Home Improvements that Have the Largest and Smallest Impact On Your Home’s Value

If you decide to sell your home, you probably want to get the best possible price. You'll hear or read lots of advice on preparing the house for a quick, profitable sale, from staging to making necessary repairs. However, you might also consider the potential benefits of other improvements designed to increase a home's beauty, utility, and overall appeal. Since some improvements impact home value more than others, let's examine some of the most and least valuable enhancements.

A Useful Home Office

COVID-19 encouraged many employers to let their employees work from home, while countless entrepreneurs have always maintained home offices.  However, resist the urge to convert your garage into that home office. Buyers expect a home to include a usable garage, even if they don't end up parking their cars inside it. For this reason, garage conversions hurt resale value instead of helping it. A nook or even a multifunctional corner of your living room can be a perfect workspace.

Bathroom & Kitchen Renovations

Kitchen renovations, are among the top three renovations with the highest return on investment. These renovations typically have a home improvement return on investment between 75 and 100 per cent.

 A bathroom makeover is one of the best renovations to do before selling, since it typically has a 62 per cent return on investment. The best way to decide where to start with bathroom renovations is to see where your eye is drawn to when you enter the room: the bathtub? The shower? The tile backsplash? A window?

Eye-Catching Paint and Lighting

Painting your home's interiors offers a simple way to boost its resale value while also making the rooms and hallways look more inviting to buyers. Clever home staging techniques invariably include painting a home in strategically neutral colors such as white, ivory, beige, and gray. These neutral colors, combined with a sparse arrangement of equally neutral furniture, help home shoppers imagine their own families and belongings occupying the home.

New or modified lighting fixtures can make your freshly-painted interiors look even more cheerful. Moderately-priced lighting fixtures can look just as appealing as the high-end options, allowing you to increase your ROI. Many buyers love homes with features such as recessed lighting, automated timers, and dimmer switches. LED lights offer the additional appeal of long life and tremendous energy efficiency. 

Fabulous Flooring

New flooring can breathe new life into your home's interior. It can also yield a solid return on your remodeling investment, but only if you select the right flooring material. Wood flooring could increase a home's value by as much as 10%.

Think twice before selecting the most luxurious marble tile with the notion that it will command a higher asking price. Many buyers prefer harder-wearing materials that require less care and offer easier replacement or repairs. As for carpeting, it may disappoint buyers who expect to see solid flooring in the house's entryway or other public living areas, so you'll probably achieve a low ROI on this choice.

A Long-Lasting New Roof

As you may know from previous experience, a roof replacement represents a serious investment. However, it can also pay big dividends if you want to sell your home. A new roof may only yield an ROI of 60 to 75 percent, and is an attractive feature to buyers since it provides ease of mind. The appeal of a new roof that shouldn't need replacing for decades can also help you sell your home more quickly to a more enthusiastic pool of buyers, allowing you to start the bidding at a higher price point.

Lovely Landscaping

Curb appeal requires more than just fresh-looking exteriors and a beautiful roof. It also includes the visual impact of your lawn and garden on prospective buyers. A beautifully-landscaped property communicates that the owner has tended the home with loving care, implying a durable, good-looking property inside and out. 

To gain even more significant benefits from your landscaping efforts, equip your exterior walkway, porch, and driveway with exterior lighting. Buyers will like the safety and security that this lighting promises. They may also enjoy the idea of showing off their luxurious lawn, garden, and other exterior features at any time of day or night.

Of course, that gorgeous lawn will stay gorgeous only if you take proper care of it throughout the home selling process. Try to mow the lawn and trim the hedges regularly (or schedule regular visits from a professional landscaping team) to preserve your property's good looks. Keep the front and back lawns free of toys, trash, and other items that might undercut your efforts.

Skip It: Swimming Pool Installation

If you always thought installing a large, luxurious, sparkling swimming pool increases a home's desirability, you may want to re-consider.  Depending on the area, adding a swimming pool may not provide a return when selling your home.

Skip It: Limiting Your Living Space

Taking a bedroom and converting it into a closet or home gym may seem like a great idea now, but, in the end, these projects are usually not worth it when it comes to resale because they're removing the home's livable space. What happens if a potential buyer doesn't need the extra closet space but could really use another bedroom?

Skip It: Wall-to-Wall Carpet

Wall-to-wall carpeting is expensive and hard to maintain or clean, so it might not be a wise investment. Instead, people are using rugs to create that warmth without the commitment to full carpeting. That allows future homeowners to make their own decisions on flooring instead of needing to take up the carpeting. 

If you're going to add carpet, we'd recommend sticking to your bedrooms but not expanding it to your living or great rooms.