Top Five Renovations That Will Increase Your Homes Value


 

When it comes time to put a house on the market, there are many small improvements that make the house both sell faster and increase its market value. Many of these improvements are inexpensive and can be done by the homeowner themselves. Following are five enhancements that can increase the value of a home:

1. Curb Appeal

Curb appeal may be the most important thing when it comes to selling a home, for curb appeal gets a potential buyer to consider the house and the property it sits on in the first place. Curb appeal is simply the attractiveness of the frontage to a passerby. One trick is to paint the door a vivid color. The homeowner shouldn’t be afraid of fire engine red, ultramarine blue or lemon yellow. Surrounded by more muted colors, a brilliant door is not at all vulgar and is welcoming to the guest.

Keeping the front lawn tidy and uncluttered also draws in prospective buyers. A front lawn loaded with a water feature, complicated plantings and lighting, a dinette set, a fire pit and other ornaments will put off a lot of people even if it’s pretty. This is simply because it just looks like too much work to maintain or even to remove. The homeowner should strive to make the front yard look as appealingly simple as they can. Take in the furniture and the hanging or potted plants. Mow the lawn and remove all debris, including fallen leaves, branches, fruit and flowers. Prune and trim trees and shrubs so that they look their best.

A car parked outside of the garage can make a potential buyer believe that the garage is too full of junk to accommodate the car. This in turn can make a buyer think that the people who live in the house aren't the type with whom they’d want to do business. The garage should be cleaned out, and the car moved in.

2. Be Energy Efficient

A solar powered heating system is much less expensive than it was even 10 years ago and pays for itself quickly. New appliances are also amazingly energy efficient, so exchange that old, wheezing fridge for one that's brand new. The energy and therefore money saved adds multiples to the value of a home and its property.

3. Fix What Needs Fixing

Replace worn siding, roof shingles and gutters, fix leaks, put in storm windows and have the furnace and the septic tank inspected. These items don’t cost much and can add thousands of dollars to the value of the house. Though there are some people in the market for fixer-uppers, many buyers are not going to consider a home where the toilet splashes or the glass doors that open to the patio or deck get stuck in their runners.

4. Open up the Space

As with home repairs, opening up a space so that traffic flows more easily through it may cost a few hundred dollars but adds thousands to the house’s resale value. This may mean knocking out a wall between the kitchen and the dining room that doesn’t bear weight. Before the homeowner does this, they should make sure the wall is not weight-bearing. It’s best to hire a general contractor for this job.

5. Lighten Up

Potential buyers are looking more and more to houses that have a great deal of natural light. This might mean replacing a narrow double sash window with a picture window or a bay window, adding a window to a kitchen or bathroom that did not have one before or installing a sun tube. These are pipes that bring sunlight and moonlight into a room through a domed hole in the roof. They are less expensive than regular skylights.

Even less expensive ways to bring light into the house are to replace broken or impossibly dirty window panes and to simply wash the ones that can be washed.

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