10 Ways to Increase Your Home's Value

I recently read a great article on This Old House listing 10 tips to boost your home's value and wanted to share it with you all. Whether you're preparing your home to sell or are just looking to for ways to increase the value of your largest investment, take a look at these great value boosting tips for your home:

Housing prices may have dropped in your neighborhood, but there are smart ways to invest in your home right now to help hold its value. Here's what veteran real estate professionals from around the country have to say about what home improvement projects pay off, whether you are selling now or in the future.

1. Create Space

Knock out a non-structural wall, or even remove that kitchen island. Anything that opens the space and creates a sense of flow in the house is generating a response from buyers who can afford to be choosy. For the price of a few hundred dollars, you'll transform the feel of the house.

2. Prune, Limb, and Landscape

Tangled trees and unkempt bushes can obscure views, darken interiors, promote mold, and block a good look at the house.

"People forget about their trees more than almost anything," says Roger Voisinet, a thirty-year veteran of the Charlottesville, Virginia real estate market. Yet, landscaping is one of the top three investments that bring the biggest return.

3. Let in the Light

The number one item on the 2007 HomeGain survey, lighting—everything from a dimmer switch to the increasingly popular sun tubes—noticeably enhances a home's appeal. California broker Robert Bailey says, "Dimmers allow you to create a mood."

4. Don't Put Off Care and Maintenance

Before thinking about a fancy upgrade to the kitchen, address the basics. Insulate the attic, repair plumbing leaks, replace rusty rain gutters, inspect the furnace and the septic system, replace or repair leaky windows, install storm doors, weed the flower beds. As broker Robert Bailey says, "What you don't notice as a weed, I see as a weekend of work."

5. Go Green

If maintenance and repairs are in hand, Virginia broker Roger Voisinet says put the greenbacks into green efficiency. If your heating or air conditioning systems are old, "new ones are so much better, with savings of up to 30 to 40%." Another example he points to: for $7,000 for the unit and installation, with $2,100 back in green tax credits, a solar-powered water heater could save you as much as 80% on your water-heating bills.

Energy savers make your house more desirable. Says Seattle broker Reba Haas, "Do the update green, because everyone is now, for the first time in five years, asking about the utilities."

6. Home Begins at the Front Door

ERA's Kristin Willens says, "Don't underestimate the power of a front door. People make up their minds in the first seven seconds of entering a house."

Surveyed brokers like a working door bell, and Voisinet says don't forget an overhang, such as an awning or portico, above the front door. "If you don't have a way out of the rain, or shelter from the sun while you are fumbling for your keys, you are really missing out."

7. What's Under Your Feet?

Don't undervalue the materials you're standing on. Ninety-four percent of real estate pros recommend spending some money on floors. But it doesn't have to be a lot of money. For an estimated average investment of $600 to $900, brokers report that the return in value comes in at up to $2,000.

8. Easy Bath Upgrades

Brokers, one and all, say spiffing up the kitchen and bath is a sure bet for adding value to your home. Surveyed brokers say these kinds of improvements can get expensive. It may not be economical to do a major renovation if you are trying to spend as little as possible before putting a house up for sale. But some upgrades are cheap, easy, and fast...especially in the bathroom.

9. Neutral Wall Colors

If you're getting ready to put a house on this circumspect market, don't allow walls with chipped paint to go unmaintained. If you need to do more than a touch up, choose neutral colors.

Broker Reba Haas says, "Get out of your personal taste." She says buyers want to be able to project their own ideas onto a space, and sellers can help with toned-down wall color.

10. Remove the Question Marks from Your House

Haas calls it the "What's that?" factor, and whatever it is (1950s wallpaper in a 1930s bungalow, a broken front step or cracked threshold, green-and-blue vinyl flooring), fix it or remove it. She recommends getting the impartial advice of a friend who can tell you what's drawing attention and raising questions for the wrong reasons. "The more questions, the more people are likely to say, 'We don't want that house.' Sometimes it's the quick fix that someone put in thinking, 'I can live with it.''' Haas says those fixes bite you back later when it's time to sell because prospective buyers are looking for more than jerrybuilt solutions. 

11. Bonus Advice: Be Patient

Even with all the bad news about a soft sellers' market and declining home values, Illinois Realtor John Veneris says realistic homeowners don't need to get rattled, especially if they have the help of a trusted real estate professional. "The realtor will keep them informed of changes in the marketplace. So they really need a team approach with the realtor... My gut feeling is that sellers are realistic today, and they know it may just a take a little longer than hoped to find the right buyer for their home. They just have to be patient."

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