Thursday, June 21, 2012

Home Renovations Are Meant for Style Not for Home Values


Surprise, surprise! You would think that in these times of slow inventory turnover and low mortgage rates homeowners would readily favor spending on home improvement to burnish home value rather than to buff form and boost function. Contrary to intuition, according to a new survey, homeowners would rather pump up style rather than equity.

It’s not quite the signal that professional real estate agents with, say, a South Carolina Realtor CE, would want to hear from a reawakening real estate market, but it certainly does say that confidence is coming back to the homeowners and that they might be priming to sell in the near future. 


"We expected that in this economy Americans' highest priority would be increasing home value, but instead we found people are focused on pleasing themselves, not the next owner," noted Liza Hausman, vice president of marketing for Houzz, a leading online platform for home remodeling. 

The new study, which polled 29,127 homeowners and renters planning to build, remodel or decorate in the next two years, discovered that a whopping 86 percent of the respondents believe that it's more important to furbish their home to "improve the look and feel of the space," while only 47 percent said it’s more important to improve their home to enhance its value. 

"Remodeling used to be about increasing resale value—making improvements that are appealing to the majority of buyers in order to boost the value of the home," noted Dean Herriges, the national president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). "More and more people are throwing out the resale theory and making specialized improvements that suit their needs and their needs only." 

Talking about home improvement, there is no need to renovate if you can reinvigorate. At least the front porch if you’re a seller, especially the front porch if you’re the real estate agent trying to sell the house to which that porch is attached.

According to Phoebe Chongchua in her written article, selling a house, especially under today’s market conditions, hinges on three key factors: location, pricing, and curb appeal. 

Curb appeal is what attracts the potential buyer off the curb and into the house. It takes some doing accomplishing this, but it’s really all common sense—and some creativity. Chongchua says that “creating and maintaining porch perfection is about the little things that you do.” 

Little things such as the welcome mat. What’s more unwelcoming than a discolored welcome mat that has worn out its welcome? Toss it out. Check the porch light. If it’s burnt out, replace it; if it’s an incandescent bulb, replace that, too. Unless your porch is going for the retro look, use a compact fluorescent light (CFL). It’s 21st century and it consumes much less power than an incandescent. 

Now check the door and the door hardware. Is the door paint peeling? Are the door handles rusty? Does the doorknob turn smoothly? Does the door panel catch on the door jamb? Does the door creak? The door and all that constitutes it make a lasting first impression. If on the outside the house gives a messy impression instead of a memorable one, what buyer would be interested to venture inside?

There are a lot of other things you can do to get that curb appeal, but as a final touch, according to Chongchua, try decoration. Add potted flowering plants on both sides of the walkway all the way to the porch. Greenery and color calm the soul (a persnickety buyer’s, included). A calm soul gains symmetry. Symmetry supplies balance. Balance makes the sale (and good accounting besides).

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