Imagine living near a vacation paradise with gorgeous beaches, stunning views, and vegetation as far as the eye can see. Oahu offers all this and more, with the perfect blend of high-end downtown exploration and tropical paradise. Who wouldn’t want to buy a home on an island aptly known as “The Gathering Place?” Also called “The Heart of Hawaii,” Oahu merges high-tech downtown spaces with ancient historic and natural sites that will have you in awe.
Even with the monumental appeal of living in an island getaway full-time, selling your Oahu home can be challenging. With the housing market in flux, getting the maximum return on investment (ROI) for your Oahu home is critical. Now more than ever, ensuring you do everything you can to raise your home value can significantly impact your overall ROI, especially as home values go down.
Even with the market readjusting, we have plenty of expert advice to help you weather this real estate turbulence and come out on the other side with a profit. From staging your home to working with professional agents to market your home, here’s our in-depth guide to maximizing your ROI on your Oahu home.
Maximizing ROI on Your Oahu Home
- Invest in Staging
- The Importance of Curb Appeal
- Choose the Right Time to Sell
- Work with the Professionals
Invest in Staging
According to the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP), staging can help sell your home up to 30 times faster than non staged homes. On top of this, good staging can boost the overall sale price by 20% on average, meaning there’s always a chance for higher returns.
For those unaware, staging is placing furniture and decor in a home to sell the house. Staging targets key areas, like the living room, dining room, study, kitchen, and bedrooms, to give the appearance of a lived-in home while still showing off everything the space offers.
Working with staging professionals is a great way to boost the overall sale price of your Oahu home and highlight crucial selling points in each room. However, if you want to DIY your staging, a few tips and tricks can streamline the process:
- Reduce clutter: Remove all pictures of your family, personal items, magazines, and other items. Clutter can crowd a space and take away from the home, giving buyers the impression you’re not fully moved out of the house yet. A staged space acts like a blank canvas, allowing potential buyers to see themselves living in your Oahu home. With clutter, that canvas gets muddied, making it harder to sell your space.
- Add artwork: Artwork brings the eyes through a room, highlighting key features. Scatter artwork in high-profile locations, but don’t overdo it. Focus on a few blank walls and place decorative items on empty shelves to give the appearance of use.
- Choose nice furniture: Bisectional sofas are excellent for staging, as they morph to fit into several spaces. Focus on neutral furniture colors in a room, and move any furniture back from the walls to create the illusion of a larger area. Make sure any furniture is clean, sleek, and doesn’t distract from the overall aesthetic of your staging. While you may love an excellent floral couch, aim for something more reserved with your home.
- Update lighting: Open curtains, get new light bulbs, and emphasize natural lighting throughout your home. Now is a great time to replace those dark curtains with light, gauzy window coverings that scream, “buy me!” The proper lighting can transform a space, so channel bright, warm light throughout your home for the best results.
The Importance of Curb Appeal
Another critical thing to consider when selling your Oahu home is curb appeal. A home’s exterior is one of the first things potential buyers see, and increasing overall curb appeal can boost your eventual ROI. Things like well-groomed lawns and landscaping, a garage, updated siding, and more can all positively impact your home.
An excellent way to assess your home’s curb appeal is to work with a professional real estate agent to discover salable points of interest. For example, if your home has property attached, sprucing up your landscaping and removing dead plants can significantly increase your home value.
It’s also a good idea to check on the status of your roof and gutters and see if any pavement needs a deep cleaning. Pressure washing can increase curb appeal and revitalize older areas of your home with little investment on your end.
Choose the Right Time to Sell
While there is no right time to sell your home, some months are better for listing than others. For example, listing your home in January may not be the best bet for a more considerable ROI since fewer people are looking to move during winter, especially with school in session for kids.
However, spring is a crucial time to sell your home, as many people are looking to move into new homes at the start of summer. Remember, with more popular selling seasons. The market can be inundated with homes, making it harder to profit.
Work with an accredited real estate agent or listing service (like us) to choose when your home stands out. High-quality, HD photos can elevate your overall ROI due to perceived value and increase buyer interest in your home.
Work with the Professionals
Selling your house is a lot of work. That’s why professional help can significantly increase your profits and streamline your entire process. Working with a real estate agent can make filtering potential buyers and offers much more manageable. In addition, listing your home on one of Oahu’s trusted real estate sites, like ours, can significantly increase interest in your home and drive up your overall profits due to interest.
OahuRE has helped sell over 1,600 homes, and working with professional listing services can help get your home in front of potential buyers. Increasing buyer interest can potentially earn more for your home, upping your overall ROI. In addition, even with fees and investments towards your home, your house’s market value increases with each step you take to increase the salability of your home, putting more money in your pocket.
Oahu is a gem among the Hawaiian islands, so selling your home should be as easy as a tropical breeze. If you’re looking for a surefire way to get buyers interested in your house or condo in Oahu, list with OahuRE. HD photos with less cropping show perfect angles of your slice of paradise. With transparent information buyers can trust, countless seller testimonials prove that working with a professional is a great way to increase your ROI and sell your Oahu home. Get in touch with us today to find out more.