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99 South Alcaniz Street, Pensacola, FL 32502, Toll Free (877) 456-6333
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There are two reasons for pursuing major home improvement projects:
A. You want some new features in a home to improve your family's
quality of life, but you don't want to leave your current home.
B. You want to make your home more marketable to maximize return (or
minimize loss) and speed up the sale process.
In the right market conditions, a project might fit into both
categories. Other times, though, the two approaches will conflict:
Just want to do it In situation A, the project is perceived as a necessary or worthwhile
improvement to your family's lifestyle. Say you have two or three
teenagers in the family and the morning bathroom situation is
completely out of control. It doesn't matter if an additional bath
generates a 150 percent return on investment or actually decreases the
value of the home (unlikely, unless you're a completely incompetent
do-it-yourselfer with a bizarre design sense). The economic impact
just doesn't matter. If you have the money for a new bath and you
don't want to move - you add the bath. It's that simple.
Or say you're a barbecue fiend and the only feature missing from the
dream home you've just purchased is a sprawling backyard patio with a
natural-gas grill custom-built with flagstone and river rock. Again,
return on investment just isn't going to be a critical question. The
improvement becomes more comparable to purchasing a depreciating asset
that you feel is a necessity for your lifestyle - such as an
automobile. When the barbecue aficionado adds a deluxe patio to a home
that's already the most expensive property in the neighborhood -
perhaps destroying the entire backyard in the process - there's a good
chance that very little of the cost will be recouped in a subsequent
sale.
An even better example might be a pool. If you're a person who simply
has to have one - fine. Put in a pool. But it's probably worth
checking with a real estate professional first, just to make sure you
fully understand that adding the pool might actually lessen the
property's value and make it more difficult to sell should you later
decide to move. That's the reality in many markets. That doesn't
necessarily mean you shouldn't do it, especially if you're planning to
live in the home for the rest of your life. It just means it's worth
knowing the cost and salability impacts at the front end - even if
they're not going to deter you from pursuing the project.
Really need to do it The "type-B" home improvement project is pursued primarily to increase
the property's salability. In turn, this often increases your return
on investment. A good real estate agent can advise you of possible
improvements that will attract more potential buyers and also pay for
themselves either through increasing the home's value or through
shortening the time it takes to sell the home.
Here we're typically talking about projects such as: painting - either
because the existing paint is in bad shape or is an unusual color;
replacing carpets - again because of age, color or style; repairing or
resurfacing a cracked driveway or sidewalk; refacing kitchen cabinets;
and trimming or removing overgrown or unattractive landscaping.
While spending several thousand dollars on your home right before you
sell it might not sound very appealing, it's not uncommon for the
right work to more than pay for itself in a higher selling price and
shorter marketing time.
Consult with an experienced real estate agent to learn what
improvements will make your home more marketable in comparison to
similar properties that are now - or recently have been - on the
market in your area.
If you're interested in contacting Bill, he can be reached at
Bill@PensacolaHome.com.
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