There are five upgrades you need to avoid making to your home if you plan on selling it soon.

1. Extensive professional landscaping. If you build a koi pond with a waterfall in your backyard, it will look fantastic in listing pictures, but unless you find a buyer who’s specifically looking for that type of feature, it’s a bit over the top in terms of upgrades. In fact, you’re only looking at a return of 50 cents on the dollar. Remember—you never want to have the most expensive listing on the block.

2. Improving items the buyer already expects to work. Examples include installing a new gutter, HVAC system, or roof. If your roof is old, buyers might use that as negotiating leverage, but if you spend $5,000 to replace it, you won’t be able to add that to the sale price.

“You never want to have the most expensive listing on the block.”

3. Building a swimming pool. In our resort-style market, there aren’t many homes with swimming pools, so you’ll get some return on your investment if you add one to your property, but if you spend—say—$100,000 on it, you’ll only be able to add $30,000 or $40,000 to your home’s price.

4. Painting. Painting the home yourself is one thing, but if you pay a professional paint crew thousands of dollars to do the job, you won’t get a great return on your investment because that’s one more thing that the buyer will expect.

5. Adding solar panels. The cost of solar panel systems is dropping, and more energy efficiency is a great thing for our future, but at the moment, buyers can be anxious about the maintenance costs of owning a home with solar panels.

If you have any questions about this topic or you have any other real estate needs I can take care of, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

Need help? Call Keller Williams The Trembley Group at 843.945.1880 ext. 1 and we’ll help you look for the perfect listing or buyers agent!

At Keller Williams The Trembley Group, we pride ourselves on being the experts at more than just selling real estate. We are local residents, some of us have been here for a lifetime. The rest of us will be here until the end of time. We love living, working, and playing in the diverse backyard of Coastal Carolina, and look forward to helping you live and love your dreams soon too. Please reach out to us by phone or email for personalized service and one-on-one advice. 

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Our agents write often to give you the latest insights on owning a home or property in the Myrtle Beach, SC area.