Four ways an architect and interior designer can help you sell homes
1. We can help your buyer envision a future renovation. Many people buy homes that they plan to improve. Maybe the floor plan is outdated & needs to be opened up, or maybe there's no master suite. Maybe the homeowner wants to reconfigure the entrance from the garage to provide a mud room, or the kitchen just isn't their taste. An architect can help your buyer understand whether their proposed renovations are feasible based on construction costs, the structural condition of the home, zoning restrictions, the buyer's timeframe, & other factors.
Often, we get called in after someone has purchased a home & must give them unexpected news-either their budget is too low for the project they plan to do, or it will take longer than they anticipated, or the lot is too small to permit an addition. At other times, we're offering good news to buyers who thought a simple renovation was outside their budget. It's helpful if we can be involved before your buyer makes an offer so that we can help them understand the process & cost of renovations.
2. We can help your buyer evaluate a fixer-upper. Architects understand structures. We can tell whether a house has good "bones" or not. If a home shows evidence of settling (such as cracked foundations or wavy floors), or if there's been water damage. we can help determine how much work will need to be done to repair it, or put your buyer in touch with someone who can. We can also help your buyer understand whether renovations make sense based on their budget & timeframe.
3. We can help your seller make the house presentable. Many homes on the market haven't been updated in a long time. For example, the exterior color scheme might be outdated, or the interior flooring was originally installed in the 1970s. If the seller wants to make a few simple updates before putting the home on the market, we can help with color & material selections.
4. We can help your seller give buyers an idea of the possibilities. If a house is out-of-date & the seller isn't willing or able to pay to renovate it, we can still help. We can provide sketches or edited images showing the front of the house without all the overgrown shrubbery or with new shutters & a new color scheme. Or we can produce a rendering of the kitchen to show what it might look like with new cabinets, countertops. & flooring. We can even provide a mood board with actual materials that you can place in the house so that people can get excited about the possibilities as they tour the home.
