What would be some easy, reasonably priced, upgrades to do to a home and/or landscape to improve the value of your property? General ideas will do. Thanks.
Upgrades in these two areas are gonna get you most bang for your bucks. - Kitchen: upgrades on countertop, island, cabinets, lighting, ceramic backdrops, etc. - Master bathroom: fancy/colorful ceramic tiles, whirlpool (not the brand name) bathtub, upgrades on vanity and commode, showerheads, faucets, etc.
i would do any kind of landscaping that you can do. its very inexpensive and if anything will help you sell the house faster.
If you're talking about for resale soon or something, the 3 areas that have the best recoup on resale are probably : 1) The front yard. Curb appeal. Get them in. Flowers in the flower bed and a well kept lawn for example. 2) Master bedroom/bath. 3) Kitchen. When you sell a house, you're pretty much trying to convince women to buy your house... just keep that in mind. The easiest of all these are upgrading things like door hardware and light fixtures. Also another fairly easy upgrade is paint. Don't let people walk into a house where every room is white. In the kitchen, definitely upgrading the counters to stone (granite, silestone, zodiaq, etc.) is a plus. Installing deep sinks and upgrading the faucets are a plus. Forbes or Kiplinger ran an article on this about a year ago... search the Internet - it's been covered a few times by a few mags since it's such a common question.
"reasonably priced" - paint, ceiling fans, door trim/handles, tile backsplashes, faucets Doing new vanities and countertops aren't going to be reasonable really. Granite starts out at $28/sq ft and custom vanities (cultured marble) are about $20-$25/sq. ft. Sinks are a pain to upgrade because you'll may end up having to re-do the drainage and lines, which could get pricey if you bring a plumber in.
Theres a show on HGTV where they have professionals do walk-throughs on home to prep them (cheaply) for sale. Not sure what it's called, but it should give you some ideas about what's important.
home depot lowes i would not use them for install. I have met many people that complain about them and they are also overpriced. if you are in houston private message me i will give you a good company to contact good prices etc.
I read once the best $4$ 'bang for your buck' upgrade is a backyard patio/deck. It is MUCH MUCH cheaper than kitchen/bath upgrades and adds to the "livable" space of the house esp if the backyard is barren. Cost: Probably $1-2k Asking price: +$5-10k A new countertop, albeit not granite, is relatively cheap and can make a worn out kitchen look 100x better. Cost: maybe $500-1000 Asking Price: +$4-5k Paint the front door and replace tired light fixtures. Concentrate on making the entry way nice and fresh. Install annual flowers in the front beds. Do anything else cheap and easy to increase the "curb appeal." Those improvements are usually cheap. Cost: $500 Asking Price: +$1,000 New Paint Cost: $2-3k (done professionally) Asking Price: +$3-4k New Carpet Cost: $3k Asking Price: + $5-6k Replace any fixtures, faucets, etc that look worn. Cost: $2-300 Asking Price: +$2-3k DISCLAIMER: All this depends on a lot of crap and my #'s are totally bogus and made up and DEFINATELY don't perfectly apply to any specific situation. But you gotta know what houses sell for around you. Don't make a bunch of improvements and expect your place to significantly outsell others around you. But if you think yours is undervalued, then you really stand to spend some $$ to match the neighborhood. Spending $3,000 on improvements right before you sell seems like a lot but normally you'll easily double that when it gets sold. Watch that HGTV show (Designed to Sell) as they film people walking through houses and people DEFINATELY notice and comment on the improvements.
A friend of mine sells houses for a living. He tells everyone that the best return on your investment is landscaping. According to him, you'll get approximately triple your investment on the return.
Investment in the house or the landscaping? I still say kitchens and bathrooms are where most money should go.
Wnes nailed it. Kitchen and bathrooms are the key. I bought a pretty crappy house and have been fixing it up - Now that both bathrooms are done I get a lot of compliments on them. All that's left in my kitchen is new tile - and that alone should make me enough money to pay for all the renovations plus some profit.
