Even small home upgrades that are easily affordable can have many benefits.
A home renovation may not be something you are thinking about if you are happy with the way your home is and there are no repairs that need to be carried out. However, making small and easily affordable upgrades can result in many benefits.
- Benefits of Home Upgrades
You need to think of upgrades as a valuable opportunity to make your home more like your dream home as at the end of the day, every corner needs to reflect your unique personality.
Increased comfort and functionality
Upgrades allow you to increase the practicality and functionality of your living space, making your home more enjoyable and helping it to live up to its full potential.
Lowering your monthly bills
Electricity prices rise every year. If you make upgrades that increase the energy-efficiency of your home, you will be able to cut energy costs and significantly lower your Dominion Energy bill. Making doors and windows do a better job at insulating your home will result in less heat escaping and therefore your HVAC will work less. Upgrading your appliances to ones that are more energy efficient can also make a big difference to your energy consumption as these devices are designed in a way to provide the same, if not even better, performance while using much less energy.
Increased resale value
If you are planning to sell your home someday, the right upgrade will increase its resale value. Buyers appreciate energy-efficient upgrades as they know they’re in for lower bills because of them.
- Home Upgrades With The Best ROI
Although not all home upgrades are equally valued or priced, some upgrades automatically improve your home’s value and pay for themselves through high return on investment.
Kitchen upgrades
There’s a saying that “kitchens sell houses”. You don’t even have to demolish any walls as a minor upgrade like replacing appliances or repainting cabinets so they look new has a ROI of 98.5%. If you do go for an open concept and get rid of walls, the ROI of such a project where everything is redone is 91%.
Bathroom upgrades
There are essentially two types of rooms that sell houses: kitchens and remodeled bathrooms. Even a small upgrade that gives your bathroom an updated look such as replacing a few items like the shower head with a more water-efficient alternative will be appreciated as the ROI of such upgrades is 102%. If you want to do some major remodeling such as entirely replace flooring, the ROI is 93.2%.
Landscaping
Curb appeal plays an essential role in marketing your home because if the exterior of your is unappealing, no one will want how it looks like on the inside. Curb appeal adds 10% to a home’s value so ROI of landscaping is 100%. The best landscaping designs are the simplest as the exterior of your home should look nice, but not suggest a great deal of work has to be done. If you want to make a bigger investment, adding a porch or a deck is the way to go with ROI of approximately 90%.
- Saving and Budgeting Tips for Your Home Renovation
Doing things on a budget is always a challenge and home renovation is no exception. It begins by creating a feasible budget that is the result of detailed research and well thought of strategy.
Request bids from multiple contractors
Being a smart shopper can be applied to every single project and purchase you make and home renovation should be no exception. Once you know what you want to, make several interviews, be very clear about your needs and your budget and see who will offer you the best deal. But, don’t go for the cheapest bid because as tempting as cheap labor sounds, errors that usually come as a result can cost you a lot. What you should do is use competing bids to negotiate with your preferred contractor.
Demolish yourself
If you’re removing cabinets, you can do it yourself and save on labor costs as long as there is no required expertise.
Shop for yourself
If your contractor does the shopping for you, he will charge you for his or her time. Order finishes and fixtures yourself. You can also save money by getting used or refurbished items when possible.
Paint it yourself
By painting a room yourself, you can save $300 or more. If you are scared about doing it wrong, there are a ton of tutorials on YouTube for pretty much any type of house remodeling work. Go ahead and channel your inner Michelangelo.
Takeaway
Making the right home upgrade will increase the value of your home both to yourself and prospective owners. Ideally, an upgrade should bring you benefits in the present and future by increasing the level of comfort, functionality or benefiting your wallet.
