home renovation

How much do updates really add in value?

by John Rice

I often run across articles in the news about what specific updates give the most return for the money spent.

While I appreciate that somebody took the time to research this, I sort of roll my eyes as I read them.

For example, if your house is a hot mess but you put a brand new garage door on, trust me, your house didn’t grow in value by 87% of the cost of that new garage door.

Why doesn’t it work that way? Well, because the buyer is looking at the whole house, not each individual feature.

A few weeks ago I showed a house that looked absolutely fabulous online. The kitchen and flooring were brand new. It was a total WOW house…..online.

When I pulled in the driveway, I wasn’t sure I was at the same house. I had to check the address!

The exterior of the place was very rough. The original windows had peeling paint and cracked window glazing. The driveway was cracked up and probably hadn’t been recoated since the 80s.

It didn’t get better once I got inside. The lockbox was on the backdoor. The addition on the back that I had to walk through had 1970s paneling that clearly had water damage under that fresh coat of paint. The basement was pretty much lipstick on the world’s ugliest pig.

But oh that kitchen!!!!

Here is the thing. The buyer who sees that kitchen and is willing to pay the seller back for their investment is expecting the rest of the house to be equally as nice. The buyer who doesn’t mind the condition of the rest of the house isn’t going to want to reimburse the seller for that gorgeous kitchen.

I see that all the time having shown houses like this for the past 19 years.

For this house, the seller didn’t really get much of a return. I think they might have sold for almost as much had they not done the kitchen at all. It would have been wiser to have taken the money spent on the kitchen and spread it evenly across the whole house, rather than put all their eggs in that one basket.

Who is the most important person in your renovation?

by John Rice

It’s not your contractor. It’s not your designer.

It’s your realtor.

Why?

Because one day you’re gonna want to sell your home. You will want all that time and money you spent on the renovation to have added value. Having a great designer and using the best contractors are wonderful things to do, but only your realtor will know if the work you’ve done added value. And let me tell you, NOTHING you do to your house will get a 100% return on your investment.

Here are some things to think about as you plan a renovation:

  1. Don’t over improve. If you live in a half million dollar neighborhood, don’t pick million dollar neighborhood materials. Yes, buyers will love the unexpected upgrade but you will be effectively giving it to them for free. Always keep the level of materials suitable to what people expect for the price range of the neighborhood.
  2. Don’t add too much square footage. I have seen some crazy additions where people end up with the biggest home in the neighborhood. That’s never a good idea. The buyers that want such a big house will probably want to be in a house surrounded by similar sized homes. The people wanting to be in your neighborhood probably aren’t going to want to pay you top dollar for the extra square footage. Also, appraisers usually give credit for square footage tiered to the price range. That means the more affordable your neighborhood is, the less an appraiser is going to value your excess square footage because they will be using recent sales from the neighborhood for comparisons.
  3. Don’t make crazy compromises. I have seen some wonderful additions but due to the existing floor plan of the house, you have to do something crazy like walk through a laundry room to get to the amazing new space. Buyers don’t like that. Yes, you’ve gotten used to it and it works for you but it will be a deal breaker to a buyer. The flow of the addition is very important.

The bottom line is that you want your house to still fit the character, size and price range of your neighborhood. Be sure to go over your plans with your realtor before committing to the job.