Everyone loves popcorn except on their ceiling. One of the things I hear most often mentioned when selling older homes is how the first thing the prospective buyer would do would be to remove the popcorn ceilings. As a real estate agent, my goal is to help sellers get the most for their property possible. Advising on value improvements often means providing information on basic repairs and upgrades. When making such suggestions, I rank them in terms of what will involve the least work, least cost, can be done as a DIY project, and how and which upgrades can impact value.

When talking about value, many people hear the term "value" and perceive it to be a hard number. Value as a concept, however, should be looked at in a more figurative than literal term. For example, scraping ceilings costs little as a DIY project and, from an appraisal standpoint, adds little direct value to a property. HOWEVER, when value is looked at more broadly in terms of what a clean flat ceiling means to a new prospective buyer, it can, and often does, mean a higher upfront purchase offer, it means more offers sooner, and it means less time on market (saved payments) before a contract is received. All these have value and, in fact, affect the bottom line more than the simple upgrade itself does.

If you have a popcorn ceiling, think about taking the easy step of removing the popcorn and making your home immediately more appealable, more marketable, and adding psychological value in the minds of buyer prospects.

Here is a DIY video to see how easy this process is.