Whether you’re preparing your home for sale or preparing your home for a brand-new season, keeping up with maintenance will not only prevent a lot of future problems but will also save you money down the road.
And home maintenance isn’t just important during a change of seasons. This past week alone we had our first Southern California hurricane in 84 years (glad everyone stayed safe) and a magnitude 5.1 earthquake near Ojai. During any natural disaster, home maintenance could make the difference between costly destruction and a house that remains safe and sound.
Over the weekend, I took this home maintenance advice to heart, got up on the flat roof of our trendy-but-in-need-of-cleaning mid-century modern home and raked out all the pine needles. (You can see the evidence of that endeavor here.)
Of course, home maintenance is also an essential part of preparing a home for sale. I can’t tell you the amount of stories about sellers who neglect getting their roof cleaned only to have it leak with the first rain. Yikes! You definitely don’t want to be in that scenario when there’s a “for sale” sign in your front yard.
In fact, when preparing a home for sale, there are a lot of home maintenance tasks that tend to get neglected for the more shiny and fun projects – like new paint or refreshed landscaping. But the following tasks are critical for any home that’s about to hit the market:
- Getting the roof cleaned and tuned up
- Cleaning out the gutters
- Sealing any skylights
- Cutting tree branches from the roof line
- Cleaning brush if you’re on a hillside
My advice? Take control of preventative home maintenance now because these behind-the-scenes issues are the ones that can cause big problems if general maintenance isn’t happening on a regular basis.
I recommend this kind of preventative maintenance to every homeowner and seller I work with but it will be especially critical for sellers this fall. Inventory is slowly increasing and serious buyers are looking for homes in good condition. Plus, if interest rates decline, expect buyers to come out in droves. As Barbara Corcoran recently said: “Things are changing. The minute those interest rates come down, [chaos] is going to break loose and the prices are going to go through the roof … it’s going to be a signal for everybody to come back out and buy like crazy.”
And speaking of going through the roof, if anyone reading this has a flat roof like mine, please don’t get your best rake and your biggest sun hat then climb up to do the cleaning like I did. I’ve been doing this a long time. For your safety, I’d highly recommend hiring a professional to make that climb. The only thing we want to see climbing these days is the number of new listings available on the market!
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Andrew Manning • REALTOR® • Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties • DRE: 00941825 • 818-380-2147 • andrew@andrewmanning.com