There are countless home Renovation Ideas you can find to add something new to your home. In an ideal world, these renovations will be positive. They take your property, improve it in one way or another, and lead to an increase in value. Thus, when it’s time to sell your home or rent it out, you’ll command a higher price.
Having said that, there’s a common misconception that all home renovations are positive. People live by this rule and make additions to their houses in the belief that the value will always go up. On the contrary, many renovations are terrible. They may seem like good ideas but will actually decrease your home’s value.
We think it’s crucial to know both the best and the worst renovation ideas for your home. As a result, you can figure out what’s worth investing in and what’s better left as an idea in your head. So, let’s look at some of the ways you may increase or decrease the value of your property:
Loft Conversions – Increase Value
Converting your loft into a new room will dramatically increase the value of your home. Instead of having a 3-Bedroom house, you suddenly have a 4-bedroom one. Ironically, this improvement works best in 1 or 2-bedroom homes. For example, a 2-bedroom house is only suitable for a family with one child. All of a sudden, adding the loft conversion makes it suitable for a family of four. Your house becomes more marketable, so it’ll attract more attention and be able to command a higher price.
You don’t necessarily need to convert your loft into a bedroom either – as long as it becomes a usable room, the value will go up.
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Pool Installations – Decrease Value
The idea of having a fancy pool in your garden feels like an awesome move. You’re making the most out of your outdoor space and bringing more practicality to the area. At the same time, it makes your home seem more luxurious, so surely this is a fantastic idea to up the sale price?
No, it isn’t. Ironically it does the exact opposite of what you hope. Pool installations decrease the value of your home because they’re highly impractical. You forget that a pool requires lots of ongoing maintenance with numerous tasks carried out each month. According to expert estimations, you’ll pay anywhere between £45-£85 per month in pool maintenance costs. And this doesn’t take into account the cost of chemical treatments and other equipment you may need. People don’t want to inherit a pool because of the maintenance – and because it is so hard to dig one up and remove it. It is easily one of the worst renovations you can make, so steer clear at all costs.
Exterior Living Spaces – Increase Value
Exterior living space refers to a series of renovation ideas that bring your living area outside. This includes patio or decking, with either option proven to boost the property value. Homeowners love having somewhere outside to relax and enjoy themselves, particularly when the weather is nice. A lot of people will want an outdoor living area, so having one already installed will make their life easier!
The key is making your exterior living space easier to maintain – which is why patio is arguably more popular than decking. Protecting this area from the elements and UV rays is also highly important, which is why it’s useful to build a patio/decking cover over it. You can learn more here about that, using special glazing bars and polycarbonate sheets to create a protective roofing area that adds even more value to your outdoor living space.
Built-In Installations – Decrease Value
This is another renovation that covers a whole load of different things. The concept of “built-in installations” revolves around building things into the structure of your home. For example, you build a desk into a wall or you have wardrobes built into the walls in your bedrooms. Again, like a pool, this feels like a really cool idea. It makes your home different and built-in additions can improve practicality and save space in some scenarios.
Unfortunately, they come with a big problem. You may enjoy the practicality of the built-in things, but that doesn’t mean other homeowners will. Someone may not need as much wardrobe storage in their bedroom as you, or they may not want to use that room as a bedroom at all. As a consequence, they’re spending time, effort and money uninstalling a built-in structure because it’s pointless to them. You’re giving them extra work to do, which is going to bite you!
Think twice before adding cool built-in additions to your home as they take value away from your property rather than adding to it.
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Extensions – Increase Value
Any type of home extension will typically increase the value of a property. Why? Well, it goes back to the loft conversion idea; you’re adding more rooms to your home. With an extension, you can add one, two or a handful of new rooms. This is hugely beneficial whether you wish to sell or rent out your home.
When selling, you can now put your house on the market with more rooms, meaning it will be worth more than before. If you’re putting it on the market for tenants to rent, you also have more rooms and can cater to bigger families. Or, even better, the added space means you can split the home into multiple apartments and get money from multiple tenants at once.
Extensions require a lot of manual construction, but they are one of the best renovations you can make. Often, the cost of buying a small house and extending it upwards or outwards is cheaper than buying a bigger house to start with.
Bedroom Conversions – Decrease Value
A bedroom conversion is when you take a spare bedroom and turn it into something else. This could be a personal study, home office, cinema room or even an extra living area. All of these ideas sound like they can add serious value to your home. In truth, they can do the opposite.
Now, there is a slight caveat here that bedroom conversions become less negative the more bedrooms you have. For example, converting a bedroom in a 5-bedroom house into a different room will not be as big of a problem as doing the same thing in a 3-bedroom house. You’ll still have plenty of bedrooms to keep people interested.
You see, most buyers concern themselves with bedrooms when searching for properties. It’s understandable; they need to ensure there are enough bedrooms for their family, plus any guests. If you take a bedroom and remove it, you’re making life harder for future buyers. They’ll have to re-convert the room into a bedroom, which costs money and means they’ll try to bargain for a lower sale price.
In addition to this, there’s a huge issue with marketing your home. You have to put it on the market as a 2-bedroom house if you convert the 3rd bedroom into something else. Immediately, you could miss out on viewings because everyone looking for 3-bedroom homes will miss yours! If you are converting bedrooms, make them easy to un-convert and do this yourself before you put your house on the market.
Garage Installations – Increase Value
We shall end with one final renovation that increases the value of your property; garage installations.
Adding a garage to a home without one is a huge move. The humble garage is highly sought after for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, having a place to securely park your car is a big win for homeowners. It protects a valuable asset and can help you lower your car insurance premium.
Secondly, a garage gives your property some extra space. It can be used to keep your car, but it can also be open to interpretation. Many people take garages and convert them into home gyms or outdoor offices. If the garage is attached to the home it could be turned into a dedicated washroom or storage area. The fact is, if you have a garage for someone to manipulate, you’re going to get more money for your home. People will spot the potential here and will be eager to snap up your property for a higher asking price.
However, ensure that you don’t make any massive alterations to your garage. If you’ve already converted it to a gym and keep all the flooring in there for the next owner, they’ll have more work to do and will not like it as much!
Overall, some renovation ideas are way better than others. The key to a good renovation is ensuring it adds something positive to your home. This could be improved practicality or more living space. The best improvements will be universally liked, while the worst ones do things to your home that are hard to undo and won’t appeal to everyone. So, if you have recently bought a project house or wish to sell your property for profit, consider adding the good ideas from this list and avoiding the bad ones.
The post The Best & Worst Home Renovation Ideas That Increase/Decrease Property Value appeared first on StreetWise Journal.
