Which Home Improvements offer the best return for your money?

August is a time of planning.  Kids are back to school and summer is winding down.  Many Homeowners start thinking about projects to do around the house.  Whether you are planning to sell your home this fall or just want to make improvements for you to enjoy it’s a good idea to pick those projects that will get you the best return on the money you spend. Deciding where to focus your time can be difficult and it’s best to consider your options:

1. Exterior:  Fall is the best time of the year to focus on your landscape plan.  Now is the time to focus on Curb Appeal.  Are your trees and shrubs so over grown that you can not see you home?  Foundation plantings frame the home.  If they are so mature and overgrown, trimming them down or thinning them out and adding some smaller plantings is a good idea.  Define your foundation with mulch beds, which also help frame your house and be sure to add color when planting this Fall.

2. Interior:  The cold days of winter are around the corner and you will be spending a lot of time inside.  Walk through your home objectively and ask yourself “Could my home use some updating”.  It is easy when we live in a home to not pay attention to the floral wall paper that went out of style 5 years ago.  Consider Painting to add a modern, but yet cozy feel to your home.  A new paint color it the most inexpensive way to update a room.  Which room to update?  Always start with the Kitchen and Baths and work out from there.  Even changing your kitchen hardware can make a huge difference.  If it’s not in the budget to change a lighting fixture, a can of spray paint can do the trick.

If you don’t know where to start and would like additional ideas, we would be happy to provide you a plan of how to update your entire home with simple inexpensive ideas that you can do yourself.  Visit us at www.RaleighStager.com for a consultation

In Home Gain’s Prepare-to-Sell study, real estate agents said that it is the small improvements that pay the biggest dividends when a home is sold. The following is a summary of the results of Home Gain’s 2007 national survey, based on the ten areas of home improvement identified by real estate agents in Home Gain’s original survey in 2003.

Project	Typical Cost	Price Increase	Return on Investment*	% of Agents Recommending
Lighten & brighten	$233 – 370	$1,178 – 1,566	355%	97%
Clean and de-clutter	$190 – 318	$1,505 – 1,937	578%	97%
Landscape front/back yards	$378 – 546	$1,718 – 2,158	319%	97%
Stage home for sale	$403 – 584	$1,938 – 2,431	343%	91%
Repair electrical or plumbing	$436 – 621	$1,205 – 1,590	164%	93%
Repair damaged flooring	$628 – 878	$1,633 – 2,061	145%	94%
Update kitchen & bathrooms	$1,404 – 1,828	$3,216 – 3,934	121%	87%
Replace or shampoo carpeting	$562 – 808	$1,532 – 1,950	154%	98%
Paint exterior walls	$663 – 938	$1,757 – 2,205	147%	88%
Paint interior walls	$651 – 920	$1,741 – 2,179	150%	97%

Home Gain surveyed over 2,000 real estate agents in each of the U.S. regions. All agents might not necessarily agree on the same pre-sale strategy. See”% of agents recommending“column above. Differences of opinions may vary based on the climate of the market, region of the country or condition of the home in question. The percentage of agents that agree on the positive impact of a particular pre-sale activity is summarized here.