Top Home Improvements To Add Value

The list of things you can do to improve your home is endless, and ranges in price by thousands of dollars. Sure, any home improvement will make your home look better, but will it add more value than it costs to do? Here are the top home improvements that you can do to add the most value for the cost and get a higher return on your investment when you sell.

Bathrooms

Updating the shower with glass doors, swapping out the floor tile for something more modern, and a new vanity & fixtures will make your bathrooms look amazing and is sure to recoup the cost plus more when you sell. Depending on your budget, you can focus on minor cosmetic changes or do a full remodel. Either one will be a good investment.

Landscaping

Curb appeal is very important when selling a home, and many people neglect the exterior of the property when they think about doing improvements. Outside is where the first impression is made, and having a well maintained and lanscaped exterior will make a huge difference in how your home looks. Improving your garden areas with some new flowers and plants and adding mulch are an amazing way to add colour and increase curb appeal. Dead grass can be fixed with some new sod, and some minor stone or interlock work around the entrance of the home will make a huge difference. Be careful not to go overboard here, as doing too much will take away from your return on investment.

Paint (Interior & Exterior)

Paint is the easiest, quickest, and least expensive way to add value to your home. Adding a fresh coat of paint in the right colours makes a huge difference and has one of the highest ROI out of any improvements. This goes for the outside of the home too. Fixing some old, faded paint or changing the colour of your front door can really make the house pop. If I was going to recommend one thing for someone to do to add value before selling their home, this would be it. Just be sure to stick to neutral colours that will appeal to everyone – no bright pink walls in the living room.

Kitchen

An old, outdated kitchen can take away from everything else you update, so changing out some elements to match the rest of the house will definitely help. Kitchen upgrades range in price and can get very expensive, and a full remodel is not always necessary. Try repainting cabinets, changing out light fixtures, updating the backsplash, and adding some modern sink fixtures. Often times this can be enough to make it look like you have a brand new kitchen.

If your kitchen is really bad and you want to go above and beyond this, you can consider some higher budget upgrades like new appliances and changing out the countertops for something more modern. Just be careful to not get carried away – the goal is to make back the cost of the updates plus more when you sell the home, so if you can get away with the less expensive improvements then stick to that.

You can find some more low budget kitchen upgrade ideas here.

Minor Fixes

The longer you live in a home, the more minor cosmetic elements suffer from wear and tear. Things like cracked tiles, broken door handles, and loose cabinets are all easy and inexpensive to fix. These things don’t usually require you to hire someone and you can probably knock them all out in one day.

Decor

Although you will probably take most of this with you when you move, it does make a huge difference in the way the home looks to buyers. They want to picture themselves living in the space, so staging it properly will allow them to have a more positive vision. Things like new light switches, trim, and crown moldings will stay with the home. Curtains, area rugs, artwork, mirrors, and furniture are the things that you will keep and are more for staging.