Making improvements to your living space is often about increasing the functionality of said space; it is done for practical reasons to make the home more liveable for you and your family. Now, obviously, home improvements are going to cost money and often times the investment into your living space is worth it. However, it is nice to know whether or not you are likely to see a return on your investment or not when you come to sell the house.
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Disclaimer
While any work that you do to improve the functionality of your home, update outdated features or increase the overall living space is bound to add value to your property, depending on the scope of the work and how much it costs, you will not always be able to entire recoup your investment or make a profit when selling your house. In some instances, you may only make back part of your money, so if you are only going to carry out the work in order to add value to your home and make a profit, it might not be the best idea. That being said, adding specific features such as a swimming pool from Lazy Day Pools can significantly enhance your property’s appeal and value, making it a worthwhile consideration for those looking to make their home more enjoyable and marketable. If the renovation will help you to enjoy the property more while you live in it, then it is arguably worth doing in any case.
Questions to Ask Yourself
When thinking about carrying out home improvements, there are several questions that you should ask yourself before you get started. The first question to as yourself is: what do you want to achieve from the home improvement? Is your home improvement geared towards giving your family more liveable space? What rooms are going to be affected? Or, if the home improvement is about updating features and making the home more modern, where are you going to start? For the most part, homes are often dated more so by the kitchen and bathrooms than by other rooms in the home, which is something to consider.
While you can simply choose to perform home improvements simply to prepare your home to enter the market, you will need to be mindful of the costs of the project versus the increases in house price. Are the home improvements going to increase your family’s comfort and enjoyment of the home for years to come? If so, it might be worth spending a little more regardless of whether or not you are going to make a profit from the investment. It is also worth thinking about how you are going to fund the home improvements too.
While there are certainly options for you to consider which are going to keep costs down, you still need to be realistic. If you haven’t got the necessary DIY skills or knowledge, then you are either going to need to enlist help from friends or family or hire a professional. Finally, you should look at other homes on your street and within the immediate area. It is all well and good performing home improvement projects, but you need to be mindful of what other homes around you cost. The improvements are going to add value to the property, but if you wind up outpricing your area, then your home will take longer to sell, and you are more likely to need to accept a lower offer.
Home Improvement Planning Tips
Obviously, one of the first things that you will need to do after deciding on the home improvement project is to come up with a workable budget. It is really easy to find yourself underbudgeting – especially if you are doing the project yourself, because issues and obstacles might arise that you haven’t planned for. This is why it often makes sense to hire tradespeople because they have far more experience and are, therefore, better at pricing up a job.
Finding the right tradespeople can be tricky. Recommendations from friends and family can come in handy. You can also choose to use sites like MyBuilder, which allows you to post the job, the relevant tradespeople in your area then reply to the advert, and you can assess their work history and reviews from past clients. Finally, you will also need to give your home insurance provider a call. Your property and its contents are covered as is. If you make any changes without informing them, especially if they impact the value of your property and something does happen, your policy could be nullified, so bear this in mind.
To Conclude
Carrying out any home improvement is likely to affect the price of your property; the question is simply: by how much? Obviously, bigger jobs that transform your property in one aspect or another will add the most value. That being said, it can be difficult to make a profit on home improvements; often, you can recoup part or all of your investment, but it depends on your property as a whole. You should also be mindful of house prices in your area. Developing your home too much could mean outpricing the neighbourhood, which would make it more of a challenge to sell your home.
