House with decks
Spring is a time when most of us start to think about home improvement projects and sprucing things up a little after a dreary winter. Completing those projects is always a GREAT pick-me-up!
Not all home projects are equal though. Especially if you’re planning to sell your house at some point in the future, some projects are going to help you out, and increase the value of your home, more than others.
Even if you aren’t currently planning to sell your home, it’s still a good idea to keep these things in mind. Circumstances change, jobs change, relationships change; heck, priorities even change! The bulk of my very informal research seems to agree that the average American owns a home for 5-7 years. (That’s average, I am well aware there are some of us who blow that statistic out of the water.)
The reality is you might be selling your home in the future even if you don’t know it yet!
The latest Cost VS. Value report from Remodeling Magazine for the West North Central part of the country (which includes all of Missouri and the states immediately west) lists the approximate addition to the value of your home per dollars spent. (You can find this, and lots of other great homeownership information, at www.houselogic.com.)
The top 5 remodel projects to return the most value to your home are:
1. Steel Replacement Entry Door – 85.6%
2. Wooden Deck Addition – 77.3%
3. Garage Door Replacement – 75.7%
4. Minor Kitchen Remodel – 75.4%
5. Window Replacement, wood – 73.3%
The worst return on your money is a home office remodel, which has a return of only 43.6%.
The bottom line is that most any kind of improvement will add value to your home, unless it’s an extremely customized improvement. Say, carving two Jedi’s out of the posts at your front door. Or having light sabers for light posts. Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily say that would increase the value, unless you happen to find another big Star Wars fan.
And if you are selling your home, some of your improvements may not necessarily increase the amount you can ask for it, but they may well help your home sell faster. But that is another story for another time. 🙂
