Saturday, August 29, 2009

Expert Tips on Improving Your Home The Correct Way

By April Kerr

We have been sold the story if we do some home improvements our home resale will benefit. But in reality spending money on home improvements may not be any guarantee of increased value. Below are a few of the issues to watch out for.

The first thing you need to keep with the same feel as the rest of your neighborhood. There may be reasons for people to break out from the neighborhood norm, but it is more likely you will have a negative impact if you break the trend.

Think carefully about the decision to make improvements to an essentially new home. Adding a new bathroom to your 1950s home will return more than the same bathroom going into a home that is less than ten years old.

Any renovation that is out of keeping with the general style of the house may not be worth its cost. The Jacuzzi room added to the courtyard of your 1880' character home may not appeal to the general real estate market as much as it does to you. The same premise applies to spending large amount on remodeling your spare bedroom when the rest of the house is looking a little tired may not provide the returns either.

A big issue in the balance act between home improvement returns and expenditure is not spending too much. If your street is mainly two bedroom family started homes, putting Buckingham palace in the street probably isn't going to reap the resale values. This extends to the quality of any appliances or fittings. While people do not want to buy shoddy work nor do they truly value those gold plated taps you thought you needed to install.

You may be a firm believer in green living and install solar panels and eco products. This is own area where you may have to accept negative value. Often these items are expensive and future buyers don't automatically put a high value on them. This may be a values judgment that you need to separate from economic value.

The easiest way to put some extra value into your home is through interior decoration improvements. But there is a caveat on this. The improvement in house value will only be realized if potential buyers also like your style. In this area it may pay to be a bit conservative and go with some neutral home improvements. Otherwise what you have spent may turn into a negative value.

Home improvements can lead to a direct improvement in the value of your house. Just be careful to make sure anything you do is worth it.

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