Selling something? Maybe trying to sell your house? Here is the first of our top 5 projects to boost your home’s value for resale.
Have you already decided to move rather than remodel but you still find yourself thinking abut remodeling anyway to make your house more appealing to would-be buyers, cut the time it takes to sell it and maybe even get more cash in hand when you sell? Well while you’re expanding, why not tuck in a new master bedroom suite above the addition? You’ll get all of your money back when you eventually sell your house, right?
Not so fast. While many home-remodeling projects are a great way to add value to your home, not all of them are ironclad cash-back guarantees. Before you invest a significant amount of your precious home equity into remodeling projects, it’s wise to do a little homework on what kind of payback you can expect for various home projects in your area. A good place to start is the Cost vs. Value report published annually by the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, and Remodeling magazine. The report provides a synopsis of the top projects, the average costs of the projects and their average rate of investment return at resale. It also gives you a city-by-city guide on what various home projects will pay back at resale. Real estate experts caution that these numbers can differ significantly depending on your state, city or even neighborhood. So use these numbers as a starting point, but consider getting the advice of a Realtor and/or remodeling contractor before you commit to a big home project. These experts can familiarize you with remodeling payback figures tailored to your state, city, or town.
Our first suggestion in the list of the top five projects to boost your home’s value for resale is to do an upscale siding (new fiber cement) replacement. Here is what you can expect this project to cost and yield:
Estimated job cost: $10,393 for 1,250 square feet
Average payback: 103.6 percent of cost
National average resale value: $10,771
Siding makes a huge difference in a house’s resale value, because it’s one of the first things you see. It really defines the condition of the home. If other houses around you have old aluminum or vinyl siding and your siding is nicer and newer, buyers will notice you. With this project, you make your house more attractive — you’re not just improving your insulation value.
Next up on out list is a mid-range bathroom remodel but that will have to wait until the next time we meet here.
