Thinking about remodeling your bathroom or kitchen this year? How about putting new flooring throughout your home? There are many home remodeling projects that homeowners spend a lot of time and money doing them, that are not worth the investment. If you are thinking about selling your home and considering remodeling, consider the home remodeling projects that professionals believe will give you the most ROI, while staying away from the ones that will take too much time and money to do.
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Look outside to begin solving basement flooding issues
Q. We have a tri-level house. Over the past three years, the basement has flooded three times — twice to the point where it ruined carpet. It happened again two weeks ago when we got hit with flash floods.
I am in the process of cutting 12 inches off the bottom of the drywall and installing moisture-resistant drywall, replacing the door jambs and base trim with poplar, and I am going to prime that on all four sides so we do not get the wick of the water into the wood.
In the crawl space, we found that there are no tiles around the inside of the crawl space that run into the sump. My plan is to dig around two sides of the foundation on the interior about 18 inches and add a layer of gravel or limestone, lay a drainage tile in the trough, and also add another sump pit at the front of the house.
It is my belief that the water has to be coming from those two sides (the third side is the living area, and the last side has a three-season sunroom running the entire width of its foundation wall), so if I add the drainage tile and another sump pit and pump, I should be protected from the floods. I am also going to extend the two downspouts a good 12 to 15 feet from the foundation.
20 home renovations that will hurt your home’s value
Homeowners looking to sell soon or sometime down the road often invest in home renovations to boost their home’s value for a resale. Some home improvements, however, can actually hurt your home’s value.
Sometimes, these home renovations are done particularly with a resale in mind. Other times, they’re simply done to suit a homeowner’s personal preferences. Either way, it’s important to keep your home’s resale value in mind, and do your research before investing in any home improvement updates.
If you want to increase your home’s value instead of hurting it, click through to see the top home renovations to avoid.
1. Lavish Lighting Fixtures
“Whether it be ceiling-mounted lights in a dining room or a hanging pendant, there is a psychological phenomenon that happens when you go to a lighting store … you’re going to pick something exciting and new instead of picking a new addition that suddenly matches the big picture,” Barzilay said.
Home Renovations That Pay Off When it Comes Time to Sell
It is a question many homeowners wrestle with: is it worth making costly home renovations before putting your home up for sale? Real estate experts say renovations can help attract more potential buyers but there are not many renovations where homeowners can actually recoup all of the costs.
- 1. Practical Pays Off
While it may be tempting to spend thousands of dollars to add a fancy new kitchen or upgrade a bathroom, real estate experts say you will probably not get all of the renovation costs back when it comes to sell. “You may get joy from it and it could attract buyers online. But if you are actually talking about dollar value recouped, things like a new roof or refinishing hardwood floors those things bring in the value,” says Jessica Lautz, analyst at the National Association of Realtors.
Lautz says practical renovations that can fix a problem or bring down energy costs are probably a better investment. In a recent survey, NAR found homeowners are likely to recoup ALL of their costs from adding a new roof and refinishing hardwood floors when it comes time to sell. Most of the costs for adding insulation, new wood floors and new garage doors are also likely to be recouped. In comparison, it is estimated homeowners will recover 67 percent of the value of a kitchen upgrade and 58 percent of the cost to renovate a bathroom.
