Agents: Freemodel is committed to helping your seller clients understand, embrace, and participate in the remodeling process. This blog article is one in a series designed to share up-to-the-minute insights and learning on this process. We hope you will share this and future articles with your sellers so they can maximize the sale prices of their properties.

How To Strategize Your Remodel Before It Begins

Dear property sellers: Welcome to our five-part series What To Expect When You’re Remodeling! In this series, we’ll share information to help you plan your pre-sale or post-sale renovation. You may not have been through this process before, but we do this for a living and have a lot of insights to share. (At Freemodel, we manage and pay for the remodel to help sellers like you earn top dollar on their home sales.)

This first post in the series will give a high-level overview of the remodeling process and help you decide what upgrades are best for your home, timeline, and budget.

While we know that you probably love the home you’re selling and got very used to the way things are laid out, there will likely be some upgrades that need to be done around the property to appeal to modern-day buyers. Due to wear and outdated styles, kitchens, bathrooms, and finishings can show the age of a house, which is why they are the most commonly remodeled rooms in a home!

Right now, you may be wondering if you should remodel your sales property before you move into your new home, or after. We suggest remodeling after you move if any of these factors apply:

• A project involves more than 50% of the interior square footage of the home.
• A project involves cutting off the electricity or water (or even just hot water) for more than a day or two.
• Whole-house reflooring is going on, especially new wood floors.
• Any member(s) have respiratory sensitivities like allergies, COPD or asthma. There will be dust and paint fumes.
• There is only one bathroom and it is being gutted as part of the project.

Azary’s Freemodel project in Palo Alto, CA

Once you’ve figured out timing, and you and your agent are on the same page about what needs to be done, here are some steps to get mentally organized prior to officially getting the project started:

1. Evaluate the Property.

The first step is to determine what upgrades are absolutely necessary when it comes to appealing to homebuyers. Any major red flags such as signs of foundation issues, electrical problems, or pipes that need to be addressed will indicate that the home is in need of serious repairs, which will likely lead to a longer timeline or need to expand the budget before it can be made available to buyers.

As noted earlier, you will want to take a look at the kitchen and bathrooms for their functionality, design, and overall appeal. These areas of a home are critically important to home buyers and have a major effect on how much they will be willing to pay. Make a list of all the repairs and renovations that the home needs in order to balance remodel costs with a competitive asking price.

2. Think About A Budget.

We’ll get into costs and budgeting down the road in this series, but we wanted to mention this step here as it is one of the major elements of a home remodel. Once you have a good understanding of the property and upgrades that need to take place, it will be time to take a realistic look at finances. After determining a budget for the remodel, it’s important to prioritize the projects and form a list of “must haves” and “nice to haves.”

A Freemodel project director will be able to steer you in the right direction with projects that need to be done first, and what can be added after that in terms of your budget and timeline. Important repairs should be prioritized to ensure the home is liveable and won’t be prone to any significant problems. Inevitably, some projects such as re-roofing or major structural changes could take more time and money than planned, so it’s a good idea to leave some wiggle room in your plans!

3. Dig into the details… or let Freemodel manage the process for you!

After you have agreed on the list of projects you hope to accomplish with your agent and remodeling team and you’re aware of the costs, it’s time to get organized. At this stage, you need to be very realistic about your timeline and budget. Take a hard look at the information you’ve gathered and find out how much renovation you can realistically expect to perform on your budget within the time you have.

(When working with a Freemodel project director, many of the management factors will be taken off of your hands. Your PD will compile a list of all of the tasks necessary to complete the projects.)

4. Bring in local contractors.

If you’re not able to complete the renovations yourself, it’s important to get in touch with your contractors to find out how much they’ll charge to complete your project. By this point, you (and your project director, if you’re working with Freemodel) should have gathered enough information and resources to decide the scope of a renovation and any contractors can help to lend their knowledge and expertise to execute the project in the best way possible. (Freemodel has a well-connected network of contractors that are insured, reference checked, and local to your specific area that can get the job done right. )

Susan’s Freemodel project in Venice, CA

In conclusion, there are many moving parts when it comes to planning a pre-sale or post-sale renovation. Freemodel’s service can help to streamline all of your projects and produce a home that will impress buyers and give you, the seller, a high return on your investment. Being realistic about your budget, must-have upgrades, and timeline are just as important to us as they are to you, and Freemodel Project Directors will only recommend upgrades that will give you the best change of selling at or over asking.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series, as we break down how to form a timeline for your home remodeling project.