How to Increase the Selling Price of Your Home Articles | Real Estate

By: Guy Starbuck

Though expensive remodeling can be one of the ways to raise the selling price of your home, it is a tricky decision to take. This is because, you must first consider whether investing in really expensive materials to add more value to the property will be worth the time and cost, considering the state of the neighborhood.

There is no shortage of ways you can splurge money on remodeling. For instance, a kitchen remodeling could cost anywhere between $5,000 and $50,000. You could even decide to choose granite counter tops and customized tiles for your floor. It is important to make sure you can recognize a return.  Its comparatively easier to recognize a positive return on investment in neighborhoods where the average price of a home is $135,000, you cannot get back your money even if yours is the most expensively done-up home in the area! In such neighborhoods a $75,000 kitchen will be completely wasted and will never give you a return of $375,000 for your home.

So how should you invest to remodel your home in the wisest way, so that any neighborhood can sustain such investments? Here are some basic areas of the house where any investment can add more value to your home:

New Windows: Consider replacing your old windows with brand new double paneled windows. These not only help the owner save on energy costs, but also practically devoid of any maintenance cost for decades. 

Paint Her Up: The selling price of any home gets an immediate boost when you give your home a fresh coat of paint. Fresh looking interior as well as exterior give the potential buyer a fine impression that the home has been well-cared for.

Is the Layout Right? People are very particular about the living space in a home. Have a re-look at your own home layout. Can anything be done to increase space? Maybe removing a wall between the living area and the kitchen, doing away with a closet, etc. Though this type of remodeling is more expensive than most projects, some simple changes in the layout could immediately hike up the price by another $10 or $20,000 and sometimes even higher!

What about the kitchen and bathrooms? Strange as it may sound, people are more likely to buy homes equipped with a good looking kitchen and bathrooms.  Though remodeling costs of a kitchen and bathrooms may cost several thousands of dollars, you will be able to recover the costs easily, provided your selling price is within or close to the limits as decided by the locality where the house is.

As is evident there are numerous costly and not so costly ways you can add more value to your home to increase the selling price. But the question still remains, which is the best way to go about it? According to a recent cost vs. value report released by the home-sales industry, the following projects gave maximum profit last year:

• Bathrooms: 75%
• Deck: 77%
• Master Suite Additions: 73%
• Sunrooms: 66%
• Attic Bedrooms: 88%
• Kitchen Upgrades: 84%
• New Roofing: 80%
• Siding Replacement: 87%
• Window Replacement: 84%