Increasing Your Property Value with Home Improvement

There are several reasons that you would want to renovate your home.   Sometimes it's just necessary. You may just need more space because your family has grown.  You may be looking to improve your lifestyle by renovating the kitchen or bathroom, for instance.  You even may be looking to increase the value of your home so you can sell it.  Regardless of the reason for your project, look to do so in a profitable manner.

Before you begin assessing how much you want to spend and which areas of your home you would like to improve, there are two things that you should consider:

• The value of your home
• The value of homes surrounding yours

You are able to research the value of your home and others surrounding it by visiting websites such as Zillow.com, Domania.com, and eAppraisal.com.

Knowing the value of your home and the value of those surrounding it before pursuing a home improvement project can help you derive the most value from your renovations and avoid the common habit of overspending.  Overspending is obviously something you want to avoid because one of the greatest benefits of remodeling your home is to produce a return on your investment.  

Even if you don't plan on selling your home in the near future, it's still important to achieve a growth in value on your home as a result of any kind of renovation.  Over-improving is always something that you want to be cautious of when renovating your home.  If your home is improved beyond the neighborhood that surrounds it, it is very likely that the true value of your home will not be realized.  Two simple steps that will help you avoid over-spending and over-improving are:

• Knowing the value of your home and those surrounding it
• Looking to achieve a value no greater than 20% more than what the surrounding homes will sell for.

Let's look at a couple of examples:

Assume your home is worth $200,000 but the average of the highest selling homes in your area is $250,000.  A 20% cushion  allows you to target a resale value of no more than $300,000.  That leaves plenty of opportunity to make upgrades to your home.

Along with these general guidelines, you want to stay within the price range for similar homes.  If you have a modestly priced home, you shouldn't expect to recover as much from improvements as compared to the same improvements to a high-end home.  Spending $30,000 to remodel a kitchen with top-of-the-line appliances in a home that costs $150,000 won't have nearly the return the same remodel would in a $400,000 home.

Upgrading certain areas of your home will yield a different return.  Here are the top ten home improvement projects with their average rates of return:

• Updating plumbing and electrical work - 260%
• Bathroom remodeling - 168%
• Kitchen remodeling - 168%
• Painting - 112%
• Flooring - 102%
• Outdoor maintenance - 83%
• Deck - 78%
• Basement remodel - 75%
• Replace windows and doors - 70%
• Roof replacement - 67%

There are so many opportunities to improve your home and they all present an added value while improving your lifestyle.  As a homeowner, it's always in your best interest to discover new ways to add value to your home.  

I hope you found this informative and useful.