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“The home is where the heart is,” or so the saying goes. But why wouldn’t it be? The home is the stockpile and resting place for all of your memories, hopes, dreams, ambitions, achievements, and more — and if you happen to still be living in the house you grew up in, the house becomes the very ground upon which you were developed and honed into the person you are today. As a result, your home comes with a limitless amount of sentimental value that no amount of money can truly override.
But as with a lot of good things in life, at some point, they will come to an end. There will likely be a time in your life when you would have to let go of your childhood home to, say, pursue a career in a new city or out of the country. And maybe in such a case, you do not have the resources to make the big move or to get a relative to take over the house while you’re away. If this happens, selling your home is probably the best option.
Unfortunately, selling your home is not as easy as it used to be. Understandably, you as the seller would want to sell your home for the highest possible price, but buyers, too, want to get the best deal for their potential new home. The real problem, then, is to get both buyer and seller to meet halfway and agree on the right middle ground price, which is why you usually get a real estate agent to help you find a buyer and secure that deal. However, it is generally agreed upon that, if you want to gain leverage and negotiate a higher price for your home, you as the homeowner have to put in a bit of work on your own to justify that price.
There are a whole bunch of ways to bump up your home’s property value. Methods can vary from relatively inexpensive changes like repainting walls to replacing or upgrading fixtures, furniture, and appliances, all the way to large-scale renovations like changing your home’s floor plan outright. But a lot of people seem to gloss over — if not outright forget — a surprisingly cheap yet surprisingly effective way to freshen up the home and gain better impressions from home buyers (which, of course, leads to higher selling prices), and that is the carpet.
As it turns out, the humble carpet that lines the floors of quaint suburban homes and chic condominium units alike is actually a big deal to a lot of home buyers. And to an extent, the condition of these fabric floors can very well make or break your home sale. Here’s why.
Clean Carpets are Fresh Carpets
Prospective buyers need not see the carpet to determine its quality. If your carpets happen to be in pretty bad shape, this will show through in various ways — a ‘flat’ texture, uneven colors, visible stains, and worst of all, a noticeable unwanted smell. And though you might be used to these qualities and disregard them, the buyers certainly won’t.
To get your carpets looking a lot better, you should look into having them cleaned by a professional carpet cleaner. Most professional carpet cleaning services use a method known as steam cleaning, which makes use of powerful machines to send detergent-mixed water at high temperatures and at high pressures through all the layers of the carpet, washing away dirt, stains, and germs as it goes. This water is then removed using powerful vacuums to remove as much moisture from the carpet as possible, leaving your carpets in a much better state.
Say goodbye to flat, ‘dead’ textures, unsightly stains, and pungent odors. With a nice, thoroughly clean, your carpets will come out feeling fluffier, looking pristine, and smelling beautiful — characteristics that your buyers will take notice of.
Clean Carpets are Durable Carpets
With other applications of fabrics like, say, t-shirts or jeans, repeated washings will slowly but surely thin down the material until they become too weak and rip apart. Going by this logic, you might be inclined to minimize the amount of cleaning you do on your carpet floors; however, doing this will only achieve the opposite effect. When your carpets go without cleaning for extended periods of time, the dirt it accumulates over time will be worked into the material, and this dirt will actually make your carpets wear down faster as you continue to use it. This will eventually damage the carpet to the point where it will form holes on its own.
Treating your carpets to regular cleaning will mitigate this issue, as a thorough, deep clean will remove dirt gathered by the carpet. Cleaning your carpet removes most if not all of the dirt that it gathers, which reduces the number of particles that make contact with the carpet upon use. This reduces wear and tear on the carpet, extending its lifespan — and home buyers will like the assurance of a carpet that they know will last for much longer.
Clean Carpets are Healthy Carpets
Bacteria, viruses, mold, and mildew growth and reproduce rapidly in dirty, cold, damp, and dark places. It just so happens that stained and dirty carpets possess all of these characteristics at the same time, becoming the perfect breeding ground for germs and fungi that can cause diseases and spark allergic reactions that potential buyers would no doubt avoid like the plague. A thorough carpet cleaning will solve that issue, however, killing harmful bacteria and fungi to leave your floors safe and sanitary.
To some, the condition of a house’s carpets might not be that big of a deal. If that is the case with your buyer, these tips may not be that important. But one thing is for certain — a pristine, well-kept carpet will look, feel, and smell great, and buyers will see, feel, and smell that as they assess your home. If you want to score a better price for your home, then carpet cleaning is a cheap way to help you do just that.
About The Author:
Alex is as passionate about cleaning as he is about breathing! Often creating industry-specific content to help inform the people who need it the most! Sometimes hiring a professional is the best option.
