When it comes to making renovations to your home, it’s amazing how fast things can snowball.
Take a bathroom for example. Perhaps all you want to do is strip the old, peeling wallpaper and add a fresh coat of paint. Then you start thinking about replacing the old linoleum floor with tiles to complement the new paint job, replacing the toilet, and maybe adding a new countertop.
Like creating a budget to manage your income and expenses and live within your means, it’s smart to plan your home improvements and distinguish between what really needs to be done and what you want done. Consider these tips:
- First Things First – Take it One Room at a Time.
- Curb Appeal Counts. Take a critical look at your home’s appearance from the street.
- Clean Now for Profits Later.
- Focus on the Kitchen and Bathrooms.
- Pay Down the Principal.
Remember, it’s easy to bite off more than you can chew when it comes to home improvements. Keep your remodel manageable and affordable by tackling one room at a time. You’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment by completing a project, plus you’ll discover key lessons to apply to the next room.
Small, inexpensive changes will go a long way toward improving your home’s curb appeal. Store away personal effects from the front yard. Trim back the overgrowth, maintain the yard, and make sure your lawn has a healthy green appearance.
Keep your home clean and clutter free for your own enjoyment now and to gain a greater, faster return when you decide to sell.
You’ll hear it over and over again because it makes sense. An updated kitchen is cash in the bank when selling your home. The good news is to add value, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on a total remodel. And remember, bath updates are second only to kitchens in maximizing a homeowner’s return on investment.
When selling your home, the profit you make will be the amount left over after paying outstanding loans. You can build greater equity and put more money in your pocket at closing by paying down the principal whenever possible.
Beware of Over-improvement
There are many factors involved in deciding what improvements will actually add to the value of your property versus being an excessive expense for you. For instance, adding a garage in place of a carport would most definitely make your property more attractive to buyers in just about any neighborhood. However, adding a swimming pool to the back yard would probably only be an effective improvement in a warmer area -not in a neighborhood that experiences 7 months of cold weather per year!
In terms of your home’s resale value, the best home improvements are largely cosmetic -a new roof, painting, carpeting, minor kitchen and bath re-dos, and only those alterations and additions that brings your home inline with others in the neighborhood. Such improvements increase the value of your home virtually dollar-for-dollar. To learn what might be typical in your neighborhood, do your research. Drive around and see what the homes look like. Visit open houses. Monitor selling prices and ranges. Improvements are generally wise if they don’t push your home’s value beyond 20 to 25 percent above the current value of like homes in the community.
Typical improvement and their approximate value:
- Minor kitchen remodel, 94%
- Bathroom addition, 89%
- Major kitchen remodel, 87%
- Family room addition, 84%
- Two-story addition, 84%
- Attic bedroom, 83%
- Master suite, 82%
- Bathroom remodel, 73%
- Siding replacement, 71%
- Deck addition, 70%
- Window replacement, 68%
- Home office, 64%
To add value and carry out these home improvement jobs
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