Selling your home? Realtors pick nine green improvements to close deal

WASHINGTON – Jan. 14, 2010 – A new poll of nearly 1,000 Realtors offers a glimpse at the top “green” improvements recommended by real estate professionals to help move a sale property off the market.

The upgrades – which include planting native greenery, replacing air filters, staging the home with recycled or reusable props, weather-stripping doors and windows, installing programmable thermostats, installing low-flow showerheads, using turn-off power strips, replacing standard lighting with CFL or LED bulbs, and choosing low-VOC paint – are all fairly inexpensive investments.

And while three of those nine options get back at least twice as much in sale price gains as they cost, none have a bigger return on investment (ROI) than the top five traditional upgrades suggested by realty practitioners in a November survey. Cleaning and de-cluttering a home before it goes on the market, for instance, will cost the owner less than $200 to complete but bumps up the property’s sale price by almost $1,700 – for a staggering ROI of 872 percent.

Other high-ROI traditional improvements recommended by the real estate community include home staging, lightening/brightening, landscaping and plumbing repairs.

Although they do not offer a great ROI, HomeGain says eco-improvements are becoming more popular; and with their energy savings and low cost of investment, they probably should be considered by all homeowners – not just those preparing their unit for sale.

Source: USA Today