When considering selling your home, it’s easy to overspend on remodels in hopes that someone else will love the changes exactly as you choose them. However, some of the highest return on your investment involves smaller, light-lift projects that modernize your current set-up rather than knocking down walls and making expensive, major renovations.

Here are just five projects that will help to really make a home look its best, without putting too much investment into a particular new layout or style.

Update Bathroom Cabinetry and Hardware

Rather than a big expansion or addition to the bathrooms, consider picking your most dated-looking or worn bathroom and updating the cabinets, even just with paint. Changing to more modern hardware can also make them look ‘renovated’ and new. When picking colors, aim for neutrals and whites , bringing light to the space and giving the future buyers a blank canvas.

Painting Where Wear is Noticeable

Speaking of paint, choose a few problem spots in your home where the paint is either a polarizing color or shows sign of wear. You can also choose to do exterior paint if it has been a while, but focus your efforts on where they’ll make the most noticeable change or where they will update your home with a contemporary neutral palette.

Spruce Kitchen With Paint and Backsplash Updates

Similarly to bathrooms, kitchens can be a wonderful place to put lots of loving care into a renovation, but you’ll end up spending a lot on things that the future buyers may or may not love as much as you do. Consider smaller updates, including painting, hardware, or an updated backsplash to bring your kitchen to a little more modern level. If the kitchen is very dated, new appliances and high-quality countertops are a bigger spend  but also bring a lot of value to the home. 

Remove or Replace Old Carpet

Carpet can hold odors or seem worn even if you keep it well-maintained, and after a while, it may be worth while to pull it up and put down another, more durable flooring. Talk with your real estate agent first about local buyer interest, but in many homes the flooring under carpet can be refurbished for sale in an affordable way, or they can recommend an in-demand flooring to replace that less-attractive flooring. 

Strategic Landscaping and Greenery Improvements

Curb appeal is documented as an important part of a buyer’s first impression, and how they feel about the landscaping can set the expectation for the interior of the home as well. So even just getting your grass cut and your plants professionally pruned may be enough to update the yard, or a landscaper can add some fresh plants that are native to the area or hearty to your climate zone. No matter what you choose, a little work in the landscaping department goes a long way to showing buyers that this is a well-maintained home.

Focus on High-Impact, not High-Dollar Projects

Not every home needs each of these projects, so focus your own  efforts on the projects that bring your home the farthest, since every home has different parts that have been updated more or less recently. By focusing on whatever is oldest or in the worst repair, you can get more benefits in buyer interest and purchase price.