Home Improvement Projects: More Than Just a Honey-Do List
As a homeowner you’re constantly thinking about your home, and what could go wrong at any minute. From your plumbing pipes freezing this winter to how long until you have to replace your shingles.
Along with thinking about the ‘what-if’s’ you should also be thinking how you can improve your home for the next home owner.
Plans change. Lives change. No one chooses to be downsized. Families grow. You want to be closer to your new job.
At a moments notice what’s been the norm for the past five years has now flipped. In a day.
Because of that, this quote takes on more significance than it has at any point in home ownership history:
“Update your home every five years.”
I hear ya’, but you’ll find a lot of reasons not to-
It’s expensive. Yet, if your refrigerator is 10 years old, now may well be a good time. Or in my case, a hot water heater that rusted out while we were at my in-laws over Labor Day weekend. Thank god we had home owners insurance, but we still had the deductible to worry about.
It’s annoying. Yes, moving furniture, toys, lamps and clothes out of a bedroom is a process I’ll never look forward to either. We’ve redone all 3 bedrooms in my home in the past few years. New carpet and paint. Each done at a different time. We definitely could have planned that better. But it’s now over.
It’s time-consuming. If installing laminate floors only took so long as a 30 minute television show on HGTV. I have to thank my parents because of their help the 2 different times I’ve done it. But they were both all-day projects, and the first was an entire weekend.
But here’s the good thing: Everything we’ve done would’ve needed to be done once we sell our home within the next four years. Purple paint. Stained green carpet. A beige refrigerator. None of it would have stayed. Or, shouldn’t have stayed.
Everything that buyers in today’s market are not interested in.
Buyers in today’s market are picky. They have options. And if purple paint, or an old dingy refrigerator are not on there ‘must-have’ list, your home is off there short list.
By slowly, meticulously updating my house I’m saving myself from having to make NUMEROUS EXPENSIVE repairs in the future.
Plus, by doing these upgrades I’m also increasing my home’s value simultaneously. And because they’ve been done early, I get the benefits that adding an outdoor patio and deck off my dining room get me during grilling season every summer.
And hopefully eliminating some stress when it comes time for that for sale sign to go in the ground. Ultimately when you’re proactive while living in your home it will make it easier when the pull of your new home becomes real.
What’s your opinion? Are you making ongoing improvements to your property?