There you are on the sidelines, waiting out the real estate meltdown by not selling your house. Which, you cannot help but notice, could use a new coat of paint. Not to mention a kitchen facelift. You're not a Rockefeller, but minor upgrades would go a long way toward making the place more liveable.
But then you remember you live in uncertain times. With the economy in free fall, can you justify spending money—even a small amount of money—on a new deck? Yes, yes, yes.
Especially a small amount of money. As this story points out, the renovation projects that pay off most are often those that cost the least. The list of the six savviest ways to spend money on your house includes:
1. New siding (because the average homeowner will recoup up to 88.1 percent of the cost at resale; )
2. New wooden deck (get back as much of 85.4 percent at resale)
3. Kitchen makeover (recoup up to 83 percent)
4. New windows (as much as 81.2 percent)
5. Bathroom facelift (up to 78 percent)
6. Install crown molding (can cost as little as $100 a room, so how could it not be worth it?)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Six Ways To Spend Less To Make More At Resale
Monday, March 24, 2008
Calculate Resale Value Before You Buy
Walking everywhere is good. Walking everywhere does not cost $3.50 a gallon. Walking everywhere does not melt polar ice caps (unless perhaps you are walking directly on a polar ice cap while wearing heated boots).
This is why we predict that houses in neighborhoods within walking distance of everyday destinations—such as libraries, schools, parks and liquor stores—are going to appreciate in value far faster than others during the next few years.
Before you buy, calculate a house's walk score on a scale of 1 to 100. At Walkscore.com, you can type in an address and learn, even if you're not familiar with the area you're considering, if the neighborhood is one where you can walk to do most of your errands. A walkable neighborhood, as defined by the site, has "a discernable center, whether it's a shopping district, a main street, or a public space and ... dense enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to be cost effective."
Saturday, March 22, 2008
How to sell your house for more
One word, says the "American Association of Realtors:" Landscaping. The association estimates that good landscaping can increase a home's sale price by as much as 15%.
We tried to find the source for that statement, contained in a PRWeb release today touting garden fountains as a smart way to gussy up your home-price-enhancing landscape. But we couldn't even find an American Association of Realtors, let alone a report quantifying landscape value. Perhaps they meant the National Association of Realtors? Here's a story on NAR's site that says good landscaping can increase your home's price by 20%. Oh well. This stuff isn't science, but it makes some sense.
Remodeling Online actually does a pretty credible job of trying to assess the cost of home remodeling, versus resale value. The site gets granular and lets you look at home-improvement projects by region. Nothing on fountains or landscaping though.
[Photo: kriptonfountains.com]
