Best Renovations for Resale

Did you know that you could transform a place to make it more beautiful while increasing its value in the market? Now you do. A home is not just an investment. It is where your happiness is. So, when you are planning to do renovations on your house for future returns, you must consider the needs of the potential buyers, too.

What makes buyers happy? If you don’t know the answer, this list of dos and don’ts of home renovations will nudge you in the right direction.

Resale Renovations: Dos

• Keep your closets

Millennials are ruling the property buyers’ market right now. And they prefer practicality over decoration. So, if you are thinking of removing your closet to make a larger bedroom, you should ditch that idea right away.

People like having closets – big and small. They much rather have more storage space than a living space. So, keep your closets. They have more functional use than big bedrooms.

• Fixing your roof and ventilation

Another one of the practical renovations for resale is roofing. A roof is probably the most important part of any house. It offers more protection and usefulness. And a sturdy roof always sells.

Buyers want nothing more than having strong roofs that they can count on in extreme weather conditions. If you must, redo your roofing system. Replace the fascias and gutters and add soffits that offer better ventilation underneath the tiles to avoid mold.

Additionally, you can also check for the heating system within your roof. These important renovations will definitely attract a bunch of buyers for your property.

• Redo your tiles but…

Don’t be extreme with the changes. Most homeowners think their houses need pizzazz to be more sellable. But this can be a poor judgment because it may not match the buyers’ opinions.

Instead of going for a designer or fancy flooring, stick to the basics. Something simple for you might be just what the buyer is looking for in their next house. Keep it simple and go for something that has traditionally worked for both owners and buyers alike.

For example, marble and granite floorings are universally accepted and admired. They are easy on the eyes, reliable and durable and add that touch of luxe to your house. In fact, marble has been around since Roman times and is yet to go out of style. So, you know it’s always a safe bet.

Resale Renovations: Don’ts

• Textured walls

Bubble prints and checkered walls are fun until people start rejecting your house because they are too much for them. You may be a fan of textures, but your buyers may peg it an unnecessary addition to the house.

Buyers are calculative. They not only look for your spacious rooms and huge closets but also the amount of work that your place will need once they move in. If your walls are unusually textured, it will increase their cost for painting. Since that doesn’t sit right with most smart property buyers, you ought to avoid this addition.

• Fancy add-ons

Less is more. When it comes to renovations, this principle holds up. Fancy add-ons may sound good and even look good in magazines, but they are not so much in reality.

For example, a high-end kitchen renovation not only adds to your costs but also ends up being pointless. It does not add value to your house. If anything, it makes you spend more.

Similarly, an in-house theater, expensive lighting fixtures, and built-in aquariums don’t give you the returns you need. So, regardless of how appealing the idea of having a sunroof conversion or in-door swimming pool seems in your head, adding them to your house, in reality, is a futile investment.

• Too much carpeting and wallpapering

These are risky renovations. The wallpapers that you like today may not be liked by your buyers 10 or 20 years down the line. There was a time when floral wallpapers were the ‘it’ items in home décor, but they are considered ‘vintage’ today.

So what? There’s nothing wrong with vintage, right? Well, your buyers may not agree.

Even if you manage to lower your house’s price to make it more sellable, the buyers may hesitate to put down their money. Because removing a wallpaper takes time and energy. Just the thought of it is enough for a buyer to drop your property off their wishlist. And the same applies to carpets, too. So, steer clear of excess carpeting and wallpapering your rooms.

• Room conversions

When it comes to room conversions, everybody’s inner love for DIY pops up. It’s tempting not to remodel every corner of your house, even when you have a limited budget. But no matter what lifestyle magazines say, room conversions aren’t a wise choice for most homeowners.

Property buyers think unnecessary room conversions actually take out their interest from a property that they otherwise really like. An example of a bad renovation is converting your garage into a gym. Millennials like their garages because they need that practical space that they can use every day.

So, if you might want to give your buyers ‘something more’ by transforming the garage into a gym, prepare yourself to get low returns on your investment. A garage-to-gym conversion will not only lower the value of your property but also make it difficult to sell.

How Much Should You Spend on Renovations?

Determining your budget is probably the trickiest part when it comes to renovations for resale. So, an easy-to-remember rule of thumb is opting for things that are reasonable but will yield higher returns.

If that’s too vague to understand, here’s a quick way to know if your renovations are worth your time and money. Set your priorities right. Renovate only those areas that need your primary attention. Anything that is ‘extra’ can wait.

Remember that your fixtures and add-ons should cost you no more than $100 per square foot. Since your returns can only increase by around 50%, it is best not to go overboard with your budget to enjoy over the top renovations.