How to get the best advice for your home repairs
The internet is a wild and wonderful place. So much valuable information at our fingertips is truly one of mankind’s biggest achievements. However, everything is not sunshine and roses in the Wild, Wild Web. In fact, there is more bad advice online than good.
You’ll need to learn to separate the sheep from the goats so you don’t waste time and money creating headaches for yourself.
It’s not always easy, so I thought I would share this story with you.
I was reading online about a lady wanting to know, “Who can help me decide what to fix up before I sell my house?” And she got lots of advice from people that she did not know.
Besides calling an agent, these were the most popular answers:
1. Hire a home inspector
2. Talk with an investor/cash buyer
3. Ask your friends and co-workers
On the surface, these seem like reasonable answers. Though, I suspect that you would unintentionally get terrible advice from these three groups.
And here’s why…
First, a home inspector does a good job of telling you what is wrong with your home. In fact, you’ll get several pages of items that need attention from any decent inspector. Even on a recently renovated or new home.
While you’ll get a big list of items to correct, you won’t get the knowledge of what is most important to repair because they do not understand the market and what buyers in your area want in a home.
And you also won’t know which items are going to give you the best return on your investment. Even worse, many common repair items have a negative return.
And now that you have this big list, it can seem overwhelming on where to start. Congrats! You’ve just taken two steps backward.
The second most popular answer was to call an investor or “cash buyer.”
It appeared that most of the folks who posted this answer were investors themselves which highlights my point even further.
Do these folks have your best interest in mind? Or are they going to attempt to talk you into selling you their home at a discount to avoid making repairs?
It’s something you should consider.
Last, ask your friends and co-workers to give you their opinion. My concern here is that this group won’t be 100% truthful about the negatives. They might not want to offend you or hurt your feelings.
Also, they may not be the same group that is looking at purchasing in your neighborhood so the advice might not be applicable to your situation.
When you go fishing, do you ask the fish how to catch them?
That would be silly right. Instead, you ask the guy at the boat dock who has already caught his limit for the day.
In this case, the correct answer would be to talk to a Realtor who has pledged to put your interests ahead of their own. One who knows what buyers want in your area, will give you a list of repairs sorted by importance and knows reliable contractors who do good work.
So, you can fix what’s right for you and your budget. And sell your home on your terms.
If this sounds good to you, then let’s talk. Even if you're not ready to sell. Send a message here: m.me/NashvilleRealEstateNow and I’ll get right back to you.
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