Any home is a significant investment. Not only does buying property normally require a large deposit, but there are the costs associated with moving, immediate renovations, and on-going repairs and maintenance.

Keeping an eye on maximizing a property’s value, while living in the residence, is always a smart strategy to pursue. Whether your goals are short-term or long-term, the right upgrades will not only allow you to cover your costs, but they will make your home more desirable, which in turn will increase its market value.

Whatever your priorities and preferences may be, there are numerous ways you can maximize a property’s value. Our suggestions take into account emerging trends that we believe will be of importance to homebuyers for many years to come. We also recommend understanding how to identify undervalued properties, as this will help you to look at your home’s deficiencies objectively. Conversely, you should be familiar with the traits of a turnkey home, which help you understand the direction you want to go in terms of most-valuable upgrades.

Though it can be a liberating experience to express your personality and unique tastes in your home’s design, layout and features, we always recommend building in flexibility for the sake of long-term market desirability and value. In other words, don’t “paint yourself into a corner” with upgrades that future buyers will discount or worse, be repelled by,  thus causing them to take a pass from even considering your home.

4 Ways to Maximize Your Home’s Value

  1. Focus on Sustainability
  2. Modernize the Kitchen and Bathrooms
  3. Create Additional Space & Functionality
  4. Pay Attention to the Garden & Landscaping

Also see:


 

1. Focus on Sustainability

With homebuyers placing increasing importance on sustainability and environmental-friendliness, more and more prospective buyers are taking an interest in a property’s “eco-credentials”. As such, to maximize the value and appeal of your home, we strongly recommend installing eco-friendly features that are not only sought after, but deliver additional benefits, such as:

  • Energy Savings
  • Maintenance Ease
  • Longer Lifespans

Since many of these measures can help improve a home’s energy efficiency, they will save residents money in the long run, an attractive benefit to all prospective buyers. Given the proven track record of strong ROIs for new roofing, we highly recommend looking into the latest generation of solar shingles that are making it possible to combine the function of solar panels into one integrated roofing system.

Regarding solar energy systems, we strongly recommend getting familiar with the factors that may cause a solar panel system to increase or decrease the value of your home.

When making any renovation or upgrade to your home, it’s always a smart approach to research sustainable options, as sustainability-focused manufacturers are driving a tremendous level of innovation.

Our perception of sustainable and eco-friendly products has been evolving from “environmentally-friendly products that are good” to “great products that happen to be environmentally-friendly”.

Hence, there are many options that are gaining popularity amongst homeowners and construction companies, due to a multitude of benefits – beyond “just” being environmentally-friendly.

For example, cork is a material that can offer many uses throughout the home, namely in ceiling panels or walls and flooring. One of its main benefits is that it’s resistant to moisture and liquid, making it a long lasting option for home renovations. Cork is naturally renewable and can be easily recycled – a tremendous benefit for both the home market and the environment.

Coir, a multipurpose sustainable material derived from coconut waste, is a lesser-known option, but we it expect it to grow in terms of both market share and application areas for many years to come.

Another category of high-quality sustainable material is Engineered Wood Siding, which combines the powerful combination of strong durability, with attractive aesthetics. Homes located in hail-prone areas that have engineered wood siding would be able to command higher prices than their set of comparable houses with regular siding.

Though unattached outdoor furniture is seldom included in the sale of home, attractive, well-maintained sustainable outdoor furniture will enhance the showing of any home. There are many examples of sustainable outdoor furniture manufactures that are hitting a trifecta of benefits:

  • Attractive Designs
  • Light But Durable Materials
  • Easy Maintenance

We also recommend getting sustainable living ideas and perspectives from outside of the US, such as from this informative guide on Green and Eco-Friendly Renovations for Homeowners from the UK.


 

2. Modernize the Kitchen and Bathrooms

Dated kitchens and bathrooms really stand out and will deter prospective homebuyers from inquiring further into a listed property. To prospective buyers, they just look like something that will inevitably cost them money to update, and involve prolonged inconvenience to remedy.

Fortunately, if you spend in proportion to the value of your home, investing in a new kitchen can really pay off. If you’re revamping your kitchen to sell the property, make sure you keep it neutral and don’t overspend on extras that are of meaning just to you.

Small White Luxury Remodeled Kitchen

Also, if upgrading to sell your property, we strongly recommend reaching out to a reputable Pre-Sale Renovation firm that are experts in renovating homes before listing them for an optimal sales price. These firms are especially skilled at upgrading kitchens and baths at a profit, which is so vital to achieve a premium offer. Firms like Revive and Curbio also have helpful case studies that show the details of their renovations and ultimate ROIs.

There are also ways to improve your kitchen and bathrooms without spending too much money or time. Painting the walls or refacing the cabinets can breathe new life into tired rooms, and new handles and knobs can also make cabinetry and vanities look more contemporary. In a bathroom, investing in new fixtures and accessories can make a huge difference.

White Luxury Remodeled Master Bathroom

For homeowners planning to enjoy their kitchen and bath upgrades for several years, we recommend investigating and investing in these related market trends:


 

3. Create Additional Space & Functionality

One creative way to uncap hidden value in your home is to study how your home is currently used:

  • Is the space in your home used wisely?
  • Are there rooms or areas which hardly ever get used?
  • Do you need certain rooms to fulfill more than one purpose?

When viewing homes, it’s easy to spot the unloved spots. Think about how you could change that and create a different zone – for example, an armchair for reading in a corner of a room. When it comes to selling a house, it’s all about how you present and “dress” a room to showcase its functionality.

If you have a larger budget, you might want to knock down a wall or two to create an open-plan space or repurpose an existing space. For example, imaginative homeowners turn their garages from dumping grounds for storage to additional usable rooms – such as an office or playroom.

Another creative method to “add” space is to improve the acoustic quality of your existing spaces, especially by improving acoustic privacy. With increasing numbers of professionals working from home, acoustic panels are a great way to make crowded and busy interior spaces more “livable”.

For homeowners living in condos or townhomes, or homeowners needing to block loud rooms (e.g. home theatres, media rooms, home offices, etc.), we highly recommend exploring professional soundproofing solutions that can dramatically improve your quality of life at home!

Homeowners with larger budgets can take advantage of three exciting market trends that we expect will grow for many years to come:


 

4. Pay Attention to the Garden & Landscaping

Not everyone has a green thumb or has good intuition on how to take proper care of their lawn. An overgrown or uninspired garden can be off-putting, and buyers can be deterred by spaces that look tricky to maintain.

In short, simple, well-maintained gardens and lawns sell. A helpful approach to take is to think of your immediate outdoor area as another room, so make sure it looks the part. Start by mowing the lawn, doing some weeding and tidying away any clutter. Also, consider the strategic use of Artificial Grass to add value by providing ease-of-maintenance and water-savings.

Trees on your property are another neglected area of homeownership that can directly add or subtract from the value of your home. All homeowners with trees on their lots should understand the traits and risks of dangerous trees. Conversely, fruit trees that can thrive in your climate zone are a valuable feature to add to any home. Returning to the topic of sustainability, many prospective buyers interested in maintaining a robust garden will value a home that has cultivated a thriving pollinator garden.

To really maximize the value of your outdoor area, think about how it’s an extension of living space in the home. Outdoor furniture or a BBQ area can help buyers visualize how they’d spend time in the space.

Backyard Patio Area with Outdoor Furniture and Shade Cover

Whether you are planning to sell your home in the near future or not, there are several evolving categories of companies and products that are making it easier to maintain your exterior spaces. By proactively taking better care of your lawn, you will reduce the need to pay large amounts to shore up your lawn’s curb appeal when your home is eventually listed. Here are just a few examples that can help your lawn care efforts:


This article was written with Elisha Adams, a guest contributor. Elisha is a freelance writer and digital content consultant based in London who covers emerging topics related to Sustainable Living.


 

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Home Renovation Resources

 

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