There are lots of potential improvements you can make to your home, but only some have the potential to add value to your home. In fact, some changes can actually devalue your home. As a rule of thumb, value-add upgrades are upgrades which improve the functionality and/or appearance of your home without compromising flexibility of use.
Here are some suggestions.
Redecorate
Even slapping on a fresh coat of “builder’s magnolia” can make a home look better, but an astute redecoration project can go much further than that without breaking the bank.
In fact, redecorating is probably the most cost-effective home-improvement project you can undertake. One key point to remember is that paint can be used to trick the eye in a way which makes a room’s proportions look more appealing.
Probably everyone knows the basics of this concept, if only instinctively (e.g. vertical stripes make a room look taller whereas horizontal ones make it look wider), but, as always, details matter, which is why you may want to do some thorough research online or employ a professional.
As a minimum, remember that high-contrast paint schemes (e.g. black and white) are best kept to larger rooms, low-contrast paint schemes (e.g. light grey and white) can, however, do a lot to make a small room look bigger.
Maintain and if necessary update your property’s essential infrastructure
Strictly speaking, you could question whether basic property maintenance should really come under the category of home improvement, given that it consists of tasks you’re supposed to do anyway, the key part of that sentence, however is supposed to.
In the real world, it’s generally only too easy to let low-impact tasks slip until tomorrow, especially if they’re outdoor tasks and the weather is dicey or just plain bad. Upgrades, however, definitely come under the heading of home improvement and can really add a lot of value to your home, especially if they either improve energy efficiency or improve internet connectivity.
You may have limited control over this last part, but it’s worth remembering so that you think seriously about making the most of any opportunities which present themselves, even if you might otherwise have turned them down.
For example, if you are having your house rewired anyway, you might want to ask the electrician if they can also install internet cabling as this would probably only cost slightly more and could be a big draw for people who need fast, stable internet access. WiFi is very convenient but, as yet, wired internet is still way ahead both in robustness and security.
Squeeze every last drop of useable space from your home
Just as looking after your pennies will eventually turn them into pounds, so making the most of even the tiniest unused spaces in your home can eventually add up to a whole lot more useable space.
Reclaiming space can mean anything from fitting a slim, rolling cabinet to the side of your fridge to fill the gap between it and the wall, to turning the space under the stairs into a compact home office (or a bedroom for a small child), to adding an extra bathroom, to a full-scale loft or garage conversion. In other words, there are updates for every space and budge.
For more information or for a free online property valuation, please contact Indlu.