What Upgrades Add Money Value To A Resale.

4thGeneration

Hello from the divided waters of the painting side of contractortalk.
My wife and I are thinking of buying another house. We have a real estate friend who turned us onto this foreclosure. It is set in a very good neighborhood and is priced at $150,000 while the houses next to it are selling for $227,000. The house we are looking at is 4 years newer, 400 SF larger with a inground pool, so it has potential to go up in the future ahead of the others. We are having an inspection done on it monday, but wanted to know what projects bring the best return on reselling it in the future? I appreciate the help.

Jimmy

dougchips

Check for the threads on the subject. Remodelingonline has some data for each major city.

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

realpurty2

If the landscaping isn't "all that", you'd be surprised how much it sets a house apart by adding accent bushes, landscape lighting, and color.

Upgrading the Front Entry door also improve the exterior look.

A well maintained driveway is a plus.

Interior... without knowing what all you already have, it's hard to give choices because the options are limited only by your budget.

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

4thGeneration

My wife was looking at what I was reading and liked the idea of a woman being a part owner in a company. I recently made her the President of our painting company as we were just Incorporated. We have not bought the house yet, but the usual cleaning, landscaping, carpet removal as well as some out dated tile. We were wondering what type of flooring brought more money. We already knew we are going to replace the front door as well as the wooden garage door. I can not get why most painters do not know how to properly finish a wooden garage door to make it last. The ones we did almost 16 years ago still look great and are not bowed or rotting. ::shakes head::
I am figuring of dye staining the concrete in multiple shades to give depth and richness as well as exfoliate and restore the fence coatings. Also, the roof looks good but needs a good cleaning to bring back the life of it. I appreciate your help. My wifes name is Damaris by the way. A spanish lady with a greek name, go figure lol.

lawndart

Houses with Hardwood flooring add more resale value, and sell faster in my area (NYC). Good Luck

concretemasonry

In ground pools are not always an asset.

They limit the number of possible buyers.

__________________
Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

Mike Finley

I know you are looking for specifics, but it's really tough to do without knowing a lot of information.

I could say Tile floors throughout are your best choice. If you lived in Sante Fe this might be true, if you lived in Minnesota it might be false.

What I'm getting at is there is only one fool proof method that I know of and it's to learn your local market. You can do it pretty easily and pretty quickly by going to all of the homes for sale in a circle you draw around this house. You will very quickly get a really accurate feel for what is what. You will see houses that are selling for more than yours and less then yours, you will start taking notice of what those houses have or lack and shortly you will put together a good idea of what to do and what not to do.

If you really want a blanket answer usually- kitchen & bathrooms sell homes. A good ratio of 1:1 of bedrooms to bathrooms is always a plus, for example a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house sucks in resale compared to a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house.

lawndart

Like Mike said, markets vary, the best thing you could do is ask the real estate agent that will be selling this house for you. He/she will tell you everything you need to know about your market.

Danahy

I think Re/max has something about this on thier website. I read it once in a newsletter they sent to me... Something like;
Kitchen reno 27% return on investment
Bath reno 21% roi
Painting 17% roi
etc etc....

I made those stats up.... but they were presented in that type of format, I'm sure you get the point...

Danahy

Ok... found this.

check out.

http://www.remax-oa.com/SmartRenovat...asp?Range=185K

4thGeneration

Thanks for the help thus far ya'll. This was what I was wanting to see. A big name real estate firm that has already done the footwork for some figures on ROI.

Rollo

Does anyone have an opinion on Energy Star as an upgrade? I am thinking of doing this as a standard to differentiate myself.

Tmrrptr

that's not enough of a margin.
the agent is gonna make more than you on the project.
I've seen it happen before... a number of times !
Distressed property is worth FAR less than comps.

BMAN

Hey, I am also a painter who just bought a house. The two things My wife and I noticed first were the Kitchen and the Bathrooms. If They were nice then the whole house seemed nice too. (besides the rest is just paint right?) Also roof and furnace age were of utmost importance to me. I would rather have a furnace be really old or really new, then I could plan around it. If its in the middle its a question mark for me.

Project53

Kitchens and baths for sure. I've been in 2 of the same type houses that guys were trying to update. One did a lot of trim work, Crown, molding chair rail, frame out all the windows, even put in 1/2 bath in the utility room. New flooring. Did a nice job. But in the kitchen he left the old cabs, up dated the hardware, counter top and flooring. But not the cabs.
The second guy put in new cabinets counter top and flooring. Didn't do as much trim work, or add the 1/2 bath.
The house with the new kitchen cabs sold in the first open house.
Why, cause a women came in and fell in love with the kitchen..end of story.
In 80% of house buying, the wife is the deciding factor. Unless your in the trades that can fix the kitchen. No husband in his right mind is going to buy a house that his wife hates the kitchen...LOL

POOLMANinCT

its the truth...

BirmanBuilders

Flash kitchens and bathrooms will always make you money.

woodmagman

Adding square footage is a sure way to increase value, short of that Kitchens and baths are what the customers are buying.......No body wants to read the newspaper in a crappy craper.

JasontheMason

I was reading somewere that the tankless water heaters boost it up some, and also if you have the room finished basements boost it up.

hrscammisa

I have learned that out side upgrades are very good concret walks decks. You can lay brand new carpet and the owners will come in and tear it up.Kitchens are good. baths .