For most homeowners, a home is not only a place you live but it�s also an investment. Maybe the biggest investment you can have. As a place that you live every day, the design, function, and condition of a house can make a significant impact on how you live, day in and day out. Since it’s an investment � either making your life better now or selling the home in the future and wanting to get the most money out of the investment, it’s important to seek out ways to enhance the overall value of a house. When it comes to home improvement projects, there are a lot of options on the list, but really, which ones are considered the best investments and which ones are not? The first thing you want to figure out in order to pick which projects to do is if you’re planning on selling the home or not. But if you�re planning on keeping the home for the next 5, 10 or even 15 years, you will want to make choices that will impact your life and improve your lifestyle. On the other hand, if you plan on selling it, you will want to make home improvements such as bathroom and kitchen upgrades by renovating the existing to new, adding or changing flooring, changing kitchen cabinets or countertops so much you can do basically and these are all for the inside of the home that benefit the resale value of the home ie; get you the most return on investment. So when it comes to remodeling home there are the 5 Ds of remodeling that I would like to suggest, which I will be talking about below. These 5Ds will help you figure out which projects to start and which projects to hold off on.
Distance � Remodeling Factor #1
This aspect deals with curb appeal ie; how the home and its property looks from the street. This also accounts not only for when a person actually gets out of their car and walks up to the house, but also people that are on the street driving by or stopping to look at the house, before they get out of the car. When your home has more curb appeal, it tends to also have a higher return on investment. Things like the lawn, the landscaping, the outside of the house (siding, brick, paint, etc), the door, the garage and the front entrance are all aspects of curb appeal. Landscaping doesn�t have to be anything super fancy. But, your grass should be green and plush, your trees and bushes should be trimmed, the potted plants on the property should be green and alive, and the mulch around any trees and plants will add to the overall curb appeal of the home. For the �front� of the home, the siding should be new/repaired/replaced/fixed, the door should be new without dents, you should buy a new home number for your house or door, and you should have all new hardware on the doors, windows, garage, etc.
Deficiency � Remodeling Factor #2
This is going to deal with the overall look, design, and cost of your home versus other homes in your neighborhood. For example in Toronto you can take a look at most Real Estate Agents websites, they allow you to look up a home for sale, as well as other comparative homes in the vicinity. For example, having only have one bath and the rest of the homes around you have 3 bathrooms, it would be in your best interest in terms of value, to add another bathroom. Another example; if your master bedroom is only 220 square feet and everyone else in the vicinity has a master bedroom that is 350 square feet, you might want to figure out how to add at least an additional 80 square feet on to the room. It won’t be as large as everyone else, but it will be much larger than it is now!
Distinctiveness � Remodeling Factor #3
When a person comes into a house to see it, they tend to buy more on emotion than anything else. Oftentimes when someone doesn�t like a house or passes a house up, it�s because the house didn�t have a distinctive feature that drew them in. It�s a good idea to include at least 3 or more distinctive features to your home. This could be something like a walk-in closet in the master bedroom or a whirlpool tub, a gas fireplace in the living room, or even attractive landscaping that will set the house apart from others in the neighborhood. Not only does this draw interest, make the home more distinct (different) than the other homes in the neighborhood, but it also creates competition. On the other hand…
Demand � Remodeling Factor #4
You also don�t want something that is going to be too outlandish for the neighborhood. You might think that a whirlpool tub in the living room is awesome, but others might not. So it’s a good idea to look at other homes around the neighborhood and see who has what, but also the demand for these types of remodeling projects. Instead of doing a whirlpool tub in the living room (which is kind of tacky!) you would want to instead consider an ornate fireplace with a stone mantel. This could significantly add value to the home. Anything too crazy, too zany or too outlandish should be avoided when you are doing remodeling projects for the house.
Degree � Remodeling Factor #5
Everything you are thinking about doing to your home needs to be considered and reconsidered. You shouldn�t be overdoing it. Not only can this ruin the already charming feel that your home has, but it could be money wasted The housing market in many ways, is pretty predictable, but in some cases, it’s not � it can be scary to invest $50,000 into a master bedroom and bathroom only to get back $6,000. What are you going to do about that $44,000 deficit? Chances are that big of an amount if seriously going to affect your life considerably.
These are definitely things you want to think about beforehand. One of the best resources is to talk to a real estate agent about home improvement projects � which ones are a good idea and will get you the most ROI and which ones would be better left alone.
