5 min readThese days, homeowners will go to some pretty pricey lengths to sell a home. It's true that, sometimes, an expensive addition upfront can add serious resale value— but if you have to sell your home in a time crunch, you don’t necessarily have time to add a new sunroom or redo the lawn. The good news? There are still plenty of affordable, last-minute changes that will get your home off the market fast. And some of them take less than a day.
We consulted real estate experts to reveal the five low-lift changes with the biggest impact. These are the projects you could do in two weeks or less to get your home market-ready. It’s not about a costly renovation. You just need to remove every reason for a buyer to say no.
“Last-minute is honestly where most of the money gets made or lost in terms of days on market,” Levi Rodgers, CEO of LRG Realty in San Antonio, says. “Buyers decide in the first 60 seconds, so everything you do should aim at that first minute.”
Below, you’ll learn what you can change, what it’ll cost you in time and money, and see testimonials from the experts on what actually sold their listings faster.
Make Sure the Light Bulbs Match
This is the cheapest fix you can make with a serious impact on your buyer. Make sure your home is well-lit all the way through by opening all the window treatments. But take it a step further: buy one kind of lightbulb in bulk, and replace all of them so they’re the same.
Mismatched lightbulbs not only age a home, but they make it look unfinished. A candle-like 2700K bulb and a blue-white 5000K bulb do not belong in the same room. Chicago real estate broker Nick Nastos recommends putting matching 3000K LED bulbs into each light fixture for a warm white glow. It could cost you as little as $60 and take an hour, but it makes a huge difference. “This trick will illuminate the interior, showcase the true colors of the paint on the camera, and make the entire home look like an expensive penthouse,” Nastos says.
Theresa Adams of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty turns to GE Reveal bulbs to warm up main living areas and bathrooms in her listings. The consistent bright lighting actually shortens the time the house spends on the market. “We just had a re-list this summer with a client that had listed previously with another agency, and had no good offers after more than two months,” Adams says. “We came in with some easy, inexpensive changes, including changing out some light fixtures, cleaned, power-washed, staged, and after four days on the market, the house got an all-cash offer closed within two weeks!”
Mulch and Powerwash the Outdoors
Curb appeal is crucial for a buyer’s first impression, but you don’t need to do a whole landscaping overhaul. Start at the curb and walk the path your buyer will take, handling anything dated or dirty. “Trim anything overgrown, clean the walkway and front door, wash the exterior light fixtures, and replace a worn doormat,” Ginger Wilcox, president of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, says.
Lisa Quinn, home stager and real estate investor, always recommends power-washing the driveway, walkways, siding, and porch. It’s a one-day job, whether you rent the equipment yourself or hire a pro to handle it. The other feature that makes a difference? Fresh mulch. “This is the first impression buyers get, and they notice the details,” Adams says. “Make sure there is fresh mulch or pine straw.”
When Maureen Lynch, real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Warburg, was helping a client list their condo, she knew that a simple refresh of the outdoor space would make the listing shine. To that end, she had all of the old pieces and plants cleared away, had the floor power-washed, and painted it a dark brown. All of this got the space market-ready without any major renovations.
Paint (But Not the Whole House)
Yes, a fresh coat of paint is the obvious switch, but most sellers overthink it. You don’t need to repaint the whole house. Focus on scuffed walls, worn trim, and any rooms where you took a big swing on your color scheme.
“Spot painting scuffed or worn areas can make the whole house feel fresher, and if there's a particularly bold color that's likely to distract buyers, that's where I'd consider repainting the entire room,” Wilcox says.
When Quinn was staging a home in Nevada City, California, she had to beg her skeptical clients to paint the space. The home had already been on the market for two years, but the clients didn’t think the paint would make a big difference.
“I won, they painted, and the house sold in one week,” Quinn says. “Potential buyers want to walk into a fresh, clean, bright house. Paint is the easiest, least expensive, most impactful, positive change you can make in a hurry.”
Update Switch Plates
Another cheap and fast fix that makes your home look more expensive: the light switches. These are a small part of your home, but every buyer will touch them when they enter the room. If they’ve yellowed over time or gotten splashed with paint, it can be a turn-off. “People will touch the light switch during the tour of each room. You don't want them to be touching 15 years of dirt,” Nastos says.
Nastos says the average modern screwless white cover will cost about $2 to $3, so this is a swap that’s easily under $50. When buyers see the modern switch plates throughout the home, it signals that the home has been well-maintained and won’t turn into a fixer-upper project.
Re-Glaze the Shower or Bathtub
Clean, fresh tile or grout lines also signal a home that’s well-taken care of, and a simple re-glazing could be all you need. Lynch loves re-glazing bathroom fixtures like bathtubs, showers, sinks, and countertops. It’s more affordable than re-doing an entire bathroom, and it still creates a modern, refreshed appearance. “This is great in older homes with a lot of tile and old or stained ceramics that look like they need to be replaced,” Lynch says.
After decades in San Antonio real estate, Rodgers knows the simplest changes get homes off the market faster. “Our listings that get the clean, paint and light package average 14 days on market,” Rodgers says. “The ones that skip it run 30 days or more in the same neighborhoods.” A fresh coat of paint and new light fixtures could be all you need to get the best value out of selling your home, even in a time crunch.
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Janae McKenzie is the Associate Shopping Editor at House Beautiful, where she regularly covers the best of the best in home brands. Since joining the House Beautiful team in 2023, Janae regularly creates seasonal gift guides in addition to reviewing and evaluating home decor, bespoke furniture, and accessories. Janae also routinely tests viral products, from luxury sheets to high-tech air purifiers, determining quality and guiding readers to the best purchases possible. Janae holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and began her career at Food Network shortly after graduation. She also covers relevant shopping deals and celebrity news in the home space, a skill she honed during her tenure as a news writer at Glamour. When she’s not writing or scoping out the next mattress to test, you can find her hunting for trinkets to add to her bookshelf or artfully arranging her Playbill collection.
