Keeping up with home maintenance can pay off when it comes time to sell. Dan Smith, a realtor with Dickson Realty, actually teaches classes on how homeowners can get the maximum value for their homes, and that changes with the market.
"The buyer pool right now, because of interest rates being what they are, they want to put as much money into their down payment as possible," he said. "They don't want to take the home and then have a lot of repairs. So we see a lot of buyers asking for credits back if there's a lot of repairs required, and sometimes they double dip; they lower the price and they ask for a credit. So if you can put some of those upgrades in upfront, that reduces the buyer's cash outtake, they'll often get a better offer upfront."
Big projects, of course, are best left to professionals, but there are some simple upgrades and maintenance tips he recommends to keep your appliances running smoothly and prevent damage - like taking a look at behind your refrigerator.
"We don't normally pull that unit out, but there's an intake vent on the back that pulls air in, cools the condenser, and the external coils get covered in lint," Smith said. "If they're covered in lint, the unit is not working at proper capacity, so by cleaning that off regularly, you'll extend the life of your refrigerator."
While it's pulled away from the wall, he also recommends checking the water source.
"Check the supply line, the tube that brings water to your ice maker," he said. "A lot of the old refrigerators were installed with a plastic tube that connects to the wall; those are really prone to getting brittle and breaking in the Northern Nevada climate. So we encourage you to use a braided metal tube and that will extend that life and reduce the risk of any water pooling behind your fridge or getting into your crawl space."
A common household safety issue, he says, is the bathroom exhaust fan. Lint can gather on the inside.
"If you pull the cover off, you'll find, if it hasn't been addressed, there's a whole layer of lint inside of that, which is extremely dangerous," Smith said. "Lint is flammable and I've actually known families that had a faulty fan spark and ignite that and create a house fire. So pull that down and clean it, it'll extend the life of it but also reduce the risk of fire."
Another fire hazard - your dryer. Most people clean the lint trap, but it can also build up in the vents.
"Especially if you dryer is on an internal wall and it ducts down into the crawl space or into walls and goes multiple feet before it gets to that external wall," he said. "Those build up and over time it can actually clog those vents. So your dryer is working harder to do its job, but also it could ignite, and a leading cause of house fires is having dryer vents that aren't clean. So we strongly recommend at least once a year, get in there get that cleaned out."
A little maintenance, he says, can go a long way.
"Home maintenance, it's like health," he said. "Taking a little bit of time now is going to save you a lot of time and money later. And reducing the risk of fire, of flooding, these small steps over time help reduce those risks and also increase the value of the home."
And he says the agents at Dickson are always willing to help keep your home in top condition, no matter what the project.
"There are businesses here in town that can take care of things for you," Smith said. "Our recommendation would be to reach out to any one of our 350+ agents, and we can connect you to a local provider that we trust and that we have vetted, rather than just googling vendors and welcoming a stranger into your house."
