If you’d like to make some improvements to your home, where can you spend your money to get the best return on your investment? How can you make sure you’re remodeling and upgrading the right things?
Here are a few factors to keep in mind:
What are the best spaces in your home to spend money on remodeling to maximize equity?
Updating your kitchen, bathrooms, and the exterior of your home are the best ways to get the most ROI and maximize your equity.
However, as you evaluate the benefits of renovations, remodels, and updates, it’s important to do your research. What amenities, features, and design choices will still be appealing to buyers later this year, next year, or the year after? If you are choosing colors, finishes, new flooring, appliance upgrades, etc. all with the intention of getting the best ROI, choose carefully.
For example, let’s say you’re updating your kitchen with the goal of maximizing equity on your home. You might feel that choosing the top-of-the-line kitchen range is the best investment, but you might actually be able to get the same ROI by buying a less expensive option. Or maybe you’re convinced you need brand new countertops, but really, your current counters are going to get you the same ROI and you can spend that money elsewhere. Knowing where you should and shouldn’t spend your money really matters.
How do you know what to choose? We can always help you identify and evaluate where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. We tour hundreds and hundreds of homes every single year, and we’re constantly working with our home buyer clients and hearing their feedback on homes we’re touring. All of this experience informs our understanding of what remodels and updates are going to attract buyers, and which updates won’t matter as much when it comes time to sell.
Even if you’re not planning on selling for a few years but you want to make updates now (we do recommend planning ahead!), we’re always happy to advise you along the way.
How much can I personalize my home and still see the maximum ROI?
This depends on your short-term goals vs. your long-term goals.
If you’re updating your home because you want to personalize it more, we say go for it! *HOWEVER* it’s super important to keep in mind that when you sell your home down the line, we might recommend depersonalizing certain spaces to make your home appeal to a larger pool of buyers.
Oftentimes, the updates you make to your home to suit your own tastes and style are not necessarily going to be the updates that are best for resale. And that’s totally okay—we always say that you don’t want to rent your home from the next owner!
Maybe there’s some funky tile you added to your bathroom that shows off your eclectic style, or maybe you painted an entire room neon green simply because you love it. Of course, this is totally fine (well, we might need to have a talk about that neon green, ha!) as long as you remember that when you need to sell, you might end up wanting to trade out certain elements for something more widely appealing.
We will probably recommend painting that neon green room white, and we’ll probably recommend switching out that ~unique~ tile for something more on-trend.
If you’re ok with eventually making these types of hyper-personal updates and you’re not looking for ROI, let your imagination run wild!
And don’t worry—when you’re getting ready to sell, you don’t have to guess about what to update. When we are helping our clients prepare to list their home for sale, we provide them with recommendations on what to refresh.
We also always work with home buyers, so we know exactly what they’re looking for and what catches their eye!
Ian’s latest listing is this 2,580-square-foot single-family home in Seattle’s Haller Lake neighborhood, and it is ready for you to bring your vision to life! Click here for all the details.