Preparing to sell your home or just looking to increase the value of your property for the future, the biggest decision is where to spend your money. Even as trends in design of the construction industry continue to evolve, where to spend your money on improvements and upgrades has remained relatively consistent, but there are a few new areas that should be considered, especially for older or out dated homes.
After researching and reading some articles, here are the top 5 areas that you should consider spending your money on:
- KITCHENS, KITCHENS, KITCHENS! Whether you are looking for a place to buy or just going into someone’s place for the first time, the kitchen is almost always the first thing that you look at. It is part of the first impression that you have about the house. Based on some recent surveys, a complete overhaul of your kitchen may not be the best bang for your buck, but a minor updating is definitely worth it. Things to consider are updating the counter tops, adding a tile backsplash, new appliances, new sink and fixture, etc. Flooring is something that should be considered as well. I know that at my house, the kitchen floor gets beat up the most compared to the rest of the house.
- CURB APPEAL. Even before entering the house, there are many things that will stand out to help make the best first impression about your property. My top three areas are: Main entrance door, Garage doors & Manufactured stone veneer. When people come to your house, the first thing that they will see is your main entrance door. This needs to tie into the exterior of your property, but it is the focal point for people entering your home and sets the first impression. Garage doors seemed a little out of place when I first read about them, but after reading a few articles, having an up to date garage door will help with overall style of your house. The money spent here definitely has a strong return on your investment. Lastly, adding some manufactured stone veneer to your exterior, although this isn’t cheap, by adding this to base of your exterior walls, any pillars that you have, or around your garage, is helping to modernize and improve the overall quality of your house and strengthen the overall curb appeal.
- BATHROOMS. The age and quality of the fixtures, flooring, cabinets, and lighting all tell a lot about your house. Bathrooms make an impression for most people. As the space is typically fairly small, an upgrade or better yet an update of your bathroom, won’t break the bank and will greatly improve the quality and overall visual appeal to your home.
- UPDATING (paint, trim, and flooring). As your home gets older, the more out of date your interior will likely be. Trends will continually evolve and when the time comes that you want to refresh your home, the first thing to consider is painting the walls (brighter is better is the newest trend) and updating the trim finishing around the base of the walls, windows, doors, and possibly any crown mouldings on the top of the walls. This is something that you can do (for any of you DIY’ers) or have someone else come and do professionally. If you do decide to do the work yourself, I strong recommend having someone do the trim finishing for you. Speaking personally, this is one of the areas in our home that needs work. Quality is always going to be viewed and valued when it comes to valuating what your property is worth. Updating your flooring can get expensive, depending on the quality and amount of space. There are too many options (carpet, laminate, hardwood, tile, etc.) to go over in this blog, so maybe that will be for another post. The point to make is that changing the flooring can make a huge difference to the overall look of your home. I have seen people purchase a home and spend around $30,000 to install new laminate flooring, paint and trim, which completely changed the look of their home. This is something to consider if you are in the process of looking to purchase a home. Sometimes you need to be able to look past the current flooring, paint color, and trim, as spending some money in this area will 100% update your home.
- HOME MAINTENANCE (roofs, heating/cooling, plumbing, etc.). Although this doesn’t help with the visual appeal to your property, it is definitely functional and homebuyers will be taking this into consideration in the purchasing decision making process. This is one of the #1 reasons for always having a professional home inspection done when you are purchasing a property. Part of this process will be an update on where you will need to spend money in the future. Our family home is 17 years old and in the next 5 or so years, we will need to replace the roof shingles and update the heat pumps. As we live on an acreage, we are on a well with a water filtration system that is as old as the house and will likely also need updating in this timeframe. Lots of things to consider when you are either selling your home or looking at new homes.
If you are considering selling your home in the near future, hopefully this article gives you some ideas on where to spend your money to maximize your return. If you would like to know what your property is worth and get my thoughts on how to get your property ready to sell, please reach out (250-268-0060 or cdensmore@460realty.com) to me. I would love to come and view your property, discuss things, and then prepare a free property evaluation for you. Even if you aren’t thinking of selling in the next year or two, I would love to meet and discuss things. Renovations and updating can take longer than you think to get completed. It’s better to start the process sooner than later. I look forward to hearing from you!
