Improve Your Home – Get the Most Bang for Your Dollars

Varying returns

You must make it a point that some parts of the country might value some upgrades more than other parts. So there is no such rule of thumb applicable to all properties across the country. You should also consider underlying real estate market. In a bear market, you’re likely to get less return on home improvements than that of a bull market. However, there might be cases where some improvements in a weak market can make a property look better than same type of houses in the neighboring area.

The pros and the cons

When it comes to home improvement, people often give importance to finishing a basement. A basement often is used as a recreation room, home theatres or it just provides added living space. However, basement finishing is a very low returning home improvement. In many cases, you can expect to get only about 50% of what you spend for this purpose when time comes to sell. Therefore, if you’re planning about basement finishing, do it just because you need extra space; don’t expect that it would enhance the value of your house.

In contrast, remodelling your baths and kitchen can be a real good home improvement option. These rooms experience most activities. Good quality kitchen appliances, quality bathroom fittings and construction definitely help to attract buyers. In most cases, you can expect to get up to 90% of the improvement cost.

Good home improvements

• Kitchen improvement

• Bathroom remodelling

• Adding a room

• Adding a garage

• Landscaping

Right reasons

In a nutshell, you should go for a home improvement with a mindset that you’re doing this just because you want to enjoy it. Don’t consider this as a way to enhance value of your property. People often spend huge amount of money for major home renovations and then appraise their home so that they can recover the entire costs just to find their house to sit on the real estate market for months without any buyer. Though it is reasonable to expect that the home improvements will increase value of the home, make sure you’re rational with your demands.

Having an expensive house in the community might make it difficult to sell it when the time comes. Buyers always compare a home’s price with the price of neighboring homes.