The first thought that probably comes to mind when you’re ready to put your property on the market is... do I need to make any renovations? Naturally, you want to appeal to your ideal buyers, but you also want to increase the value of your property.
Then comes the subject of the budget. How much should you invest in the renovation? What ROI will you get? What part of the property should you focus on?
Let’s answer the easiest question first: the kitchen.
No matter what you do or how extensive your renovation project is, always make sure to update your kitchen before putting your house on the market.
Renovating the kitchen is the best way to increase your property value. In fact, it is the one room that is most likely to sell the home.
Whenever I meet up with new clients and they walk me through their home, I always pay extra attention to the kitchen and the living space around it. Once we define your ideal buyers, we need the home to be a reflection of the space they would want to live in.
The tricky part getting the homeowners on board. But let’s take a little tour for a minute...
Take the kitchen above, for example. This is such a lovely kitchen, isn’t it? The open layout, the beautiful granite, the textured backsplash. It even has a wine fridge! You know how much I like my wine. 😉
However, it also looks outdated. It needs a bit of a modern refresh to be market-ready. Do you want to know how I know that?
One, because I’ve been designing homes that sell for years. Two, because this house sat on the market for over a year without selling!
Once the clients brought me into this specific home, I could see exactly what needed to be done to transform this kitchen. We knew the Dallas market and the ideal buyers we were targeting. They wanted fresh and updated — and luckily we had a great floor plan to work with!
Okay, now let’s move on to the next question… how much should you invest in kitchen updates?
The good news — there are many ways to update your kitchen before listing without necessarily breaking the bank. Your renovation project could take $150 to install new hardware, or up to $5K for a full kitchen makeover.
(If that $5k is going to increase your sale price by $10k, it’s worth it. That’s the value of getting an expert’s opinion FIRST.)
For today, though, I’m going to use this project to show you my top 4 tips for a budget-friendly kitchen makeover. Can you guess what they are? And can you guess how quickly the home sold afterward?
White is very in right now, especially for kitchen cabinets. When you scroll through your favorite Instagram feed (aka Design by KETI), don’t you feel drawn to light and bright design aesthetics? This is because lighter colors on the walls make the room feel larger.
And it’s not just a trend. Take it from this staging expert, homebuyers perceive white interiors as a blank and timeless canvas they can work with. It gives them space to picture themselves living in the house — and that’s when they’re most likely to make an offer.
Backsplashes get dated, which is perfectly normal. However, you don’t have to break the bank to update them. There are many low-budget and pretty tile options these days.
Pro Tip: I usually like to create a contrast between the backsplash and the countertop. I either go for a solid color to accentuate a colorful countertop, or a fun pattern to drift the attention from the minimalist kitchen surface.
If you are guilty of forgetting how essential hardware is to the kitchen aesthetic, raise your hand. Yep, you’d be in the majority! 🙂
Yes, the hardware is a functional feature, and no, it doesn’t have to be fancy and expensive, but updated finishes make a visible difference in the perceived “newness” of the kitchen. And you can still play around with colors and finishes within budget.
Pro Tip: When you paint your cabinets white or any lighter color, you always want your hardware to create a contrast, not to blend in. I usually pick a darker finish for the hardware. When working with white cabinets, matte black is the way to go.
Tip 4 is a crucial one, and another that often gets forgotten. To illustrate, do me a favor and look up. Play along with me here... if you are at home right now, just look up at the ceiling.
What does your light fixture look like? Does it come from this decade? Or is it a 90s vibe kinda fixture?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a moody light fixture when it’s cohesive with the overall design. However… if you have come all this way and modernized your home for today’s buyers, how out of place would that 90s light fixture look? You guessed it. It would drag down the design and date the home.
Long story short, get up-to-date fixtures in there, pronto! Again, this doesn’t have to be out of your budget, there are many options available to you. Just make sure your overall design is cohesive, and you’re good to go.
The minute we put the house back on the market, we got our first visitors. The day they toured the property was the day they put in an offer... and they bought it! That’s right — just a few cosmetic updates and this home sold IMMEDIATELY!
Updating the kitchen did not only sell the house, it increased the value of the home for a minimal investment. How incredible is that?
If you have a property that’s been sitting on the market for months, or you want to renovate your kitchen (so that it doesn’t sit on the market for ages!), I am more than happy to support you.
Book your free discovery call with me here, and let’s chat!
— Keti
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