When it comes to selling your home there is a plethora of advice out there on what will and what will not add value when you come to sell it. So, we thought we’d help you out by explaining some of the things that prospective buyers will look for and more importantly will be prepared to pay for.

It’s often argued that having newly fitted bathrooms or kitchens will add value, make the home more inviting and subliminally encourage buyers to pay the asking price. But research suggests that actually, such measures do not necessarily add the value you’d want.

So, what things could you do to add value onto your home?

1. CONVERT YOUR CELLAR, GARAGE OR LOFT INTO LIVING SPACE

Adding additional living space to your home is always going to help you add value. In fact, making a “change of use” to areas of your home is very simple as they don’t require planning permission.

If you’re lucky enough to have a loft, cellar or garage that you can convert you could be adding between 15-30% to the total sale value of your home. Well worth the investment.

2. IMPROVE YOUR HEATING SYSTEM

Every homeowner knows that one of the biggest running costs of any property is the heating. As such, whenever buyers are looking at a new home, many will be paying close attention to the heating system – especially if they’ve previously had to suffer a bad one.

Improvement of energy efficiency and heating systems always adds more value than it costs and will encourage buyers. Knowing they’re inheriting a new or nearly new, up to date central heating system is a very big purchase pull.

3. ADDING A BEDROOM OR BATHROOM

We mentioned loft conversions earlier, but even if you have additional space or a particularly large room that could be split into two rooms, you’ve got value-adds you can make.

Converting your loft into an extra bedroom will always add value, adding an en suite will add a bathroom and again, add value. Depending on the space you have to utilise you can again expect to add between 15-30% onto your home.

4. APPLYING FOR PLANNING PERMISSION

Many new homeowners are keen to make their new home their own. So, if the property they’re considering buying already has planning permission this is a major boon.

You can even provide them with yield calculations based on the larger square footage of any future extension they chose to build, suddenly their decision is much easier to make!

There are of course dozens of other ways to maximise the value of your home, but few of them add enough value or are important enough to most buyers to be of notable mention. The key thing to remember, of course, is that your prospective buyers will all have different drives and expectations, but they’ll all be unified in wanting a home with more space, low maintenance costs and potential investment value.

We can’t say simpler than that.

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