Attract Buyers And Boost Value With These Home Improvement Projects
The real estate market is as erratic and unpredictable as ever, and if you’re feeling a slump on the horizon, you may want to put off selling your home. If you bought your home as an investment, then a tricky real estate market probably isn’t the most convenient thing in the world! However, having to stay put for another year or two isn’t the end of the world! Instead of passively sitting there and waiting for the market to be more stable, why not up the value of your home to ensure it gives you the best returns possible? Here, we’ll look at a few projects which are great for adding value to your home.
Kitchen Remodel
Ask any real estate agent, and they’ll tell you that the kitchen is the “heart of the home.” This is an opinion shared by countless homebuyers in the modern market too, so make sure you’re not neglecting this area of your home. A kitchen remodel can pay off massively, provided that you don’t overdo it. If you’re a little tentative about investing too much in a remodel, focussing on the color in your kitchen can go a long way. A fresh coat of paint in an eye-catching scheme may not be a new island with a granite countertop. However, it can still have a profound impact on what the buyer thinks of your asking price. Paint in general is pretty cheap, but you may want to consider spending a little more for low-VOC products. Home inspectors will pick up on this, and be able to tell prospective buyers that the paint job is more environmentally friendly than others. Getting a few more energy-efficient appliances and electronics can also go a long way with modern house buyers, too. As I mentioned before, make sure you don’t go overboard with your remodeling, and that the work you do flows with the home, not against it. When a beautiful 19th-century home gets its Victorian kitchen gutted for a modern, deluxe unit, the place isn’t going to be nearly as attractive to homebuyers as it could be!
Another Bathroom
Having two bathrooms in the house is kind of mandatory for countless homebuyers these days. If you’ve only got one in your home, having another added will not only make it easier to sell, but will also add a significant amount of value onto your home’s asking price. Finding the space for a totally new bathroom in your house can be a challenge, but if you’ve got any unused or underutilized spaces in the home then it could certainly be an option. You may even want to consider larger closets or spaces under the stairs. A full bath will need at least 35 square feet of space, which really isn’t that much when you look around and start measuring. Take steps to keep the cost of your upgrade down, and you’ll get a much better return on your investment. Exactly how much you spend on your new bathroom will vary depending on the kind of features and accessories you want to put in it. Having said that, there are various things you can do to ensure you don’t break your budget. Stores like Home Depot will often drop the prices of toilets, sinks and other bathroom features suddenly and out of the blue. If you’re planning to set up a new bathroom in your house, be sure to keep checking these kinds of large home improvement stores frequently, and asking for their offers and reductions. You can check the latest ones at http://www.homedepot.com/.
Reinvent Some Space
Adding a new room to your home using an extension can be a very lengthy and expensive project. Sure, you may be able to make a profit when you come to sell. However, this is never a guarantee, and it can be easy for one or two things to go wrong in the course of an extension, causing the expenses to snowball uncontrollably. Large-scale home renovations in general often run into some kind of problem which drive up the cost faster than you’d believe. Instead of taking the gamble of a full-scale extension, consider saving some money and re-inventing some space in your home. Furnishing and re-decorating a basement is one popular home project to consider. Converting an attic into a bedroom can also be a great way to add more value to the home. A lot of homeowners these days are also converting their unused garages into small apartments, or adding one on top. Of course, if you’re raring to sell your home, you’ll want to make it as attractive as possible for the highest possible number of people. By and large, homebuyers absolutely love versatile rooms. Homeowners frequently use basements as game rooms or second living rooms. They can also be easily converted into an apartment area for visiting guests or private tenants. If you’re going to reinvent some of the space in your home, just make sure you’re making an effort to keep it flexible and versatile.
Fix Things Up
If your home is full of broken appliances and features, and you know that all the other houses on the street are in good working order, you’re going to have a hard time making the sale you’re going for. Seen as you’ve decided to leave the sale a little longer than you originally planned, I recommend using the time you have to do a sweep of the entire home, and perform or schedule any big repairs that need doing. Plumbing issues, like dripping faucets and showerhead pressure that keeps coming and going, can be a massive turn-off to any prospective buyer walking around your home, so be sure to have them looked at by a professional plumber. Mold is another big example of homebuyer repellent, and is usually caused by a little crack or other opening somewhere in the outside of your home. There are various effective methods for getting mold out of your walls, but it’s more important to find the source of the moisture and close it up. Your HVAC system may also be a little old and unreliable. You and your family might have gotten used to the radiators taking a little longer to warm up, or the air con making that weird, rattling noise when you turn it on. However, if your prospective buyers pick up on this, it can completely ruin a fantastic deal on your home! Read up on some common issues with heating and air con systems, then give yours a thorough inspection. You may need to hire a service like www.OneHourAC.com.
Green Windows
No, not literally! Today, more than ever, homebuyers are looking around the market with energy efficiency at the front of their minds. If you’re not able to show that your home is green in at least some ways, you could be cheating yourself out of some very generous offers. You don’t have to cover your roof with solar panels and mount your own wind turbine in the garden. However, it’s always a good idea to replace some of the more dated windows in your home with energy-efficient models. Making this change not only has the potential to save you hundreds of dollars a year in heating bills, but will also be extremely attractive to any buyers who happen to ask about the energy efficiency of the property. Whether your prospective buyers want to save the earth or simply save themselves some money, energy efficient windows are one upgrade you certainly shouldn’t be overlooking.
Add a Deck
This is another home improvement which will always add a significant amount of value to your home. Even if you’re in an area where you get a huge amount of rain every year, decks in the backyard are always an attractive feature. As a homebuyer, you wouldn’t be able to help looking at one of these and imagining all the wonderful barbecues and garden parties you’ll be able to have if you buy the house. If your budget for home repairs is somewhat stretched, then you may need to prioritize more pressing changes to your home before making any plans for a deck. Obviously, the cost of a deck is going to vary greatly depending on the size of your home and plot, and how many extra features you want on it such as fire pits and built-in barbecues. If you’re pretty experienced with DIY and small-scale construction, then you may get the idea of saving a massive chunk of the investment by doing the work yourself. Don’t be too hasty though! There’s a big difference between putting up a shelf in the basement and building your own deck! Deck construction requires a lot of materials and work, so do your research before deciding whether or not to do the job yourself.
If you’re looking to get the best price possible for your home, I hope that at least some of these suggested improvements guide you in the right direction.