Home Improvement Projects To Avoid
Home improvement projects are typically a good thing but in some cases they can be a disaster and even lower your property value. On the television show, Home Improvement, Tim Allen played a character that was not very handy. He was typically doing improvements incorrectly with little regard to safety. Al Borland was always there to warn Tim Allen about the hazards but Tim never listened. I will be your Al Borland and make sure that you do things the right way and avoid home improvements that do not make sense. Just make sure you take the advice to heart unlike Tim Allen who would always have an accident or do something foolish after being warned.
DO NOT OVER IMPROVE YOUR HOUSE
If you are looking to sell your house, it might not make sense do an extension renovation. Get an appraisal done as-is and get an appraisal if you were to make improvements. If the renovations do not improve the value more than the renovations cost, do not do them. You are essentially putting money down the drain. If your house needs extensive renovations, it can always be sold AS-IS to an investor and save you on a Realtor commission.
DO NOT MESS UP THE FLOOR PLAN
If you are going to add square footage because you have a small house make sure you keep the functional integrity. You don’t want to have a house where you have to walk through a bedroom to get to the kitchen. Make sure the architect you hire understands the flow of spaces. Also if you are looking to sell the house, make sure adding square footage is going to add value. If you are in a small town in Iowa it is probably not a very good return on investment but if you are in Pasadena California, where the cost per square foot of a home is over $400, you are essentially printing money with every square foot you build at $150.
DO IT YOURSELFERS
You are not as good at the DIY projects as you think you are and you will probably do them incorrectly. If you are very handy or are a contractor yourself, this does not apply to you. But if you are not very handy, hire a professional. When you try to do a project on your own you may actually pay more money than if you hired someone because of wasted materials and tools you had to purchase to do the project, not to mention it probably took you twice as long to do the job. Just make sure that the contractor you hire is licensed, reputable, and can handle the scope of the project. Do not hire a Tim Allen.
INCONSISTENCY
You do not want to have a house that is very inconsistent. If you have a kitchen that looks like a million bucks but the rest of the house is so outdated that looks like the house from the 1960s television show, The Munsters, it really throws off a buyer. You want to keep trim colors and styles the same as much as possible. If you have white trim in the living room and the dining room has oak trim, it throws off the congruency of the house. You also want to make sure you don’t have any bold colors on the walls if you are trying to sell. Try to keep all colors neutral and light.
NOT PULLING PERMITS
If you are going to add square footage, you better pull a permit. The city can make you take an entire addition off the house if it was not done with a permit. It is a very expensive lesson to learn. Not only that, appraisers and lenders will probably not include that square footage if it was not permitted.
IN CONCLUSION
KISS-Keep it Simple Student. You do not want to dump a large amount of money to over-improve the house, do not mess up the floor plan, hire a professional if you do make major improvements, try to keep the house as consistent as possible, and always pull a permit. If you follow these simple tips and price your house correctly, you will sell your house with ease.