and revamping the countertops. Since countertops take up a large amount of the surface area in the room, modifying them can enhance its aesthetic appeal. According to Realtor.com, possible materials include granite, laminate, and marble. Quartz is a popular option; it's nonporous, making it very resistant to stains, and can be easily cleaned with mild dish soap and water. 

Add Luxury to the Bathroom

The master bathroom is the second most important room of the house when it comes to winning over buyers. Adding a feeling of luxury to this space can be a great selling point. You don't have to tear apart the entire room — small touches will do! For example, fresh tiles can quickly spruce up the space. Other tricks include letting in more natural light, switching to a barrier-free shower to create more room, and adding stone elements (for instance, with a stylish stone sink). Finally, once any improvements are complete, the staging of this bathroom can make a difference. Add a lavender bouquet to the counter, put a basket of pretty soaps in place, and hang some fluffy white towels to give the feeling of a luxury hotel.

Declutter and Deep Clean the Entire Home

Every room in the house should be decluttered before you show the property to buyers. Messy homes have been shown to cause feelings of stress, which is not the emotion you want to create. Additionally, removing clutter can help make rooms look more spacious.

To keep your items safe and the house tidy, put objects into storage while you are showing the home. A temporary storage unit can safely house your possessions, and you can then move these items directly to your new home from the unit when you're ready. To truly create a clutter-free sanctuary in your home, work with the pros at House to Home Organizing! Once clutter is cleared away, you can hire a professional cleaning service to get your house sparkling.

Once you’ve addressed clutter and cleaning, it’s time to stage your home. Now is the time to depersonalize and remove bold pieces or art or furniture. Try to find a balance between warmth and minimalism. Change up the decor, move around furniture or add enhancements that showcase certain parts of the home. 

Don’t Neglect the Exterior

Making a house marketable starts with the outside. It takes mere seconds to make a first impression on people — and their first impression of a piece of real estate is the exterior. Curb appeal refers to the view people have of a home from a street, and enhancing it can help you sell a property faster. Start by power washing the exterior of the home to get rid of dirt, grime, and pollen. Then, mow the lawn, prune hedges, and trim trees for an orderly appearance. You can further amp up the aesthetic appeal by adding some color; for example, fill planters with vibrant flowers and place them near the front door. 

Beef up your curb appeal by repainting your home’s exterior. This is a large job, and costs will depend on how many stories you have, the region you live in, material type, and other factors. Another way to improve your home’s exterior is to install a new fence. The cost of adding a fence to your property will depend on the materials you use, size of the fence, and where you’re located. Avoid working with uninsured or unlicensed contractors and always insist on a detailed written estimate.  

Following the above steps will make your house more appealing to potential buyers. The added effort may even mean you can command a higher price. You will then have more money to put towards your new house.

Guest Post - Most Common Problems Tree Owners Have and How to Avoid Them

A beautiful home isn’t complete without great landscaping. The right mix of trees, shrubs, and flowers can really make a property stand out.

But sometimes the plants we choose can be a little finicky. Trees can especially be tricky, as they need the perfect mix of conditions to really thrive. Getting the right light, nutrients, and water can sometimes be a challenge. Add in wildlife and pests, and it only makes caring for your trees more difficult. Trimming your trees is only the first step in their care. You have to pay attention to all these other factors, too.

Are you worried about the trees in your yard? Let’s dive into some of the most common tree problems owners run into and how to avoid them.

Lack of Nutrients

One of the most common issues that keeps trees from thriving is a lack of nutrients. When trees are growing naturally in a forest, the soil they’re in is full of the nutrients it needs. Much of these nutrients come from decomposing leaves.

For most homeowners, keeping their yard in tip-top shape is an important part of home maintenance. This usually means raking up leaves and removing debris, along with keeping the grass healthy and bright. This takes away most of the nutrients trees need to grow.

Unfortunately, grass competes with trees for nutrients. In this competition, grass always wins. This is one of the reasons so many trees don’t survive in urban and suburban areas.

There’s an easy fix, though. And no, it isn’t to stop doing yard work.

To give trees all the nutrients they need, all you need to do is add fertilizer and mulch around your trees. The fertilizer is full of the right nutrients your trees need, while mulch will decompose over time and help to feed your tree. Giving your tree proper maintenance care will improve its chances of thriving, not just surviving.

Annoying Pests

Another very common issue that tree owners experience is pests. There are good bugs that can help your trees get the right nutrients. But there are also pests that can eat away at your trees or even kill them if the problem gets bad enough. Luckily, there are a few things that can help keep pests at bay.

It may come as a surprise to know that if your trees are already stressed by their growing conditions, it makes it more likely to attract pests. This is also true for old or weak trees.

To prevent pests, the first step to take is to check your tree’s growing conditions. Similar to the point mentioned above, this starts with the soil your tree is planted in. Additionally, make sure your tree is in a good location where it can get the right amount of sun and water.

If you’re still seeing pests, the next step would be treating your trees. There are a number of ways to do this. Your local landscaping and arbor companies should be able to give you advice for your particular issues.

Always make sure you check your trees regularly for pests. For the best chance of combating pest problems you need to catch the issue early on, before it’s expanded to the whole tree.

Damage From Wildlife and Landscaping

If you find your trees look damaged and sickly, it’s very possible that the cause is either wildlife or your landscaping tools. Local animals like deer can eat away at trees. When you do yard work, you may be hurting your tree trunks with lawn mowers or trimmers, too.

When you do yard work near your trees, be careful to give them space so that you don’t damage their trunks. You can also harm trees by mowing over exposed roots. Damage like this can hurt a tree’s ability to soak up water and nutrients properly.

Just like you should be checking for pests regularly, you should check for wildlife damage as well. This includes inspecting the trunk, bark, branches, and leaves of your trees. If you have a tree that’s being damaged often, you may want to fence it off to keep animals away.

About the author:

Carolyn Mitchell is a freelance writer and content strategist with a passion for home décor and maintenance. She can often be found re-painting and updating the furnishings in her home, and she is also a dedicated cat mom to two adorable kitties.

Tips for Preventing Damaging House Fires

A house fire, no matter what size it may be, is one of most homeowners’ worst nightmares. The damage that even a small fire can cause can add up quickly when it comes to repair costs. While we can’t control everything in regards to keeping our homes safe from fire, there are some things we do have control over. In this article, we’ll give you a few tips for preventing damaging house fires so you can sleep a little easier knowing your home is a little bit safer.

Regularly Inspect Fire Detection

Fast reaction times can mean the difference between a small problem and a huge disaster. That’s why any and all fire detection equipment must be in good condition and ready to go. You should change the batteries in your smoke detector regularly and inspect any home sprinkler system you might have.

Keep Tabs on Heating Sources

Anything in your home that generates heat could start a fire. You should always check on your heater’s filters before you plan to use it as these can catch fire if they are too dirty. Heat sources, such as radiators and space heaters, need to have nothing flammable near them that could catch fire from the radiating heat.

Be Careful With Appliances

Appliances such as your stove, oven, and dryer all pose a risk when it comes to fire. You should never leave your stove or oven unattended for long periods of time. Fires can start, and run out of control, in the blink of an eye, so you always need to be ready. Make sure you always clean out your dryer’s lint catcher before every load of laundry. That lint can easily catch fire if you let it build up.

Watch Cord Placement

Even the most insulated cords you can buy may still run hot, especially if they are in use for excessively long periods of time. A good tip for preventing house fires is to never put anything flammable close to a cord or power outlet. You also want to inspect cords that move a lot, as you don’t want to continue using a cord that has begun to fray.

Always Have Fire Extinguishers

This pointer should go without saying, but many homeowners don’t own fire extinguishers even though they can be lifesavers. You should instruct everyone in your home about where the fire extinguishers are and how to use them, should the need arise. A fire extinguisher could mean the difference between a momentary flame and an outright house fire.

Goodbye Clutter: 4 Useful Tools for Organizing Your Home

Home organization isn’t something you can do without the proper resources. In fact, it’s the collection of tools you use that gives you the ability to maximize your available space and make this process possible in the first place. This is why, if you’re going to tackle one of these projects yourself, you must have everything you need to succeed. These are some of the most useful tools for organizing your home and the benefits each can provide you as you sift through the clutter.

Drawer Dividers

Drawer dividers are incredibly versatile items that allow us to store small objects in an orderly fashion. Whether you have tableware or little knickknacks in your drawers, these cubbies keep everything separate so that you can find what you’re looking for easily. These products can even organize your hand tools in the workshop or hygiene products in the bathroom.

Plastic Bins

We also recommend that you have a set of larger plastic bins on hand. These containers work great for keeping large collections of items in one place. For instance, they work particularly well for clothing and holiday decorations. Because of their air-tight seal, they effectively protect more fragile items from dust, humidity, and insects as well.

Storage Lift

Another useful tool for organizing your home is a mechanical storage lift system. They’re a bit more high-tech than some of the other products on the market. They consist of motorized platforms that raise your possessions up into the attic space. Attic storage lift systems have a series of benefits, including saving you time and energy, reducing your risk of injury, and allowing you to use your attic space in more versatile ways. With such a tool, it’ll be much easier to keep the rest of your home orderly.

Label Maker

Having a label maker can be helpful too. With several boxes of items to sort through, labeling each one takes the guesswork out of finding what you need. As such, you no longer need to worry about locating something, even after storing it away in the attic or garage. This tool is particularly effective for enabling you to find seasonal décor and memorabilia from years ago.