Avoid Maintenance Pitfalls When Selling Your Home
Cam Ward - Realtor®
When you are preparing to sell your home, you want your home to remain in top dollar condition. The following checklist will help retain (and add) value to your home and keep money in your pockets as the transaction goes through inspections, resolutions, and appraisals.
Quarterly Maintenance: Try and complete these tasks at a minimum of every 3 months.
Replace Furnace Filter: Take a photo of your furnace filter, and save it as a “favorite” in your photo album for easy access when you are at the store so you buy the correct filter.
Clean floor vents & returns: Using a vacuum is always the easiest route to eliminate dust, dirt, or other debris from making its way into your system.
Sink & shower drains: Remove hair/buildup from drains and assure proper water-tight seal remains around edges of the drain using qualified caulking.
Clean P-traps: While it might sound daunting, it’s a simple process that requires few (if any) tools and a bucket.
Clean all faucet heads: Whether in the sink or shower, faucets tend to accumulate calcium buildup over time. Soaking them in vinegar is often enough to do the trick!
Pest Service: Whether you notice it or not, pests are constantly trying to make their way into your home. Utilizing your trusted pest expert for quarterly treatment is the best way to avoid costly treatment needs in the future.
Seasonal Maintenance: As the season's change, it is best to evaluate these items before any major changes in temperature or overall climate.
Seal cracks in concrete: Settlement occurs in and around Manhattan, so staying on top of all your concrete (garage floor, driveway, walkways) keeps those cracks from becoming a major problem. Many hardware stores carry concrete crack filler that solves this issue easily and affordably.
Test exterior faucets/outlets: With faucets, assure they are flowing properly and not visibly leaking. Keeping them safe with an insulated cover in the winter is highly recommended. With outlets, for as cheap as $10, you can purchase a receptacle tester to help assure wiring and operations are correct in each of your exterior outlets.
Clean Gutters: Whether you hire this out, or brave the heights by yourself, keeping your gutters free of debris helps ensure proper flow of water off your roof and away from the foundation.
Trim vegetation back off of home: While that bush or tree might be one of your favorite features of your garden, assuring all vegetation remains a safe distance (1-3 feet) off of any exterior material of your home prevents potentially extensive damage.
Ensure proper drainage of the gutter system: Flushing your downspouts and/or any additional extensions you might have attached assures the water from your gutter system is draining away from the foundation.
Once a-Year Maintenance: These items are the ones you need to make sure you’ve checked in a calendar year. While equally important, they can be more tedious to maintain in some cases.
Assure proper grade around the exterior of the home: Maintaining a positive grade (or slope) around the entire exterior of your home helps ensure all water is directed away from the foundation of the home.
Powerwash exterior surfaces: Siding, decks, concrete, and stone patios to name a few. The amount of yearly buildup on these surfaces can pile up quickly if not addressed.
Touch-up paint: Both interior and exterior surfaces experience a variety of conditions throughout the year, so taking a weekend to spruce things up can be a huge benefit.
