There are over 136,570,000 housing units in the United States, and that number continues to grow each year. At any time, there are approximately 1,250,000 homes for sale. The great news if you are looking to sell a home is that number has steadily declined from a high reached in 2010. If you are thinking of selling or refinancing your home, there are many things that can affect its value.
The Neighborhood
The value of your home is largely determined by its location. Home mortgage companies demand a report showing what comparable homes in your neighborhood have sold for lately before they will consider loaning money on it. Its location value is primarily determined by the home’s proximity to good jobs, shopping and entertainment opportunities and the quality of the local public school system.
Home Size
In most markets, the price of the home is determined by the amount of usable square feet in the home. Realtors rarely count unfinished basements, garages or attics in their figure of usable square feet. Therefore, if you want more money for your home, you might think about finishing the basement or adding an attic workspace or bedroom. According to the National Home Builders Association, adding an extra bedroom can increase the value of your home by 20 percent.
Move-in Ready
Buyers want a home they can enjoy without having to do a lot of work on it, and they will pay for upgrades that the seller has made to the home. All upgrades are not equal, however, so if you have a limited budget think about upgrading the kitchen first by installing matching stainless steel appliances and quartz countertops. You can generally expect to gain $3 for every $1 you spend in kitchen upgrades.
The Market
The housing market varies tremendously across the United States. In markets where there are more homes for sale than people looking for homes, then prices usually go down. The opposite is also true. In markets where there are more people looking for homes than homes available, then the price usually goes up. If you are wondering if now is a good time to buy property or sell a home, then look at economic projections in your community because housing prices will usually follow them.
Considering these four factors will help you determine if now is a good time to buy or refinance a home. It will also let you know if now is the right time to sell. In the end, however, it often comes down to an emotional gut decision.
The stabilized real estate industry is encouraging sellers to place their homes on the market. Before a homeowner can become a seller, however, the home requires preparation. Get your home ready for the market by following these five steps.
Team Up with an Agent
A real estate agent is a licensed professional who understands the industry inside and out, and their expertise is invaluable. A realtor is knowledgeable about the real estate process, including marketing, pricing, staging, listing, bidding, and mortgage. The agent remains abreast of current and upcoming industry trends. In addition, the agent has a Rolodex of connections like home inspectors, home insurance providers, title companies, and escrow companies.
Tame Landscaping
The lawn can grow out of control without continued maintenance, scaring away buyers. A tame landscape is the first invitation for buyers to venture inside the house. Make the home welcoming by mowing the lawn weekly or biweekly. Remove weeds that stick above the lawn, remove litter, and rake the leaves. Tame bushes and shrubs through pruning and trimming branches. Lastly, plant flowers around the front lawn and in flower beds.
Make Repairs
Major or minor, it’s important for sellers to fix incomplete, postponed, and just-discovered repairs. Buyers are expecting all major and minor repairs completed before bidding, so it’s best to reserve funds for those repairs. Serious repairs like an unstable foundation, gaping holes, missing tiles, and an unfinished basement are glaring repairs requiring immediate attention. Afterwards, focus on broken windows, leaky faucets, a leaky roof, jammed doors, and scratched wood floors.
Pay Attention to the Kitchen
A major selling feature in the home is the kitchen. Buyers view the kitchen as an important room for entertaining guests and family members, so a functional and eye-pleasing kitchen is necessary. A renovation or remodel is great if the funds are available, but buyers should focus on upgrading appliances, changing the faucet, and updating hardware.
Hire a Professional Cleaning Service
No buyer likes purchasing a dirty home, and professional cleaning service (for example, a carpet cleaning service) may be necessary. Professional cleaners can sweep, mop, vacuum, dust, wash, and scrub the home to immaculate status. Further, they can remove dirt and stains from carpets, clear away leaves from gutters, and pressure wash the exterior. Hire more than one service, if necessary.
With competitors in neighborhood, city, state, and national markets, buyers don’t need to accept less than stellar results from sellers. Above are the basics sellers must match or exceed to obtain buyers into their vicinity.
Given that you spend a lot of time at home, it only makes sense that your home should reflect your unique personality. To be sure, things like pictures, mementos, and other personal touches go a long way toward this goal. However, if you really want to give your home that “extra special something,” you certainly have more than a few options. In order to find the best “extra” for your home, it’s important to understand the needs and interests of your family and unique desires. Here are a few unique extras that you might choose to set your home apart from the rest.
Chef’s Kitchen
The kitchen is one of, if not the most important room in the home, even if you prefer to eat out. However, if someone in your family is passionate about cooking, that makes a nice kitchen in your home even more of a necessity. Upscale countertops such as marble, quartz, or granite; high-end appliances such as a six-burner stove, double oven, or smart refrigerator; as well as high-end finishes throughout will truly help to set your kitchen apart. In addition to these creature comforts for the food lover in your household, having large areas for others to congregate in the kitchen can truly help make it a welcoming meeting place, earning its title “the heart of the home.”
Pool or Spa
If you enjoy getting outside to exercise or just to spend your downtime, there’s no better way to do these things than to put in a pool or spa. If you want every day to feel like a vacation, you can utilize elements such as a stone pool and a natural-looking waterfall, or a fun waterslide to truly give your pool that “resort” feel. Spas or hot tubs are also great options. The winter weather doesn’t have to keep you inside. A hot soak can encourage conversation as well as pain relief during the coldest seasons. These features will help your home be the place everyone wants to spend their time, no matter the temperature.
Home Theater
There are few things more relaxing than enjoying a movie with family and friends. How much more relaxing, then, could your movie-watching experience be if you were able to enjoy it in a customized home theater? A dedicate room to your favorite pastime is a great way to reflect your family’s fun and laid-back personality while providing a true escape from the rest of the world. Add a popcorn machine, comfy chairs, and a small refrigerator, and it’s likely you’ll never want to leave. Another great thing about home theaters is that they can be installed in a wide variety of room sizes. If you’re looking at a new home, you can talk to your real estate agent or local contractor to get advice on specific rooms that would work well for this purpose before investing in the property.
What’s inherent in each of these home “extras” is that they’re best enjoyed with a group of people. These extras, enjoyed with the ones you care about, will truly help your house feel like a home and the place that you go to escape from the stress of your busy life.
At Modern Garden Rooms we don’t believe adding value to your home has to be a costly ordeal. We’ve come up with 24 unique ways you can add value to your own property, and help you climb the property ladder yourself.
Each tip contains an estimated percentage of how much your property value would increase by if you implemented our tips. This way you can find the right home improvement method to suit your budget. You might be asking yourself if you really need a full kitchen refurb or a new conservatory – and whilst these are great ways of adding value to your home, you might only need a lick of paint and some new light switches to raise your property value to your intended amount!
A housing bubble is created due to an upturn in housing prices caused by increased demand, speculation and exuberance. However, when this demand eventually subsides, house prices take a sharp downturn.
There are 5 parts to a housing bubble. Displacement is when the demand for property increases due to limited supply, fuelled by low interest rates and more borrowers entering the market. This leads to the eventually boom, when the market begins to inflate as consumer confidence grows, but supply is still slow to increase. Euphoria follows, when house prices begin to skyrocket, and more investment is made into the marketplace and supply gradually increases. The investors take their profit as they heed the warning signs that the bubble may be about to burst. This in turn starts the final stage of the housing bubble – the panic. Housing prices take a huge downturn as demand stagnates because of above average house prices and interest rate rises. The bubble bursts.
We can look at history to work out where we are in the bubble and try to make a prediction as to how the bubble will react to certain events in the market. Over the last 40 years in the UK housing market, there have been two booms and three busts and a lot of fluctuation in between. We can look at these market trends to determine what will happen next. On average, a housing boom tends to last around 8 years.
Warning signs that the housing bubble is about to burst includes rising interest rates, changing lending criteria meaning its harder for people to get cash for a mortgage, decreasing demand. Also, if the average house price is rising faster than your salary, this is one of the biggest signs that we are currently in a housing bubble.
Flipping houses is a highly profitable venture. However, careful planning and understanding of the industry is necessary for success. Potential flippers must also be frugal. You need to know where to save money to get the biggest return on investment. Consider these tips to actually make a profit from flipping houses:
Buy Low
To make money flipping a house, you must buy houses that are well below their market value. Foreclosures are often ideal for this purpose. Foreclosures will have to be bought for cash. However, if you can fix up a foreclosed home in good condition, you may make a significant profit when you resell it. In some cases the home might be in excellent shape, but coming up with cash to buy the property prevented other buyers from biting. Something else that is critical is to move fast when buying. You are not the only flipper in the area. Property bidding wars can start and competition can be fierce. Of course, the more you pay upfront for a property, the less you will make when selling it. Don’t let your emotions get involved. Buy properties solely on the facts and the numbers.
Do the Work Yourself
To actually make money flipping houses, you are going to have to do much of the work yourself. This means you need time, ability and a willingness to learn. The more contractors you need to hire, the more expensive the project gets and the less you will get out of it in the end. For this reason, decent knowledge of carpentry and other handy skills is critical for successful flipping. Of course, there are some upgrades or renovations you should never try and do yourself if you are not a trained professional, such as electrical work. However, this doesn’t change the fact that you must be willing to do most of the work yourself. Flipping is ideal for people who have experience working as plumbers, carpenters and professional builders. If you are not any of those, you can still flip successfully, but it will take a lot more work.
Think Like a Real Estate Agent
When fixing up a home, you need to have a good idea of the local real estate market. You must have sufficient patience to wait for the right properties to come up. You must know what renovations you should perform to make the property sell. You also need to know which renovations will not significantly impact the value of the home. It might be best to leave these areas as-is and focus on the areas that do have a strong impact on final sales price, such as kitchens and bathrooms. Resources, like Success Path from Huffington Post, can help you learn some of these ins and outs.
Know the Cost of Repairs
Before purchasing a property to flip, you should already have a good grasp on what exactly typical repairs cost. When evaluating a property, you need the ability to calculate how much you will have to put into the project. Do not forget to factor in costs such as taxes and fees. You must then compare this to how much you stand to get out of the property. When renovating, keep track of everything you are spending. This will keep you aware of how much money you have already put into this project. You can look back on these ledgers to be more successful on your next house flip.
Flipping houses has grown in popularity, and it isn’t just a pipe dream. You can make very good money flipping houses. Know what you are getting into and have the right skills, and flipping will likely work out very nicely for you.
If you’re in the process of buying your first home, one thing that’s certain is that you have a lot of questions. What color should you paint the living room? Do you have enough money to put a patio in the backyard? How soon can you pay off the mortgage? But you may not be thinking about all of the questions there are to answer about your homeowners insurance. Given that about one in every 15 insured homes has a claim each year, it’s too risky to go without insurance — and your mortgage lender wouldn’t allow it. One of the biggest questions about homeowners insurance is, “How much can I expect to pay to insure and protect my home?” The quick and easy answer is that it depends, but the good news is that you have some say in how much you pay for your homeowners insurance.
For example, your new home’s location in relation to certain critical services or geographical features can impact your insurance rates. Living closer to a fire station may bring your rates down, for example. On the other hand, living closer to a body of water may raise them due to the increased risk of flooding.
Any and all features you add to your new home can affect your insurance rates. Swimming pools, hot tubs, wood-burning stoves and fireplaces all have the potential to increase your risk of liability — and your rates as a result. Any remodeling work you do after you move in is likely to affect the value of your home and potentially raise your insurance costs, but adding a new roof may lower them. Of course, doing nothing when your home requires extensive repair work can raise your rates, too. New homeowners also should be aware that their insurance rates may be affected by their history, including credit scores and any previous insurance claims.
If you have questions about how your insurance rates for your new home may be affected by various factors, consult the accompanying guide. It details how your past actions and certain aspects about your new home can influence your premiums.
Building your home is the most exciting project to undertake. A luxury custom home is a dream come true for many people; everything about your home can be designed with you and your family in mind, down to every last detail. It’s also a huge financial commitment, however, and a responsibility you need to take seriously if it is to be worth every penny.
Here are 10 things you absolutely must consider:
1. How You’ll Make a Practical Space for Living
At the top of your considerations needs to be how you use the space available.
Firstly, consider the possibilities of the space. Make sure you plan adequate space for utilities and storage, and everyday life. It’s easy to get carried away with the aesthetics of the project, like your beautiful staircase or fireplace, for instance, and then to give inadequate consideration to practical spaces like laundry areas.
It’s important to be generous with this kind of space as you do not want these areas to overspill and impinge on focal areas.
Consider storage for toys, coats and shoes, bookcases, walk-in closets and pantries. Areas for pets to sleep and play in should also be of equal importance to any other feature of your home.
2. How You’ll Maximize the Feeling of Space
Equally important is how you will make your home feel spacious. This will make your home feel more luxurious and allow you to enjoy spending time there. The feeling of space is not all about having a large square footage.
Tricks of the trade to create illusions of space are to plan large, well-positioned windows, higher ceilings, wide hallways and open plan areas for cooking, dining and general living.
3. How to Avoid Under-Utilized Space
Creating spaces that will only be used occasionally are a drain on your budget and the space available for living. Guest bedrooms are a typical example of an underused space that often becomes a dumping ground when out of use.
Consider combining your guest space with a home office, or a reading, hobbies or music room.
4. The Style of Your House
How you decide your home will look is a hugely personal decision, but one that needs to be informed by other factors, such as the styles of neighboring homes and the neighborhood in general. Color schemes, landscaping, the build material, the types of windows and doors — all these are vital considerations for luxury custom built homes.
Remember, that people living across from you are going to have to look at your house more often than you are.
5. How Future-proof Your Home Is
Try to envisage how circumstances might change in the years to come and how your home will be able to respond. Will the amount of occupants’ likely change? How will their needs change?
For example, if you’re planning to extend your family at some point, you’ll not only need bedroom space, but also storage for equipment like strollers and kids bikes, and an area that can become a play space. It’s easy to make the mistake of creating the most incredible home for life as it is now, but try not to forget that life can also change quickly.
6. Resale Potential
Yes, you might not be planning to sell on at any point, but we have to be practical here. Life sometimes takes unexpected turns and while the number one person to please when building your own home is yourself, you need to be sure that it will appeal enough to others too should you ever need to resell.
7. How Certain You Are of Your Numbers
This is common sense, but it cannot be understated how easy it is for budgets to fall by the wayside and for the cost of the build to spiral out of control. Being organized and in control is the key, so maintain regular checks to monitor the budget and readjust as necessary along the way.
8. The Environmental Credentials of Your Home
Not only will ensuring your home is friendly to the planet ensure you are guilt-free, but it can also save you money. Depending on where you live, you may be able to apply for grants available for environmentally friendly projects.
You can save money over the long term by making some clever choices about where your energy comes from, too.
9. Plentiful Power Supplies
This may seem like a minor detail, but where you have access to power can make a substantial difference to how you can place your furniture and how usable the finished space is. Give lots of consideration to where you may want to access power in each room, and allow for spare sockets, too.
A wise consideration these days is also a central charging station for phones, tablets, laptops and other devices. This means you can avoid unsightly wires throughout the home, which reduces the chances of you losing track of where your devices are.
10. Lighting Choices
Lastly, if you’ve planned your windows carefully, you’ll have no issues with lighting during the day, since natural light will be adequate even on duller days. To compensate for darker hours of the day, sources of artificial light should be abundant.
Consider how you would like to light up each room according to the variety of activities that may take place there.
AUTHOR BIO
Robert Allam has had an understanding of Trendsetter Homes inside and out since he started with the business as a client over 10 years ago. Eventually becoming part of the company as a Sales Consultant, then Office Manager, and now as Finance and Sales Manager, Robert has seen the company grow from a small team of 4 to a professional team of 16 and has guided many clients through the process of developing their dream of a unique, luxury home.
Whether you’re trying to sell your home or simply upgrade it for your own enjoyment, additions do not have to be that pricey. OK, OK, so as you haven’t been born yesterday you do know that any high-quality improvements to your house – the only type worth doing – won’t be as cheap as your daily shop. But the following additions have been selected for their relative low cost and high impact.
The seven recommended additions are applicable to you especially if you feel like modernizing your house, have guests to stay with specific needs, are buying or selling your home and are aware of updates needed.
Garden
It’s always easy to forget the outside area and palm it off as a “dad-job” for a Sunday in the far far distance! Sometimes those days arrive sooner than you think and a good job too because taking care of your outside area is as important as your house.
Built-in seating can be a great alternative to expensive garden furniture and one way to make your outside space guest-friendly and welcoming in a matter of days. Recycling concrete blocks and stacking to make a rectangular bench can be transformative. Top with an upholstered foam mattress and pillows and you’re good to go!
Patio
Patios are pretty self-maintaining year round aside from the odd weeding but if you want them to be extra special you could consider putting in a little more care. More and more folks have opted for patio walls over the last few years to create a homelier space. Adding in a custom-built fireplace to the area will make your regular patio every home-owner’s hosting dream. If you need to start from scratch you certainly can build your own patio yourself and save on the tiresome labor costs!
Railings
Injuries do unfortunately happen regardless of your capabilities and a railing to help you get around the bathroom and in and out of the bath itself is a must. These guys are quite literally a life-saver. Whether in or outside the house – preferably both depending on the terrain – railings give much needed support as well as detail. Protect you, your family and your guests with railings where you need them the most – they can be beautifully designed to match your preferences, too!
Smart Appliances
Smart appliances are the quickest way to add value to your kitchen, your house and to your life! We all know a good real estate agent will make the most out of these centerpieces of our kitchen – dishwasher, fridge-freezer, oven and microwave. If yours could do with some updating it may be time to take the plunge. They can instantly modernize your kitchen into a chic and sleek operating room – stainless steel appliances are still a la mode – and raise your house-cred immeasurably.
Connectivity, intelligent communication and full-on integration is what people want in their new appliances to the point where your fridge will text you when you run out of an ingredient! If you don’t have that much to spend on a major appliance, try revolutionizing your kitchen routines with some of these portable options, however you might want to check second hand options before giving up!
Lighting
Much like your smart appliances, improving your lighting game is a quick and easy addition to your household that will bring admirers wide and far! Looking at spotlights for example bring a welcome minimalist feel to a home whilst not massively interfering with your interior décor. Lighting is also an easy way to bring balance to a room through adding or taking away warmth depending on the style of fitting and the glow emitted.
Lighting should be uniform throughout your house to some degree to give continuity, therefore if you aren’t careful this can rack up a bill. However, simply moving to energy efficient lights in the meantime will be a fantastic addition to your household.
Upholstery
The DIY and home improvement community has talked about up-cycling a lot for good reason – you have unpolished treasures in your room as you read this and you’re considering buying replacements?! A perfect and easy-going initiation into the up-cycling club is re-upholstering a chair, sofa or headboard. It is guaranteed to be far cheaper than buying new furniture, allows you to pick out exactly the material you want and adds to the atmosphere of your room in a relatively low-effort way!
Windows
I won’t start with a quote about windows and eyes and souls, but windows are very important. Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers are particularly sensitive to amount of light in their living areas and frankly the majority of us are too. So let’s get as much light as possible into your houses! The easiest way to do this without complete overhaul of your existing windows is adding in a sky light where possible.
So, this may be in the same cost ballpark as smart appliances, however adding in a skylight will entirely transform your space and your mood, and add major value if done properly to your property.
Additions do not need to be time consuming, complicated or massively expensive, however they do need to be well thought out. Positioning, overall design and feel and appropriateness all come into play when making changes to your house regardless of how small they might be. But one thing is for sure, simple home additions can bring major positives to your life whether practical and adding convenience or aesthetic and adding comfort!
Author Bio:
Kacey is a lifestyle blogger for The Drifter Collective, an eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us. Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. She has been able to fully embrace herself with the knowledge of nature, the power of exploring other locations and cultures, all while portraying her love for the world around her through her visually pleasing, culturally embracing and inspiring posts.
Anyone who has watched cable television’s popular shows on home remodeling or home selling knows that outdoor living spaces are all the rage. Capable of adding extra space and comfort to homes in just about any location, these spaces go beyond the porches, decks, gazebos, and bare patios that were once the only options for outdoor seating and entertaining. In addition to being popular, a beautifully designed, outdoor living space can offer even more benefits. If you are a homeowner who is wavering about whether or not to invest in adding an outdoor living space to your home, the following information can help you see what this type of space has to offer your family.
1. Increased Living Space Offers Comfort for Growing Families
No matter how carefully families choose the home they buy, there will still be many times when it feels too small for comfort. Growing children, visiting relatives, and many other situations can cause a home that was once spacious to feel cramped and small.
Adding an outdoor living space provides another area suitable for use from spring through fall in most areas of the country. If the space provides comfortable seating and cooking facilities, it can even become the chosen location for family dinners, helping to reduce traffic in the house and keep it cleaner and more organized.
2. Entertaining is Easier With an Outdoor Living Space
Many homes today are built without a formal dining room, making it difficult to host large gatherings for meals and snacks. An outdoor living area offers a spacious location that can be furnished to handle gatherings of any size. If the outdoor living space also provides electricity to power small appliances, along with a sink, cooking surface, and a cooler or refrigerator, complete meals can be easily prepared and served outdoors, making cleanup far easier.
Many people also add some type of heat to their outdoor living spaces, such as a fire pit, outdoor fireplace, or specially designed outdoor heating appliance, to make these spaces more usable in cooler weather.
3. Outdoor Living Spaces Add Real Value When Selling a Home
Just like porches and patios, outdoor living spaces are considered as part of the base area of the home. Although the base area is not the same as finished interior space, it will still be able to add value in the eyes of both a real estate appraiser and prospective buyers.
To get the most value from your outdoor living space, sellers will want to:
make sure the planned outdoor space fits well with the neighborhood and architectural style of the home
make sure the size of the planned outdoor space remains in balance with the size of the yard and does not diminish the usefulness of the backyard space
make sure the planned outdoor space is attractive both when in use and during the off season
make sure the planned outdoor space offers privacy from prying eyes of neighbors or people passing by
For more information about how an outdoor living space can be a benefit, homeowners should consult their real estate professional.
Through the use of recent listing and sales data for similar homes with and without outdoor living spaces, homeowners will be able to gain a better understanding of the amount of added value their home would have after the space is completed. This information can help homeowners create a realistic plan for these improvements, as well as a suitable budget.
