Raise Home Value on a Budget
Are you looking to sell your house? Many real estate experts will tell you that increasing your home value is essential to increasing your chances of selling your house. It can be frustrating or tedious as to how to increase home value without spending more than you’ll get back for it, once your house is sold. However, here are a 5 suggestions for easy remodeling projects to increase home value! It’s important to save money while increasing home value, but sometimes spending an extra dollar can be well worth the investment.
Landscaping
While it is important to upkeep your yard and exterior of your house, adding some landscaping can help to increase home value. One of the most popular suggestions isn’t necessarily in the planting of foliage, but rather, a sprinkler system to help maintaining those beautiful flowers, trees, or other foliage.
At a minimum, you should clean your yard of any debris, trim trees and shrubs, and spread fresh mulch in the planting beds. Real estate experts have reported that, “A poorly maintained front yard can result in up to a 10% drop in value.”
Adding an Extra Room
Attics and basements offer the perfect opportunity to increase your home value without overexerting yourself. These rooms offer an outlet for creative solutions. You can turn them into various things such as game rooms, an extra bedroom or office space, a theater, laundry room, or storage space. There are plenty of things you can do with an unfinished attic or basement. Attics typically are converted to extra bedrooms or lounge areas. Basements are usually converted into game rooms, lounge areas or laundry rooms. However, keep in mind that most potential buyers typically prefer a laundry room on the main floor. Adding an extra room, especially finishing an attic or basement, increases your home value because at a nationwide average cost of a little over $50,000, you can expect to recoup 72.5% of the cost of adding the attic bedroom when you sell the home.
Finishing these rooms is one of the best ways to increase home value because they not only add usable square footage, but also transforms profitable storage space into usable, appealing rooms.
Recreating a Room
Kitchen and bathrooms are the best rooms to renovate to improve your home value. This is because most potential buyers are interested in upgraded kitchens and bathrooms. The more appealing these rooms are the more likely you are to increase home value. However, offering a “fresh, new look,” to an ordinary room like the bedroom or living room can be beneficial to your home value increasing. Bringing something fresh or unique to a room can be just what your house — or even the market — needs.
Upgrades can vary in these remodeling projects. You can do one project that you can afford, that you believe could provide that rejuvenation a room needs. Or you can do various projects of various sizes depending on your budget and style. One suggestion is painting the room. Whether you paint all the walls, just the ceiling or add an accent wall, color changes or additions can be just what that room needs! Perhaps with a darker, or poorly-lit room, you could paint the walls a lighter color. Suggested colors could be a light grey, beige, white or some other neutral color. These often brighten the room and allow you more options to “accessorize” or “personalize” the room with bolder colors. Other painting project could be the cupboards or shelving units. There are plenty of online boards that offer creative ideas, instructions and do-it-yourself options for painting your cupboards and shelves.
Another suggestion could be upgrading the room. Perhaps you could upgrade the sinks to a more sophisticated style that better suits the style of your house. Upgrading appliances in the kitchen are always a plus, if it fits within your budget. Other things like new countertops could be a great renovation as well. Smaller things could include different knobs for your cupboards or cabinet, new shower head or toilet seat, or reglazing the bathtub.
Knocking down a wall could offer a unique, and most times better, appeal to your home. For example, knocking down a wall between your kitchen and living room could offer a more spacious kitchen area, or just an open space feel. Proper lighting is also essential to rooms and can make the difference! So be sure to find the best possible lighting for a room, whether it’s natural or energy-efficient.
Front Entrance Makeover
Front entrance makeovers are crucial because real estate experts will tell you that potential buyers begin making judgments on the house roughly seven seconds after they show up. Curb appeal is important, so that front entrance makeover can potentially make or break the sale of your house. Replacing or repairing doors and windows on your house has a 70% return on investment with an energy tax credit available for many replacement windows.
A great way to approach the front entrance is to remember the phrase, “De-cluttering is a form of cleaning.” If you have a curvy walkway to the entrance of your home, you can accentuate it with flowers or lighting. It would be a good idea to ensure the walkway itself is in good condition as well. Nobody likes to stumble over uneven or dirty walkways. Clear the entrance from overgrown shrubs or trees. A bold color on your front door could be the “pop” it needs to give it a unique or fresh look. If you have fencing around the outside, perhaps you can look into upgrading if it enhances the outside. For example, if you have a standard wire fence, you could replace it with a nice wood fence that offers more privacy (depending on the height of the fence). Or simply removing the fence could give your home a more “inviting” look.
Backyard Renovation
You could add a pond or firepit, depending on the size of your backyard and budget. Adding, finishing or upgrading your outdoor deck or patio is always a plus with a 78% return on investment. Giving people an outdoor hangout setting is an appeal to most potential buyers, especially in warmer climate areas. Some popular backyard renovations include outdoor living rooms with comfy furniture, fireplaces, or blended with garden structures like arbors and pergolas.
