Personal Finance Guide

With the housing boom well and truly over and house prices on the slide, it’s more important than ever that any home improvements you make will help add value to your property.
But with so many potential home improvement projects, how do you know which to undertake first?

Below we have outlined the top ten ways to increase your home’s value:

1. Enhance the first impression
The simplest rule to follow when beginning home improvement is to take into account what can be seen from the outside, and work on those things first. The first impression is one of the primary determining factors for potential buyers. While not a large factor in appraising home value, appearance is paramount in terms of saleability.
So how do you go about improving the first impression of your home? Begin by reducing clutter, painting your home’s exterior, replacing shabby looking exterior doors and improving the landscaping - all things you could do yourself without investing a fortune!

2. Increase the Square Footage
The size and living space of a home is one of the key factors in both appraised value and the resale price a home will fetch when listed for sale.
If you’ve an unfinished basement or other space in your home that can be converted into finished living space, start there. Finishing a basement or converting a loft into additional living space is far less costly than a room addition.

3. Update Bathrooms
If your home has out of date bathrooms, then updating them is apt to be a good investment to increase the resale value. Most buyers are attracted to a home with modern, spacious and up to date bathrooms.

4. Update the Kitchen
As with bathrooms, updating an older kitchen will often increase the resale value of a property. You can cut costs by refinishing cabinets, installing new appliances, countertops and flooring and improving the lighting in your kitchen.
If you want to go that tiny bit further you could invest in handmade kitchen units or perhaps even a full bespoke kitchens. Given their custom nature, bespoke kitchens will usually make the ideal possible use of the available space, whilst also providing exceptional build quality and standard of finish.

5. Add Storage Space
Buyers today want plenty of room to store things, so anything you can do to increase the amount of space and functional storage capacity of your home will help add resale value and is often less expensive than major renovations, fixes or room addition projects.

6. Invest in a Garage
If your home does not have a garage, adding one can be another good investment to increase resale value; especially if you live in a northern location with a cold climate. For warmer climates, the return on investment might be less significant than other home improvement projects.

7. Replace the Roof and Other Major Components
If your home has an ageing roof, boiler, or electrical system then you nearly have no choice but to replace them.
Not replacing major components will lead to future maintenance costs for the new owner and this will be taken into account. For instance, if you have a leaky roof, it could lead to damp problems and other interior damage.
Secondly, when you do come to sell your home, these things will either need to be put right prior to the sale or they will need to be deducted from the final sale price in order to entice buyers.

8. Paint and Redecorate the Interior
Be sure to use neutral colours when repainting your home’s interior. Remember that interior decoration is very personal and future owners might not like any bright shades you may have used, or the prospect of struggling to paint over them.
If you do decorate your home with bright paint, be prepared to paint over it with neutral colours prior to putting the property up for sale.

9. Increase and Improve Outdoor Living Space
As with adding a garage, the return on investment for adding outdoor living space such as a screened porch, deck or patio is largely dependent on geography
If you live in an area where people tend to spend a lot of time outdoors, then this can be a very good investment and is generally less pricey than adding interior living space.
However, if the norm in your area, due to climate and weather conditions, isn’t conducive to spending a lot of time outdoors, then it might not make much sense to invest heavily in outdoor living space.

10. Replace Ageing Windows
If your home has outdated exterior siding or the siding is not typical of what most homes in the area use, then you might think about replacement. For instance, in the northwest, cedar siding is common, so a stucco or vinyl-sided home could benefit by replacement with cedar siding.
Window replacement can be another high-return investment. If your home has older windows that are made with wood or aluminum, then replacing them with modern vinyl windows will increase both the curb appeal and energy efficiency of your home.

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