If you’ve been reading a lot about home improvements, then you’ve probably heard this old adage time and time again: “the kitchen is the heart of the home.” To a lot of prospective buyers, your kitchen is certainly going to be a big deciding factor, so this is one room which you should certainly set a good budget for. In an ideal world, you’d be able to spend thousands on it, filling it with gorgeous countertops and sophisticated appliances wherever they’ll fit. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world! At the very least, you should aim to give the whole room a fresh coat of paint, and a few new energy-efficient appliances. Efficient kitchen appliances are becoming more and more of a selling point these days, and they’ll certainly be an asset when you open the home for viewings.
Reinventing a Room
Some people, when they decide to go all-out on their home improvements, organise an extension, and have a completely new room built onto an existing one. While this is certainly an effective way to increase your asking price, it’s invariably an expensive project. Furthermore, if there are any big setbacks or surprise additional costs, it can make it so much harder to actually recoup the investment. If you want to make a similar home improvement without having to knock down any walls, then try reinventing a room you already have instead. Converting an attic into a large bedroom and repurposing a basement are both fairly straightforward projects, and have the potential to pay off massively when prospective buyers come to view the place. If you’re fine with the living space you have, you don’t even have to splash out on any furniture and actual features. However, if you’ve got a bare concrete basement, laying down carpet and painting the walls is certainly a smart move.
Make it a Fortress
If, like me, you’ve got a partner who’s in the military, then you may not worry about the security of your home all that much! However, for a lot of your prospective buyers, this is going to be one of their major concerns, especially if your home is in an area with high crime rates. One great home improvement in the way of added security is replacing dated widows with something thicker, and with more dependable latches. Windows with additional glazing will not only make life harder for would-be burglars, but will also ensure that the whole home is more energy efficient. This is a highly attractive feature in the modern home market. If you have a deeply recessed front door, then this can be seen as a big security threat, so removing the recess or having an extended porch built could be a good idea. Of course, nothing’s going to convince buyers of the home’s security better than features which were designed explicitly for that purpose, so shop around! Check out some sites such as Alarm Reviews to find out more about the various options on the market.
Decks and Patios
Provided you’re not reading this from Alaska or somewhere with equally hostile weather, decking and patios will always increase the value and appeal of your home. When you look back on fluctuations in the real estate market, outdoor living spaces have become progressively more desirable, especially as more and more people are staying home for their vacations. If you add a nice expanse of decking or a patio, you’re sure to make a return on the investment when you come to sell. Having said that, the cost of having a deck built onto your home can vary greatly depending on a range of factors. The kind of size you’re going for, along with the various additional features like railings, barbecues and mounted planters, will all come into play. Fortunately, there are various resources you can use such as the calculator from Decks in order to draw up a good plan.
More Efficient Insulation
I’ve said it before in this post, and I’ll say it again: energy efficiency is a massive deal to modern home buyers. If your home lacks decent insulation, or has a lot of old doors and windows which let the heat out and the cold in, then buyers and home inspectors are sure to notice. Any home that hasn’t got at least some features for energy efficiency will cost more to live in and repair over time. Despite what you may think, updates which will make your home considerably more energy-efficient don’t have to cost a fortune, and have a massive potential for profits on the modern market. Adding more attic insulation, for example, typically only costs a few hundred dollars, yet has the potential to add much more to your asking price, and will save you hundreds every year in reduced heating bills. Replacing your conventional lightbulbs with more energy-efficient lightbulbs is a simpler home improvement which can make a massive difference to how appealing your home is to prospective buyers. Programmable thermostats are another home improvement you should seriously consider. Most home buyers expect to see these anyway, so don’t disappoint them by sticking with your old, conventional model!
There you have just a few of the home improvements which could have a massive positive impact on the price of your home. Whether you want to have sold your home by the end of the year or you’ve got a while left, you won’t regret these changes!
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