If you happen to live in a big city apartment or a fancy urban neighborhood, you probably can’t boast with too much space in your home. However, don’t look at your small living space as something that will limit your design for as long as you live! Instead, take it as a challenge and go looking for new ways to visually enlarge your space. Here are a few tricks to get you started
When you’re on a budget but want to make some home improvements that will add value to your property, then you need to be smart about the renovations or additions that you plan on doing. There’s a lot of advice on which improvements will add the most value, and there are also several improvements that seem like they would add value and attract a potential buyer, but sometimes the flashy improvements not only don’t add the amount of value that you were hoping that they would, they can even deter some potential homebuyers from considering your home. If you’re interested in ways that you can make your home more valuable, here are some clever home remodeling projects that you can do on a budget, as well as a few that you should avoid.
A clean and updated bathroom can be attractive to prospective buyers just as much as a dingy, outdated one can turn them off. But it’s not necessarily always better to spend more on extremely high-end luxury items. A simple update on the bathroom sink and vanity can spruce up a bathroom nicely. Plus, you won’t need to spend all that much.
Buying new kitchen cabinets can be pretty expensive, but you can get a whole new and fresh look to your kitchen by adding a fresh coat of paint to kitchen cabinets. If your cabinets are looking outdated, or if they’re simply too dark for the amount of space and lighting in your kitchen, painting your cabinets a lighter color can do a lot for the room.
Family Handyman also identifies this as another place that you can make a big impact for relatively little money. If you have a room that is a little boring, crown molding is a fairly inexpensive update that is appealing to many potential buyers.
Small touches to the landscaping can make a big first impression to prospective homebuyers. Consider sprucing up the edging around the flower beds or walkway, and go for materials that are appropriate for the rest of your neighborhood. Generally speaking, materials that are just a little higher quality than what the neighbors have will have the greatest ROI.
Adding A Pool
It’s easy to think that a pool will be a great home addition that everyone will want, but you have to remember that they require a lot of maintenance. They’re also expensive to install, and they don’t always get a very high ROI, especially if you live in an area that is cold for part of the year. If you live in an area that is almost always hot, however, this might be an appropriate addition. But also be aware that not everyone likes to have the potential hazards that a pool presents, either. Some parents prefer that the potential for their children to fall into the water isn’t there, and they’d much rather give their children extra space to play outside.
Elaborate Landscaping
Money Crashers has a few home renovation projects that they don’t recommend. They suggest that when you are choosing your home improvement projects, you shouldn’t go too over-the-top on landscaping. You need to remember that, like pools, landscaping requires maintenance, as well. A potential homebuyer might look at shrubs and flowers that require a lot of maintenance as a burden. Also, if you spend too much on landscaping, you might be choosing things that are not everyone’s taste. That’s why it’s better to choose landscaping that fits in with the rest of the neighborhood.
Lavish Bathrooms
Unless you live in a very upscale neighborhood, if you spend tens of thousands of dollars on the most luxury bathroom items, you might just be pricing your house out of your neighborhood’s market. Spending too much on luxury items in the wrong neighborhood can mean that you don’t see a good ROI. Moreover, you don’t know that all prospective home buyers will even have your tastes.
When you’re remodeling your home, it’s tempting to think that the most expensive and lavish renovations will also give you the largest ROI, but that’s not always the case. You need to understand your neighbor hood and, in general, if you’re going to do something that is out of the mainstream for your housing market, make sure that you’re not spending too much on it in case the prospective buyers would pull it out anyways. Sometimes the less expensive remodels can have a large impact, and you won’t’ have to break your bank account to do them.
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