Home upgrades don’t have to wait until you want to sell your house. As a homeowner, you should perform regular maintenance and upgrades that make your home more livable and comfortable.
Some custom, personalized upgrades don’t help your home value at all. Custom installations can make your home harder to sell, but if your focus is on creating a space you enjoy, that doesn’t matter as much. It’s your home – you should like living in it.
Fortunately, there are ways to upgrade your space that do protect or increase your home’s overall value.
While you’re thinking about ways to make your home nicer, consider these 3 upgrades that can also be good investments.
Value-Improving Upgrades For Your Home
1: Do An Annual Maintenance Inspection
Keeping up with your home’s maintenance is less about increasing your home’s value and more about preventing issues from eating away at your home’s valuation.
We quickly become blind to the little problems in our own homes.
Once each year, give yourself a home inspection. Look for issues with electrical systems, the roof, the plumbing and anything else that’s been hanging around on your to-do list for awhile.
Staying on top of maintenance issues is far more cost effective than trying to fix everything at once.
You might consider hiring a home inspector to give you a professional opinion about the state of your roof, systems and foundation. They can bring things to your attention before they become expensive issues, and an inspection is a low cost way to make educated decisions with complete confidence.
2: Get Energy Efficient
Whether you’re more concerned with environmental or financial responsibility, it’s a good idea to get energy efficient. Upgrading for energy efficiency is good for your home’s value, for the environment and for your monthly budget.
The more energy efficient your home, the less you spend on climate control and utilities.
Should you decide to sell in a few years, buyers will find your reasonable utility costs and modern fixtures quite appealing.
Energy efficiency is becoming more of a major concern in the housing market, and demand for low-consumption homes is likely to keep increasing.
Here are some things you can do to increase your efficiency:
- Upgrade to energy efficient appliances
- Get more efficient windows and doors
- Better insulate your walls and ceilings
- Replace your hot water heater with a tankless unit
- Use landscaping to increase efficiency
Speaking of landscaping…
3: Create Low-Maintenance Landscaping
Complex, custom landscaping is expensive and can actually hurt your resale value.
Attractive, low-maintenance landscaping adds more value to your home, and it can even expand your livable space.
Planting shade trees now is an investment in the future of your yard. Homes with mature shade trees in a comfortable, nice looking yard are always in demand.
Be sure that any trees you plant are far enough away from your house that the roots won’t damage your foundation, and be aware of any underground systems such as your septic and electrical lines.
Fussy professional landscaping may increase your curb appeal, but when it comes to valuation and livability, all those flower beds and shrubs are a lot of work for a yard you won’t use very much. Go for the kind of yard your dog can run around in and you’ll get more out of it.
