Renovating Your Home in the New Year: Getting a Return on your Renovation Costs
By Mike Eide
Welcome to our fourth installment of our series on renovating your home in the New Year. If you haven’t read the previous three weeks posts be sure to check them out here. This week we will be covering tips on “Getting a Return on your Renovation Costs”.
Home prices nationwide are skyrocketing with the highest home prices in Canada being Vancouver and Calgary. This is increasing the number of homeowners who are deciding to stay put in their current home and renovate instead of move. In fact according to an Ipsos-Reid survey 2/3 of Canadian homeowners are planning a home renovation of some sort this year.
These renovations can be done for various reasons, whether it is to meet their family home needs, improve their quality of life or simply to add a little luxury to their home more and more homeowners are deciding to go the home renovation route. There is also one other reason that 2/3 of these homeowners are planning a home renovation this year, and that is to help add value to their home. Here are some tips to help you get the most return on your home renovations.
According to the Appraisal Institute of Canada there are some easy guidelines to keep in mind when you are doing a home renovation. If you are doing your renovation with the purpose of selling your home you should keep the needs of a majority of potential buyers in mind. Do not do something that meets your style but is wildly different then the current trends. Doing something like this could adversely affect the sale of your home.
Avoid projects that set your home too far apart than your neighbors. Keep in mind what the value of your home is in your neighborhood. If your home is already above average then you will be less likely to yield a return on your home renovation costs than if your home is below average.
Here are some home improvement trends for 2015
– Hardwood floor in kitchen
– Main floor laundry room
– En-suite with jet-tub
– Built-in kitchen appliances
– Home theater/media room
– main floor office
– Kitchen island
Here are some home renovations you may be considering and what the Appraisal Institute of Canada says these should yield in return on your costs.
Kitchen upgrade: 75% to 100%
Bathroom upgrade: 75% to 100%
Interior painting: 50% to 100%
Fireplace (wood or gas) 50% to 100%
Roof replacement: 50% to 80%
Replacement of furnace or heating system: 50% to 80%
Expansion (addition of family room): 50% to 75%
Doors and windows: 50% to 75%
Deck: 50% to 75%
Installation of hardwood floor: 50% to 75%
Construction of a garage: 50% to 75%
Central air conditioning: 50% to 75%
Finished basement: 50% to 75%
Wood fence: 25% to 50%
Interlocking paving stones on driveway: 25% to 50%
Landscaping: 25% to 50%
Asphalt driveway: 20% to 50%
Pool: 10% to 40%
Skylights: 0% to 25%
Doing a home renovation to add value to your home for the purpose of selling it in the future can be a good investment. But like any investment, choosing the proper place to put your money is very important. Ultimately if your home looks good inside, it will sell for higher and sell faster.
Do you have any tips you would like to add? If so please leave them in the comments below.
Week One: Financing a Home Renovation
Week Two: Working with a Renovating Professional
Week Three: Avoiding getting ripped off