Increasing the Value of Your Home

What do you want to do?

When you first start to consider remodeling your home, chances are you have so many ideas you don't know what to do. In fact, the more you think about it the more ideas will come to mind. So how do you make such a big decision with seemingly endless possibilities. You have to start eliminating the impractical and unrealistic ideas and start honing in on ideas that could actually work. If you want to increase your Portland home value the potential return on all the different ideas you have should help determine the correct course of action.

What can you actually do?

Your budget is another limiting factor that should eliminate many of the outlandish ideas your brain can come up with. You have a certain amount of money that you can allocate for a remodel project so you have to be sure that you are spending your money wisely.

What is Your Portland Home Worth?

If you are trying to gauge the value of remodeling your home it helps to first learn its current value. Most homeowners can make a pretty close estimate of the value of their home, but it is still worth doing your research. Websites like Trulia, Redfin, and Zillow can come in handy. See what similar homes in your neighborhood are selling for will give you a solid idea of your homes current market value. Zillow and Trulia even allow you to get a free estimate of your home simply by plugging in your information.

What you should do

You might notice that the most prominent elements on the home listing websites is bed/bath and square footage. This is obviously because those three factors have the greatest impact on a home's current market value. If your home has significantly less square footage or bedrooms than your neighbors then the value of your home will be a fraction of theirs. If this is the case then a home addition, or converting your attic or basement into livable square footage could have a huge ROI.

Then again, if your the value of your home is extremely high relative to your neighbors, there isn't much chance that remodeling would have any significant impact on your home's overall value. In fact, in that case your run the risk of pricing your home out of the market. We always tell our remodel clients that their budget should be in proportion to the home's current value.

The final consideration is just how long you plan to live in your current home. If your is to sell your home in the next 5 years then it is not wise to overinvest in home improvements. Curb appeal and critical maintenance issues should be your main focus. On the other hand, if you expect to live in this home for the next 10-20 years, then your decision making process is different. You should start thinking about which specific investments are important to you. And since you will have to live with these decisions for the next decade or two, you really shouldn't rush your decision. If you need help coming up with a plan just remember that Steve's is here for you.

See additional info on: http://steves-home-improvement.com