Small projects that pay off big

Make your home more appealing to buyers (and yourself) with these easy indoor upgrades you can do on your own

By Arianne Cohen

(Money Magazine) -- Hoping to sell this spring? Then you may want to put these winter weekends to good use by fixing up a few rooms. Prices are softening, homes are sitting longer. You need a leg up.

"You're competing with new developments, and builders have really thought through what details impress buyers," says agent Katherine Camp of Prudential Douglas Elliman in New York City.

Because you're unlikely to recoup full renovation costs these days, bypass a contractor and focus instead on what you can do yourself, in rooms buyers pay the most attention to.

These five projects should get your house noticed - and snapped up sooner. "Sellers who don't offer these kinds of touches may find their homes languish on the market," says Camp.

See gallery of projects Top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.