Realtor Redux: A ‘Light’ Redux in La Habra Brings in an Extra $60k

When we received a call to discuss the sale of a home in La Habra, it was right up our alley.

The seller was looking to sell his long-time family home and was very aware and direct about its need for a facelift. It had been advised, by another agent, that the seller spend upward of $60,000 to do a major renovation thereby increasing the potential asking price of the home.

When this was explained to us we offered a different approach.

Since the large scale and very expensive renovation suggested wasn’t going to fundamentally change the home – adding a bathroom or additional square footage for example – we advised the seller to think long and hard about spending so much money.

As the home was only 1,100 square feet and one bathroom, our opinion was that over-improving things like the kitchen for example may not yield a sufficient return on the investment.

SO, we suggested a light ‘redux’ that involved spending about $12,000 to improve the potential asking price by about $50,000.

In the end our budget allowed for a full interior re-paint, refinishing the original 1954 hardwood flooring along with changing various light fixtures, installing new kitchen and bathroom flooring and a new dishwasher.

Our investment did the trick!

Once completed Martina did a fantastic job beautifully staging the home. We complimented the prep and staging with professional photos and went on the market.

We sold the home within four days to a lovely young couple and sold the home for $10,000 over asking price, a FULL $60,000 over the original as-is price.

The seller was thrilled by the speed of the sale and the fact that not only did his investment pay off multiple times, but it essentially was fully paid for by the increase in our sales price.