When it’s time to sell your home, you don’t want to regret it. By regretting it, I don’t mean losing the sentimental value you may have had for an old house, that is bound to happen, but the feeling that you’re losing a lot of money because you would have invested in your home long ago. In 2018 alone, 340 billion dollars were spent by Americans on home remodeling projects. That doesn’t mean everyone figured out which renovations and upgrades increase your ROI when you sell your home. When most people think about doing an upgrade, they’re doing it for themselves as it is much cheaper than moving into a new home. When you look at home prices, constantly increasing mortgage rates, and renting prices, you’ll notice the huge upward curve in property prices. This is why people are more reluctant now than ever about selling their homes; they feel that they will be forced to pay a huge sum of money that may financially set them back even after selling their home. Sometimes people spend months, or even years, to find a good sale for their house. When you think about the value of your home to the market, you don’t just think about its net price, you should also think how attractive it is to the buyer so it would sell quickly. When someone puts their home on the market, the best-case scenario would be for it to be sold as fast as possible.
When you’re thinking about home improvements, you should always think of them as an investment. An investment doesn’t have to cost you your whole bank account; it should be sensible, so you don’t end up trying to sell your home to get by. Some home improvement projects could look very attractive for you, but in the long run, the market may not look at it from the same perspective. Pouring money on random house projects isn’t the best way to go about increasing your home value. You may end up causing it to cost too much when compared to most houses in the neighborhood. Comfort is also important; you need to try to balance as much as possible between convenience and profitability. Look for projects that can provide you with luxury or convenience in addition to an ROI when you sell your home. A small or a big change in your home doesn’t really matter if you don’t have a way to pay for it, and when you’re thinking about investing in your home, it’s logical to use a home equity line of credit to do so. Upgrades intentionally made after a process of thought can net you over 80% of its value as profit. This basically means that you can potentially get 100 dollars out of every 20 dollars you spend on your home if you do so wisely of course. We’ll be presenting you with a guide that includes the best upgrades you can do to your home to increase its resale value.
Basement Upgrade
The basement is one of the most dependable assets when it comes to home investments. A lot of people have an unfinished basement sitting downstairs with an unusable status; it’s usually because finishing a basement can cost too much money and they feel that it wouldn’t increase their convenience. Most people with a high income would prefer to buy a house with a basement; they can buy a house with an unfinished basement and upgrade it themselves, but that means losing a potentially huge amount of money when you sell your house. Incomplete basements can add about 15 to 20 thousand dollars to home, finishing them can net you more than 50 thousand dollars. Finishing a basement is a lot of work; it’s far from being an easy job. It costs on average from $6,500 to $18,500, but you’ll need to look a bit further and see its true value. This home renovation can get you an ROI of more than 70%.
Upgrading the Kitchen and the Bathroom
The kitchen and the bathroom are one of the most common upgrades house owners do. This can give you an idea of how important it is to take care of these areas. Kitchen and bathroom are areas that are high in traffic and use, this is why people are interested in doing projects related to them. Simply replacing the appliances in your kitchen is bound to provide you with a big ROI. Try your best to make sure they match, and not to invest heavily in one appliance and leave the other. Appliances aren’t the only aspect you should be interested in; old flooring and old cabinets are also a subject of interest in the eyes of buyers and appraisers. Simple and effortless updates can also add incredible value to your kitchen; quartz and countertops give a truly luxurious feel, in addition to gourmet-style cabinets and some simple lighting upgrades.
The best thing about the bathroom is that they don’t require pouring a lot of money as a kitchen upgrade does. You don’t need to replace appliances, and you don’t need to do a complete renovation project if the bathroom is in a good state. New and modern faucets, knobs, medicine cabinets, brushed nickel, and stainless-steel fixtures are all upgrades that almost cost nothing when compared to the ROI they provide to your home’s value. When you compare the increment in the resale value of a bathroom upgrade to a bedroom upgrade, you’ll see that a bathroom upgrade can add twice the value a bedroom upgrade does.
Maintenance
All your exterior upgrades, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and basement upgrades can positively affect your value, but would it keep buyers from noticing water leakage in the basement or the bathroom? Your priority is making sure the structural health of your house is up to good standards. Any buyer is willing to live with an old functional bathroom or kitchen, but what they can’t ignore is knowing that the roof is going to leak anytime it rains, or the garage door is dysfunctional or damaged. You should learn more about the effect of garage door problems and how to fix them rather than ignore it. A garage door is one of the things that can turn off many buyers as they can get really frustrating if left unrepaired. When buyers come to buy a house, they automatically assume that they wouldn’t need to use a ton of money for maintenance and fixing stuff that is crucial to their well-being in the house. An appraisal that determines the need of the house for maintenance could potentially cost you a lot, in terms of the number of interested buyers and the value of the house will be sold at.
Most house buyers know that they are going to spend a bit of money on the house. People have different tastes after all. They carefully look for what they plan to remodel the house to see if it would fit their budget, which can cause an issue when there is a problem with maintenance. No one would like to spend the money they were going to put into renovating a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or any other area into fixing major flaws in the house. A study shows that more than 70% of home buyers know exactly what they plan on remodeling before the actual purchase of the house. Keep in mind that the importance of different aspects of maintenance may vary according to geographical location, for example, a leaky roof in a rainy eastern location more critical than one in a dry midwestern location.
Curb Appeal
Curb appeal can be summarized with a question: “Would my house look good if I was a passerby and looked at it from the curb?” You’ll need to also determine what would make your house look attractive and structurally sound from the outside. When you’re in an area where everyone takes care of their house appearance, it would be risky if your house stands out as the ugliest one. A walkway can be decorated using flowers and by adding some lighting with good-looking lanterns. Instead of a big gray garage door becoming the center of attention when someone looks at your house, make the front yard aesthetically appealing and perhaps paint the door with an eye-grabbing color. An effective way to determine flaws with your curb appeal is in black and white photo; you’ll be able to see many flaws that you may have stopped noticing as time went by.
Landscaping is one of the best ways to ensure that your house has good curb appeal. Planting healthy trees, colorful flowers, and trimming the lawn almost costs nothing, but you wouldn’t believe how strong the effect of these plants and neat lawn have over anyone looking at your house. A common mistake is installing synthetic turf, as this can increase the energy costs and make your house look less eco-friendly. Try to pay attention to the side and rear views of your house as well, as prospective buyers will take a tour around the house from the outside as well as the inside.
Upsize your House
Square footage is worth money; the bigger your house is, the more value it holds. Making the house bigger doesn’t mean purchasing the lands surrounding you and building a castle; it can simply mean expanding the number of bedrooms or taking down a wall or two. Most home buyers are families and using probability theory, they all know that having more bedrooms than they need wouldn’t be a major issue, but having less than they need is usually a deal-breaker. Adding another bedroom to your house is going to increment the list of potential buyers of your home, as it will pique the interest of more families than a house with fewer rooms. Some things may remain a preference and are subject to taste like separating the kitchen and the living room with a wall. Removing or putting a wall there is going to depend on the general taste of your buyers. People these days, usually prefer the open look design as it makes the house look more comfortable and spacious than another one with a lot of walls in-between space.
Energy-Efficient Upgrades
A few decades ago, energy-efficiency wasn’t that big of a deal since the technologies available back then barely made a difference. Nowadays, in a world fixated on finding alternative ways to reduce energy consumption, making your house more energy efficient is a big deal. A lot of buyers have energy-efficiency of their mind when they’re shopping for a house. Older windows that let in drafts are repelling to many buyers. Adding energy-efficient windows can help you save more than $500 in energy costs every year. You can also get some benefits from the state like additional credits. This investment doesn’t only payback for itself with savings, it can also add to the overall monetary value of your house. Appliances are also included in energy-efficient renovation plans. The less energy your appliances use the more attractive your house becomes in the eyes of a potential buyer as it will net fewer bills than traditional ones. It’s recommended not to rush with installing solar panels as they are an investment that usually pays out in the long run. A lot of banks offer what’s known as energy-efficient mortgages that can allow you to take on extra debt to install energy-efficient upgrades and lower the overall mortgage rates.
There are endless upgrades that you can do to your house, but not all of them can increase its resale value. You want to do as much research as possible on which upgrades can net you the highest profit, especially if you’d like to do it as quick as possible. If you’re thinking of it as a long-term investment, then focus on modernizing the house by doing upgrades that last a long life so it would provide you with convenience as well as higher resale value. You should always consider your payment options before commencing with any upgrade as you don’t get bottlenecked. You should keep in mind that most upgrades don’t recoup their whole value, but they have the power to make your house look more attractive to others and make it sell faster.
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