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 Home Improvements That Really Pay Off! 

Making improvements to your home is a sure-fire way to build equity into your property right? Well, not always. The 'win-win' situation of using your home equity to reinvest in your home is that you have improved living space, and you increase your home’s value at the same time. There is, however, a fine line between what improvements can build equity and will help sell your home, and which ones will not. When it comes to choosing which improvements you can recoup your costs with, it’s important to consider which projects will have the best return-on-investment (ROI). ROI is expressed as a percentage and it is the rate of how much you spend on or invest in making improvements to how much it is worth someone who is potentially interested in buying your home. Be sure to choose wisely when making home improvements, especially if your goal is to increase the value of your home. The first thing to make sure of is that all of your basic maintenance is finished on your home before you put money into something extra, like adding a marble-tiled bathroom. If your roof is sagging and leaking, it doesn’t matter what your new deluxe bathroom will look like.

Overall, kitchen and bath upgrades or complete remodels have the greatest ROI. The average kitchen remodel with minor repairs such as painting, and repairing fixtures and appliances is around $8,655, according to Remodeling Magazine. The return-on-investment, as a percentage, is 88%. This is obviously a low-cost way to improve your home and get back most of your costs. Adding a second-story addition onto your home is a major undertaking and would require a lot of time and effort, but the rewards are profitable as well. The average cost of a second-story addition is $73,553 and the REI is 83%. As a rule, improvements that increase the functional space of a home hold their value longer than ones that just make a house look better. It's also significantly cheaper than adding an addition to your home. Converting an attic into a bedroom, for example, usually costs about $35,960 and returns about 80% of its cost, according to Remodeling magazine. Turning your basement into a room for socializing will set you back, on average, $56,724, and allow you to recoup 79% of your costs.

A typical bathroom remodel costs around $9135, and the ROI is approximately 81%, another low cost improvement that will help you out. For a bathroom addition, the average cost is $13,918 and the ROI is also 81%. For a family room addition, the average cost is $30,960, and the ROI is 75%. For a major kitchen remodel, including new cabinets, floors, and appliances, the average cost is $31,090, and the ROI is 71%. Adding a deck, with an average cost of $8,022, only has an ROI of 51%. It's commonly agreed that a swimming pool has no resale value at all. The main reason pools repel more prospective buyers than they attract is that they require expensive upkeep. Running a close second is the fear of liability. So again, these figures show that doing improvements to the kitchens and bathrooms of a house bring about the greatest return-on-investment.

An important thing to remember when determining what improvement to make and how to do it is to make sure that you are doing what’s best for the home’s value, as well as for you. Don’t make “over the top” home improvements in relation to your neighbor. The costs associated with this may be harder to recoup when you’re ready to sell. Choosing more expensive flooring or fixtures will not necessarily increase your home's value when you sell the home. In fact, it may make it more difficult to sell. Also make sure to be thinking of future buyers when you choose paint and carpeting in your home. Lime green may be a perfect match for your bedroom furniture, but it most likely won’t be for the potential buyer in your future. Lastly, keep in mind that while it’s nice to have the nicest house on the block, it may not be the best when it comes to selling it. Most buyers will assume that it’s overpriced as none of the other houses are in that price range, so you may not get what you want for your home, even if it is the nicest and has all of the upgraded amenities.