Whether you are considering selling your home in the near future or even just trying to maintain your home’s value in a struggling market, it can be all too easy to sabotage your efforts with everyday habits and living choices.  It is important to take just a few moments to be certain that you are not driving down the value of your home at a time when you need it be worth every penny you can get for it.

There are obvious value inhibitors that you hear about all the time, especially when you are preparing a home for selling.  One such characteristic is clutter.  We can’t tell you enough that too much clutter and especially personal clutter is only going to drive down the dollars your buyer will be willing to pay.  To a buyer, clutter looks like work, it looks like more cleaning and it looks like you are hiding another issue underneath. 

Another big price dropper is energy efficiency.  If you have leaking pipes or pipes that condensate leaving stains and watermarks or old appliances that sound like a train when they are preparing to run, then you are likely reducing the re-sell-ability of your home.  Items like new windows and energy efficient appliances add value to your home for years to come and even bigger selling points for buyers. 

One of the biggest declines in home values comes from odors.  Nothing says unkempt like a serious smelly funk and there is no better way to turn off buyers and decline the value of your home than to have you home emanating odors.  Smoke odors are the worst and hardest to remove and even harder to cover up without creating a newer, even more unappealing scent.  Ranked on the same level are pet odors, with the cat’s litter box scoring in the major home devalue top ten. 

Finally, the least known culprit for diminishing home value is having too many houseplants.  Not only does having too many house plants cause a home to look smaller than it actually is, but house plants bring a variety of other issues to the interior table that buyers may not like to address.  Plants increase room humidity and often are the cause of water stains on floors and ceilings.  These two factors alone lead to an increase in mold in the home.  Mold removal generally costs upward of $10000.  A large number of houseplants are also known to increase the number of small insects and pests found in a home; another price tag that can be avoided all together by limiting the number of plants and maintaining those plants properly. 

Whether you are refinancing or selling your home, you need to get top dollar for what is likely your biggest asset.  Make sure you are taking the proper steps to secure your home’s value in today’s market.