3 Steps to Protect Your Home's Value

If you are a homeowner it is important to protect the value of your home. Even if you plan on living there for the rest of your life. This is because not only can circumstances sometimes force you to change your plans, but you do not want to leave your heirs a house that is a wreck.

Keeping your yard up

Keeping up your yard is a very important part of protecting your home's value. If your yard looks bad it will sell for less than it would if it is well kept. Keeping your yard well kept includes a well-kept lawn as well as bushes, trees, and other plants.An overgrown lawn tends to reduce property value by making the house look bad. If you are trying to sell or rent a house, keeping its lawn mowed is an important part of making it look good. Furthermore, the lawn is your house's first impression, and a well-kept lawn says the house is cared for.As a homeowner, it is very easy for the bushes around your house to get out of control. Trimming bushes is a boring and often difficult task the requires the right tools to trim properly. Bushes can grow to cover external stairs, and they can even get into places under your house that cause damage. This problem can reduce the value of the property if for no other reason than it looks bad.Making certain all of the plants on your property are properly trimmed will help your house look nice and well-maintained. This too is an important part of maintaining property value.

Proper maintenance

Proper maintenance of a house, is the most important part of maintaining property value. A house that is in disrepair not only looks bad but would require a significant investment to get it ready for new occupants.Some preventive maintenance is as obvious as keeping a house clean, and making sure that yours and windows open and close properly. However, there are less obvious forms of preventive maintenance such as using basement waterproofing products to keep your basement dry. This will prevent mold, mildew, and other problems that can come from too much moisture in your basement. Making sure that the HVAC system is functioning properly, as well as checking accessible insulation from time to time, also serves to prevent problems.Maintaining your house's value also means making sure the paint job, and structure of the house are in good condition. Sometimes you may have to have someone check to make sure it is structural soundness. There can be some things going on between your walls that you do not know about, and that escape normal visual inspection.

Upgrades

Upgrading things in your house is a good way to maintain the value of the property. If your bathroom is decades out of date it might be time for remodeling. Equipment such as sinks, tubs, toilets, and other appliances that normally stay with a house provide the most value when they are up-to-date.Now it is possible when selling a house, that you may find a buyer who is a fan of antiques that falls in love with your house because of your old bathroom. However, that is the exception rather than the rule. It is not unusual for a buyer, to do a lot of updates after buying a property. This is particularly true if they plan on renting or reselling it. If when looking at a house a buyer sees such upgrades already in place they will know that they do not have to make the upgrades themselves. That makes the property worth more when they purchase it.Another reason why upgrades add value to a house is the fact that newer appliances like refrigerators, stoves, and dishwashers are more energy-efficient than they used to be. This means that the cost of living in the house will be less than before the upgrades are made.When trying to protect the value of your home it is important to realize it is not the value that it means to you, but to a prospective buyer. To you the house may be full of memories, to a potential buyer, it is an investment.