Top 3 Home Improvements That Can Increase Your Property Valuation

As we start to approach Spring I thought I would write about the top 3 ways to increase your homes value with DIY updates. 

Spring time is a great time of year to dust off those tools and start making some alterations after the terrible winter we went through this year.

I recently interviewed several property buying company’s to see what home additions add the most value when they consider buying or selling a property. 

I then used online property valuation tools such as ones from https://www.propertycashbuyers.com/online-property-valuation/ to see the values before and after improvements.

Here are the top 3 home improvements, based on return on investment, they suggested homeowners make if they wanted to make the property more valuable.

#5 Changing your kitchen door fronts to revamp a tired kitchen.

If your kitchen is looking tired than spending a small amount on replacing kitchen doors can transform a room. Most kitchens have standard units so buying new door fronts and handles can make the kitchen look brand new. 

Changing 12 doors will normally cost around £360 and several companies told me it could add between £3,000-£6,000 to your property value.

#4 Paint the walls in neutral colors to help sell a property quicker.

The next most popular response from our panel was to repaint all the home in neutral colours. This is especially true in living rooms, kitchens and dining areas. The overall feedback was that loud colours often make a property less appealing and could affect the property value due to some vibrant colours not being to everyone’s taste.

Consider toning down colours but retaining a personal feel with colourfull paintings or furniture as these can be easily changed and still make the room intone with your personal taste.

#3 Increasing a home’s valuation by clearning the garden

Now that we are entering Spring it is a perfect time to action this tip. Often the garden is overlooked during the winter months and we are all sometimes guilty of getting used to things. The cheapest improvement suggested was to just ensure the grass and hedges are trimmed as it makes the garden look larger more inviting. A slightly more expensive suggestion was to layer the garden which gives a greater sense of depth. The obvious logic behind this is larger gardens are more appealing to families which are normally the biggest market in your quest to sell a property.

#2 Replacing the bathroom in your property

Whilst this improvement is a little costlier it pays for itself several times over. The professional property buyers told me that if they buy an old property the first thing they do is replace the bathroom. 

Because the bathroom is often heavily used it get start to look tired very quickly. Bathrooms are also the most common room in a property to suffer from mold and damp which can be very off-putting for potential buyers. After researching a little online I found the average cost to replace a bathroom was around £2,000 including labour.

The companies I spoke with told me they would normally offer around £3,000-£4,000 more for a property which had a brand new bathroom fitted so this tip not only pays for itself but gives you a room you can enjoy.

#1 The best home improvement you can make to increase a properties valueis splitting one bedroom into two.

Out of all the feedback gathered from industry professionals they all said adding another bedroom increased a properties value by up to £10,000-£15,000.

This is especially true in 2 bedroom properties where most families want 3 bedrooms for a growing family or the flexibility to have a home office or guest room.

The easiest way to create an additional bedroom without the huge cost of building an extension was to split the often large front bedroom into two with a petition wall. It can be surprisingly easy to achieve by constructing a wall down the center of the room and a small hallway connecting each room.

You can find low cost builders from websites such as www.mybuilder.com and initial research estimates the cost to be between £1000-£5000 including all labour and materials.

I hope you enjoyed this article and please post any questions of comments below along with sharing on social media.

Writer – Amanda is a property and home improvement blogger who has been buying and refurbishing properties along with documenting her journey to help other homeowners.
You can read more of her articles on decordecoratinganddesign.com.

from Home My Heaven: Home Improvement Blog http://www.homemyheaven.co.uk/2017/03/top-home-improvements.html