After your career, it's likely that your home is your #1 asset. It's also the place you spend a great amount of time. As such, renovating your house has a double advantage -- it increases (hopefully) the home's value and makes it a nicer place for you to live.
But most people don't have a ton of money to plow into housing upgrades. That's why I liked this piece from MSN listing 10 cheap fixes to boost your home's value. It shows the best ways to fix up your house without spending a fortune. Their suggestions:
1. Make your kitchen really cook. The kitchen is still considered the heart of the home. Potential home buyers make a beeline for this room when they first view a home for sale, so make sure your kitchen looks clean and reasonably updated.
2. Give appliances a facelift.
3. Buff up the bath. Next to the kitchen, bathrooms are often the most important rooms to update.
4. Step up your storage.
5. Add a room in a week or less. "If you have a three-bedroom house with a den, the only reason the den can't be considered a bedroom may be because it doesn't have a closet," says Persley. "If you add a closet to that room, you've now got a four-bedroom house. That adds a lot of value."
6. Mind the mechanics.
7. Look underfoot. Carpeting is another detail that can quickly update a home and make it look cleaner. A professional carpet cleaning is an inexpensive investment, especially if your rugs are in good shape and are neutral colors.
8. Let there be light.
9. Reframe your entry. Do you have a flimsy little knob on your main entry door? If so, spring for a substantial-looking handle-and-lock set. "A nice, big piece of hardware on the front door signals to newcomers that this is a solid home," says Viessi.
10. Consider curb appeal. Although it sounds obvious, a nicely mowed lawn, a few well-placed shrubs and a swept walkway makes a great first impression. "What buyers see when they first drive by your home is tremendously important," says Viessi.
My thoughts on these:
1. Who knew kitchens were so important? I never made a beeline to one when we were looking at homes. Oh, so THAT'S where my wife always disappeared to. ;-)
2. All of our appliances are relatively new -- or at least look that way.
3. Personally, I would have placed the bathroom ahead of the kitchen, but that's just me.
4. We have tons of storage -- it's one of the great things about out house. Except when you have to clean all the stuff you've "stored" (like I did on two days of our recent vacation), then it's kind of a pain. The one place we don't have enough storage -- the garage. It's crammed with bikes -- so much so that I can barely get out of my car when I pull in.
5. Very, very, very clever (and good!) idea.
6. Two things I don't do -- electrical and plumbing. We have a couple of great guys that handle these for us.
7. When we moved in to our home, we put in new carpet and neutralized the color (went from a gray to a light tan). My wife steam cleans the carpet every year (something she spent a day doing last week) and it looks great (even with two kids in the house, though we don't have any pets).
8. We are blessed/cursed with three skylights. Blessed because they let in tons of light and really brighten up the house. Cursed because they are a source of heat loss (in the winter) and heat intake (in the summer) that we could do without. We recently upgraded them so there's less of the heat problems than in the past.
9. We need to do something with our door. It looks like Reagan was president the last time we painted it.
10. I knew this!!! Even simple landscaping/gardening can make your house worth significantly more money.
"My wife steam cleans the carpet every year"
Curious how you do this. Do you rent a steamer or own one? Any recommendations? We occassionally hire a company that does a good job and they are reliable, but the cost prevents us from doing it as often as we'd like (which is pretty often with three kids and two dogs).
Posted by: JB | August 02, 2006 at 02:41 PM
WE own one and have used it for three years now -- so it's paid out versus renting. I'll need to ask my wife about pros and cons (as well as brand/model). She's the "expert" in this area. ;-)
Posted by: FMF | August 02, 2006 at 03:33 PM