How To Prepare Your Granbury Home To Sell for Top Dollar

By Josh Shelton

Josh is the Broker/Owner of HGGR. He built this company to be a people-first business. He emphasizes open and constant communication channels to ensure each homeowner’s wishes and needs are heard and met to the best of his ability.

Every spring, we get the same question: What should I do to my house before I sell it to get the most money back? The instinct is usually to go big, tear out the kitchen, do a full renovation, and make everything look brand new. But that’s not always where the best return is.

I want to walk you through three things we recommend that will give you the best bang for your buck when it’s time to sell.

Don’t go too far in the kitchen. Before you start ripping out cabinets, you need to know the numbers. A major kitchen remodel is returning about 36% right now. That means you’re getting roughly 36 cents back for every dollar you spend. You’re actually losing money on that deal.

What we would recommend instead is going in and doing minor updates. Something like updating your countertops can return about 156%, which means you’re getting about $1.50 back for every dollar you put in. A minor kitchen remodel goes a long way without the major price tag.

One important thing: if you’ve already started a major remodel, finish it. An unfinished job, major or minor, will cost you far more money than just completing the work. Buyers see an unfinished project, and it immediately raises red flags.

Focus on first impressions. This is where your money really counts. We would caution you not to worry too much about things underneath the surface. Instead, focus on the impression people have when they drive up to the home and when they walk through the front door.

Sometimes replacing a garage door can have a huge impact on the way a home looks from the front. Maybe doing some stone veneer around certain portions of the exterior or making curb appeal updates. Those kinds of changes can completely shift that initial impression when a buyer pulls up.

Inside, think about what it feels like when someone opens the front door. You want a home that smells fresh, feels clean, has nice neutral paint colors, and lets in lots of natural light. You don’t have to break the bank to accomplish this. Getting the home as clean as possible and freshening up the paint throughout plays a big role in getting top dollar.

Pick the right contractors. When it comes to hiring help, there’s always a middle ground. You can go for the most expensive option, or you can go for the cheapest. What ends up happening a lot of times is that the cheapest contractor ends up being the most expensive because the work has to be redone.

We pride ourselves on having good, trustworthy contractors for the odds-and-ends jobs. If you’re doing a larger job, we recommend hiring a general contractor to oversee the entire project so everything stays in sync. We can make recommendations based on your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish.

At the end of the day, the goal when preparing a home for sale is to spend money and make more back in return. You want to get as much of your equity out of the home as possible. And because every home is different, our team offers dual evaluations.

I’ll tell you what the home is worth as-is, then show you what you can do to get the value up, and you make the decision on whether the investment makes sense.

Call or text us at 817-573-3174 or email us at josh@hggrealty.com. You can also visit hggrealty.com for more resources, including our guides on timing your sale and what to disclose before listing. We’d love to hear from you. Have a great day.