Looking For Cost-Effective Remodeling Projects: Don’t Spend A Fortune
January 20th, 2010 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
It’s a question that sellers often have before they put their homes on the market: What home improvements should I make to best sell my home? The National Association of REALTORS® provides some answers to this question in its annual Remodeling Cost Vs. Value Report.
This report, as its name suggests, studies the many types of home-improvement projects that homeowners can take on. It then analyzes these improvements and spells out which of them pay off the biggest when a home is sold.
It’s a good tool for homeowners to rely on when they’re first considering putting their homes on the market. After all, if converting an extra bedroom to a home office doesn’t pay off, there’s little reason for homeowners to take on this project.
According to the 2009 version of the report, the most cost-effective home repairs are exterior replacement projects that cost less than $14,000.
The report says that adding a wood deck, replacing old doors with new ones and adding new siding to a home all return more than 80 percent of their costs when you sell a home.
Of course, these projects make a home look better, too. And that might pay off in both a quicker sale and a better offer. In today’s challenging residential real estate market, any improvements you make to a residence’s exterior can help your home stand out from the competition.
What home-improvement projects recoup the least amount of homeowners’ investment? To no one’s surprise, home office remodels, which return just 48.1 percent of project costs upon resale, and sunroom additions, returning just 50.7 percent, ranked as the least cost-effective improvements. These two projects annually rank at the bottom of this list.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t add a sunroom if you want one. If you plan on living in your home for several years, you might as well make it a place where you enjoy spending time. Not every decision you make as a homeowner has to be with an eye on resale value.
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