Your home has served you well over the years. It might be where you raised your family or the first significant purchase you and your spouse made together. But the time has come to move on, either to a bigger home to accommodate a growing family or a smaller place now that your children have grown up.
You’re ready to sell your house, but before you do so, you want to make sure it’s in the best condition so it will appeal to as many potential buyers as possible and help you get the highest price. While you want to dress up your house and make it attractive to buyers, you also want to keep an eye on your bottom line and not invest more in the property that you stand to recoup.
If you’re wondering what to fix up before selling your house or if it’s worth renovating a home before selling, the answer is yes, in some cases.
Before you jump into any major renovation projects, it helps to know what improvements will end up delivering the best return on investment (ROI). Understanding what selling options are available to you can also help you decide whether or not to make repairs.
When deciding what features of your home to upgrade, your mind might first go to the most eye-catching and attention-grabbing renovations possible. While updating the areas of your home that are the most visible and the most in-demand, such as the kitchen and bathroom, can have a considerable return on investment, you might be surprised to find out that less high-profile upgrades tend to produce the biggest ROI.
Take a look at what you can expect to recoup from the following improvements across the U.S.
1. Siding Replacement
When’s the last time you thought about the siding on your house? If it’s been a while, you might be surprised to learn that upgrading and replacing your home’s siding can lead deliver a considerable ROI.
In the Greater Kansas City metro area, the average cost to replace 1,250 square feet of siding is $17,120. The resale value is $15,651, meaning the typical homeowner can recoup around 91 percent of their initial investment. The ROI of siding replacement nationally right now is understood to be 77%..
Another siding-related upgrade that has a considerable ROI is replacing vinyl siding with manufactured stone veneer. Replacing 300 square feet of vinyl siding with stone veneer on the front of the house has an average cost of $9,312, an ROI of around 85 percent.
2. Garage Upgrades
In some cases, what seem like small improvements to a house can have a considerable impact on its resale value. Replacing a garage door has one of the highest ROIs nationally. The average cost of the replacement across the U.S. is $3,611 and translates to a resale value of $3,520, or an ROI of around 97 percent.
3. Roof Replacement
The roof of a house might not be the feature people think about the most when they’re looking at properties. But it is a feature that plays an essential role in keeping residents dry and comfortable. A leaking roof or a roof that has other issues can be a deal-breaker in many home sales.
Although replacing an older roof doesn’t have the ROI of replacing siding or a garage door, it does make a home more attractive to many buyers and does have a relatively high resale value. In the Kansas City area, it costs an average of $24,409 to replace an asphalt roof. The average ROI is 65 percent.
Metal roofs tend to have a higher price, around $41,000 in, but don’t produce the same ROI as an asphalt roof replacement. The typical resale value of a metal roof is about $24,000 or less than 60 percent of the cost of the replacement.
4. Kitchen Remodels
For many buyers, the kitchen is the most essential room in a house. People look for kitchens that are functional as well as attractive. Before you decide to upgrade your Formica counter tops and to swap out your ivory or avocado-green appliances for shiny stainless upgrades, it’s important to understand just how much a kitchen remodeling project can deliver when it comes to ROI.
It might surprise you to learn that smaller projects often provide a higher ROI compared to major overhauls. A minor kitchen remodel in the “mid-range” has an average ROI of 82 percent. Meanwhile, an “upscale” major kitchen remodel has an ROI of around 59 percent. Nationwide, the numbers are similar. A minor remodel has an ROI of about 81 percent, while an upscale major remodel has an ROI of about 60 percent.
If you are going to remodel or renovate your kitchen, keeping a few things in mind can help you get the best possible return and can help you avoid spending more than the remodel will end up being worth. One thing to do is use the value of your house to figure out how much to spend on a remodel. A standard recommendation is to spend no more than 15 percent of the value of your home on your kitchen project. If your home is worth $200,000, your kitchen renovation budget should be less than $30,000. Setting a cap for your project will help you recoup as much as possible without breaking the bank in the meantime.
5. Bathroom Remodels
After the kitchen, the bathrooms in a house are the rooms that can make or break a home sale. If a house doesn’t have enough bathrooms, a buyer is likely to walk away. If the bathrooms in the house are outdated or otherwise unappealing, that can also turn off potential buyers.
In some cases, making a few small improvements to an existing bathroom can provide the best ROI. If the bathroom is in good working order, re-caulking the tile and replacing fixtures and handles might be all that’s needed to make it a more attractive space.
If you decide to do a major renovation or remodel of your bathroom, sticking with the “mid-range” rather than going upscale can help you get a better return on investment. In the Kansas City metro area, mid-range bathroom renovations typically recouped around 67 percent of the cost while upscale renovations often recouped about 63 percent of the price.
If the number of bathrooms in your house is limited, it might be a smart choice to add one before you decide to sell. The average mid-range bathroom addition in the Kansas City area costs around $50,000 and recoups about 65 percent of the cost. More importantly, adding a bathroom can be what gets your home to sell. If buyers don’t think a house has enough bathrooms for their needs, they’re going to look elsewhere.
6. Window Replacement
The windows in your home let light in and provide a view to the surrounding neighborhood, but they also help to keep your home insulated, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Older windows often don’t have the insulating abilities of newer ones. For that reason, replacing the windows of your home before you sell can be a smart move.
Window replacement projects also typically have a good return on investment. Nationwide, homeowners often recoup between 70 and 73 percent of the cost to replace their w area.