4 Home Improvement Tips to Increase ROI

Are you ready to put a little more time and money into your home, whether it’s to fully enjoy living in it or prepare it for listing?

There are certain home improvements you can do to your home in order to improve and maximize its return on investment (ROI). Some of these improvements are well known, such as making repairs to broken or damaged items throughout your home prior to a sale, but there are also less obvious fixes or improvements that can be made to increase the value of your home more than what you might spend to make the improvements. In any decision along these lines, it’s important to consider how long you plan to own the house, how you want the house to function and look while you live in it, and what cost-benefit analysis will yield the best results for you. There are some things that will almost always make houses for sale in Garden Oaks and Houston more appealing, like appealing bathrooms and kitchens. But with many new options for homes now, especially with regard to technology, even recently done bathrooms and kitchens might need to be updated to reflect new options.

Odds are, you’ll never walk into an empty kitchen. Cabinets, appliances, drawers, and a sink are just a few of the things you’ll find, and what most people look for when buying a home. So when potential buyers or life-long friends walk into your kitchen, they are already seeing the content.  Your kitchen aesthetic will be the first thing people judge, and as such, it sets up the tone for the rest of your home. It’s for this reason that investments in kitchens are so critical to the sales price of your property and why there’s almost always an ROI for kitchen improvements. When a kitchen is updated, buyers will almost always respond with a higher asking price because of the good first impression and the move-in-ready factor. Potential buyers who know they’ll have a turnkey house when moving in are more inclined to put in a bid. As such, homes for sale in the Heights are starting to see more and more of these upgrades.

Along with kitchens, bathrooms are rooms that inevitably have content, meaning they are not just empty spaces that you fill yourself, such as a bedroom. When you see a bathroom, you are immediately judging the shower, the tub, the tile, and the appliances, and this flavors your opinion of the entire house. Upgrades such as heated floors, rain showers, and specialty bathtubs are impressive to buyers. With the relatively recent popularity of Japanese-style toilets that have features similar to a bidet built right into the toilet, buyers are starting to look for these upgrades as a part of a new house. Although these toilets are not inexpensive, they do tend to make a good impression on nearly everyone who encounters them, especially the higher-end houses where these types of features are more or less expected. Other features that apply to bathrooms are automatic ventilation, dimmer switches, and the aforementioned heated floors.

While bedrooms are typically able to be transformed and decorated to each person’s fancy, closets, especially walk-in closets, may benefit from having elaborate shelf systems to add convenience and charm to the bedroom. Upgrading the shelving in a closet may be a good ROI because it typically makes a very good impression on buyers. Features such as built-in shoe racks and tie racks, as well as improved lighting and full-length mirrors, go a long way.

While this is a massive topic that has both humble upgrades and pricey renovations, technology is here to stay in houses for sale in Garden Oaks and homes for sale in the Heights. As with any other advancement in home design and upgrades, once the public becomes used to technological advances, it’s difficult to live without them. For example, it’s hard to imagine driving a car without power steering or air conditioning, but at one time those things were luxuries. The upgrades that are being implemented into luxury homes as we speak will one day be the standard, and homes without them will be seen as a bit backward.

One thing about new technology is that much of it can be controlled from your smartphone, which has come to be expected due to its convenience. Climate, lighting, security, and other options can be manipulated from your smartphone whether or not you’re at home. For example, before jumping into your car and driving home, you can turn on the heat to make sure you arrive to a toasty living room right when you walk in the front door.

Technology is playing a huge role in home security, with cameras, motion sensors, and the ability to immediately and automatically call law enforcement if a door is opened. A good home security system in a high-end home is practically a given in order to protect the possessions of the owners. Oftentimes, all it takes is to have the evidence that a home is wired for home security to deter any would-be burglars from making an attempt at a break-in. And, of course, with cameras and sensors, your home’s security can be monitored from your fingertips. Memorial homes for sale are seeing these upgrades more and more often.

As with any home improvement, it’s best to speak to your agent to get a good idea about ROI upgrades for the area that you are living in. If most other homes in your area have upgraded security systems, the buyers that are looking in your location will likely be less impressed with your property if it’s not upgraded in this way.

It’s advised to talk to your real estate agent about certain home improvement ideas to get an idea of what kind of ROI you’ll see for your specific property. As with anything real estate-related, location is critical and an upgrade in one area may not hold as much weight in another area. That’s why it’s best to get the opinion of someone with expert knowledge of the local market and immense experience, and that’s where the HTX Group comes in. When you’re ready to take the next step, reach out to one of the trusted agents at the HTX Group for assistance.