Learn To Make Your Home Improvements Pay For Themselves
You've bought a home, congratulations! Now you can
increase the resale value of your home by making home
improvements. Since most home improvements are long-lasting, you will
be increasing your net worth while you enjoy your new home improvement.
Not a bad way to spend money! Here's some points to keep in mind:
- For tax purposes, save all records of home-improvement purchases and
the time you spend laboring on your improvement. When it comes time
to sell your home, you can reduce your capital-gains taxes by adding these
expenses to the price at which you purchased your home.
- Grow a home improvement: just planting some trees and flowers
will increase your home's value by thousands of dollars. Take into
account maintenance costs: you may want to use a lot of rocks and trees and
bushes, if you want to save time and don't like gardening and mowing lawns.
- Consider property taxes: they'll rise if you improve your home,
especially if they're exterior improvements, which your tax assessor can easily
see. If property taxes are high in your locale, you may
wish to delay making improvements until a year before you sell your home.
- Do an improvement that's popular and attractive. People like nice carpets, paint and
wallpaper, kitchens, bathrooms and decks. Avoid improvements that "stick out
like a sore thumb," or that most people won't use. A swimming pool or
hot tub is a detraction to some people, and may not increase home value at all.
- Don't over-improve. If you build up the value of your home more
than 20% higher than your neighborhood's average home value, most people will
prefer less expensive homes in the same neighborhood.
You may want to get a home-equity loan to pay for an
improvement. The loan may actually pay for itself, in increased
home value.
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Learn To Make Your Home Improvements Pay For Themselves 
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Time to complete:
| A few days to several months for each improvement |
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Money you'll spend:
| $5000 to $20000 for most improvements if you contract it out; much less if you "do it yourself" |
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What you'll get:
| A nice home improvement and increased resale value |
Home Improvements List:
Here's a list of
possible home improvements, and estimates of
the usual Return On Investment ("ROI") if you contract it to
someone else. These estimates are not from any one source; they are
averages of various articles I've seen on the Web and in
books about home improvements.
| Improvement Type | Return on investment |
| Fireplace | 100% |
| Interior Decorating | 90-110% |
| Central Air Conditioning | 90% |
| Carpeting | 90% |
| Deck (10' X 12') | 80% |
| 2-Car Garage | 80% |
| Kitchen & Bath Updates | 70% |
| 3-Season Porch | 65% |
| Finished Basement | 60% |
| Landscaping | 60% |
| Main Floor Added Room | 55% |
| New Furnace | 55% |
| Permanent Storage Shed | 50% |
| New Roof | 50% |
| Plumbing | 40% |
| Electric Upgrade (100 to 200 amp) | 40% |
| In-ground Pool | 25% |
| Hot Tub | 10% |
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Further Reading:
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