Right Touches Can Bolster Home Price

So your home is appraised at $900,000 and you’d like to join the ranks of million-dollar homeowners, if for no other reason than the cachet of crossing the $1-million line.

The simplest way to get there is just to wait. With home prices rising steadily in all market segments, it’s just a matter of time until a $900,000 house is worth a million.

But for those who want to take a more active approach to hoisting their homes over the $1-million mark, real estate agents say there are ways to nudge the selling price higher--although they point out that there’s no substitute for the right location.

Remodeling, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms, can sometimes return more in the selling price than a homeowner actually spends on the remodeling.

“The house needs to be in a good location in the first place, but sometimes just remodeling the kitchen or the bathrooms, or redoing the landscaping, or giving the pool a face-lift, will push it over the $1-million mark,” said agent Jim Pascucci of Re/Max Centre in Encino. “Kitchens and bathrooms are the most important rooms.”

“Backyards are important today, too,” said Stephanie Vitacco, an agent with Fred Sands Realtors in Northridge. “Landscaping is an inexpensive way of making a house look good.”

Vitacco and Pascucci both pointed out that sellers need to bring their homes up to date in terms of colors and materials in order to get top dollar.

“If a house is stuck in the ‘80s in terms of style, you might want to make some changes even if they aren’t absolutely necessary,” Vitacco said. “The carpet might be in good shape, but you might want to update it to reflect 1999 tastes.”

Those tastes are generally lighter.

“Colors in the late 1980s were things like dark oak for the wood and shades like mauve and blue for the carpets,” Vitacco said. “Now the trend is toward lighter woods like maple for cabinets and just lighter colors in general for a lighter look.”

“Window styles are different, too,” she said. “Today the panes are bigger and there are fewer of them. In the late 1980s, ceramic tile was popular, but now it’s more granite and marble.”

Pascucci said decorating can make a big difference in selling price.

“Even with the same, identical floor plan, you can have one house that has been beautifully decorated and another one that hasn’t been, so you could easily have a difference of $200,000 in price,” he said.

Pascucci said landscaping is a quick way to boost curb appeal and is becoming increasingly important because buyers today want beautiful backyards.

“Things like tall palm trees and waterscapes can help tremendously,” he said. “There was a time when a pool, any pool, might add considerably to the value of a house, but that’s not the case any more. The pool has to be a special pool, with landscaping or waterscapes or other features.”

If some of these suggestions sound like luxuries, they are.

“You have to remember that buyers in this market aren’t buying out of need. They’re looking for what they want,” Pascucci said. “Even someone buying a $500,000 home usually has a need, maybe for more space, so they are basing their decision more on need. But when you move into the $1-million price range, you’re talking about a decision based on wanting the luxury, not on need.”

One caveat, according to the agents, is that no amount of remodeling and sprucing up will pull a home into the $1-million range if the market won’t bear it.

“Location is still the most important factor,” said Winnie Davis, an agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Northridge.