DYI Diva’s Quick Tips

Are you one of the many home owners putting countless dollars into your home improvement projects each year? It is commonly believed that any improvements you do will not be money lost because it will raise the value of your home. Here are the top three reasons most people do these projects:

1. They want to improve the look or function of their home to make it a better or more ideal place for them to live.
2. They need to make repairs to keep the house and up and running well.
3. They want to add value to their home’s bottom line through upgrades.

But, do home improvement projects really add money to the value of a home? There are several different reasons that it can and several reasons that it may not. What are you planning to improve? How will you improve it? What is the value of the investment over what was already there? You can see it is very important to know what will actually improve the value. The most common upgrades are to bathrooms and kitchens. Adding another bathroom will also add value. However, this all presumes your taste is of the sort that would appeal to most, not just a quirky few.

• Does the home improvement project add space, function or added benefits to the area?
• Does the home improvement project make the area more attractive, not only to you but to others?
• Does the home improvement project make significant positive changes to the home?

If you were to walk into a home like yours without the improvement project in it, would you pay more for the home if it did have this feature? Of course, what your thoughts are do not matter as much as what the potential buyer’s thoughts might be. Your home is only worth as much as someone will pay for it, so keep the potential buyer in mind as you make changes.

One way to learn more about the value of your potential home improvement project is to talk to a home appraiser. Locate one that is licensed and talk to them about the potential added value to your home through the home improvement project. What you must realize, though, is that adding $10,000 to your home through this investment does not mean that the value of your home goes up that much. It could be more. It could also be much less. It all depends on the housing market if and when you ever decide to sell.