Photo: Brett Jordan

What features devalue your home?

If you're looking to sell, here are 9 things that can devalue your property and drive down your sale price. Poor presentation and too much clutter. ... Loud colours and quirky decor. ... Your home's curb appeal. ... Odours. ... Sub-par DIY renovations. ... Illegal home improvements. ... A general state of disrepair. ... Outdated kitchens and bathrooms. More items... •

openagent.com.au - The top 9 things that devalue a property in 2022 - OpenAgent

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3. Your home’s curb appeal

Get this wrong and potential buyers won’t even make it through the front door. You can help to ensure that buyers want to come into your house by spending a bit of time working on your home’s exterior .

A few tips and ideas:

Buy some shiny new house numbers, door knobs or knockers.

Hose down and clean away any spiderwebs and be sure to clean your gutters.

Get rid of junk and debris.

Upgrade your outdoor lighting.

Tidy your garden and add shrubs and plants if it is a bit sparse. First impressions begin to be formed the moment buyers see your property from the street, so this is critical to get right.

4. Odours

According to the RSPCA , Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world. Around 63 per cent of Australian households own pets, with dogs being the most common. There are an estimated 4.2 million pet dogs in the country and 3.3 million pet cats. While the Australian adoration towards our fluffy friends is undeniable, the associated odours that can come with this responsibility are not. It’s important to ensure your home doesn’t smell of cat or dog — it’s also easy to become accustomed to the smell, so bring in an impartial friend who will tell you the truth. If one thing is for sure, hitting potential buyers with pet pong as soon as they enter your home is an easy way to turn them off. Be mindful that other odours can make for an unpleasant environment as well. Look out for leaking drainage, damp and slow drips from cisterns. Also, don’t decide to fertilise your garden with compost, manure or blood and bone when your home is about to go to market.

Lingering odours can be off-putting to potential buyers

5. Sub-par DIY renovations

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8 top home selling mistakes you should avoid Underestimating the costs of selling. ... Setting an unrealistic price. ... Only considering the...

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In a time when the cost of trades and materials are at all-time highs, DIY improvements may be downright essential. A fresh lick of paint can transform a home, as can things like new light fixtures and bathroom fittings. Unfortunately, bad paint jobs, dodgy tiling and generally shonky handiwork won't go unnoticed. Whatever jobs you tackle yourself, make sure they're done to a high standard. Anything that's outside of your DIY abilities is still going to be best left to a professional, since buyers will definitely pick up on any corners that have been cut. While some jobs can be done with a little bit of elbow grease and perseverance, make sure you always hire a qualified and licensed tradesman for any gas, electrical, plumbing or heating jobs.

6. Illegal home improvements

It goes without saying, if you want to undertake any home improvements that require permission from your local council, then you should definitely be getting that approval. In the event that you haven’t sought out approval for work done to your home, this could cause issues when you try to sell it. For example, if you’re looking to sell a four-bedroom house but only two of those rooms were council-approved, once a buyer finds out, they’ll be able to renegotiate the price based on this, or even pull out of the contract altogether. If an agent finds out, they will not be able to market your property as four bedrooms, instead, it may be marketed as a two-bedroom home with a study and a teenager’s retreat. Building without planning approval can therefore render your home untouchable for buyers, so do your due diligence and make sure any work to your home goes through the right planning and approvals.

openagent.com.au - The top 9 things that devalue a property in 2022 - OpenAgent

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