Most Common Home Flaws That Can Be Changed
Searching for your next home can be exhausting, seeing unappealing feature after unappealing feature, so we're sharing the most common home flaws that can be changed so you don't feel so stuck.Buying a home can feel a lot like used car shopping. You don't always get to have everything on your wishlist. Unless you're building your dream home, there will likely be places you'll need to compromise on when it comes to making a decision on a home.It can be easy to get distracted by flaws or small repairs that need to be made, so good idea is to create a list of "needs" vs "wants", that way you have something to refer back to when trying to weigh the pros and cons of each place.Don't let yourself get caught up in the way a home looks when you walk in, be open to the idea of making your own changes to make the home truly your own. To help from getting hung up on less-than-perfect designs and features inside your potential home, we're sharing a list of the most common flaws that are an easy fix to turn your home into more of what you want and less of what you don't. Click this link to check out the entire article!
"Cosmetic issues are a big problem for a lot of home buyers,” says Linda Sanderfoot, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, in Neenah, WI.The key is to keep an open mind and tap into your imagination. But since that’s difficult for a lot of people, we’ve identified six things that might look like total deal breakers at first glance but really aren't.
1. Ugly kitchen cabinets
The average kitchen remodel costs a whopping $62,158, according to Remodeling magazine. But the good news is a lot kitchens don’t require a full-scale renovation.“As long as the cabinets aren’t 20 or 30 years old, repainting and adding new handles is relatively cheap and can change the entire look of the room,” says Sanderfoot.If you want to go a step further and refinish the existing cabinets—a process that involves removing, sanding, and staining the doors or drawer fronts—you will spend only about $1,400 to $3,500, according to home services marketplace HomeAdvisor.
2. Funky odors
Unfortunately, this happens a lot: You walk into a house and get hit with the smell of a wet dog or cigarette smoke. Or worse. Fortunately, there are a number of low-cost ways to banish bad smells for good.To remove the smell of cat or dog urine, there are sprays with enzymes that break down odor molecules to remove the stench. If that doesn’t work, you might have to ditch the rug or replace a section of flooring, but not necessarily the whole thing. (Cats and dogs are creatures of habit when it comes to doing their business, so replacing just the affected area might do the trick.)If there’s a lingering odor in the kitchen from strong-smelling foods, your best move is to hire a professional kitchen cleaning service. (Rates usually range from $50 to $150 an hour.) But a cheaper option is to coat the cabinetry with odor-blocking primer sealant such as Kilz ($17, Home Depot).However, one smell that might be more difficult to remove is cigarette smoke, says Chris Dossman, a real estate agent with Century 21 Scheetz in Indianapolis. You can try combating it by washing the walls and windows and dry-cleaning curtains and upholstery. If that doesn’t work, you might need to hire a smoke-damage restoration company.