renovation

Oct 25

How Bathroom & Kitchen Renovation Projects Can Affect the Value of Your Home

By Jacki Resources

Do you want to boost or maintain the value of your home?

If your answer is yes, then consider executing some renovations. Homeowners engage in upgrades for various reasons. Sometimes, they intend to improve the functionality and aesthetics of the home to enjoy the property. Other times, they renovate the house to boost its value and make more returns on investment after selling the home.

No matter your reasons for home upgrades, it is essential to note one vital fact; not all renovations will boost the value of your home. Some remodeling may improve the aesthetics of your property without adding quality, warns Rollingwood Management . However, there are upgrades proven to increase the home’s value. That brings us to bathroom and kitchen renovations.

Bathroom and kitchen renovations are among the top-ranking upgrades that can boost the value of a home. That is because these two areas influence the amounts that buyers are willing to pay for the property.

Also, bathroom and kitchen remodeling are deciding factors whether buyers will choose the property or not. From survey results, both kitchen and bathroom upgrades have high joy scores because they offer the most enjoyment to homeowners.

How much do kitchen and bathroom renovations improve the home’s value?

Kitchen renovations are costlier than bathroom upgrades by twice the price. In addition, kitchen remodeling adds more value to the home than bathroom renovations. The average return on investment for bathroom renovation is 57.2%, compared to 69% for kitchen upgrades. These rates of returns vary based on several factors. They include floor size, the scale of renovation, and the specific features that homeowners upgrade.

How bathroom renovation can affect the value of your home

There are three levels of bathroom renovations: upscale, midrange, and minor. If homeowners sell the property after bathroom renovations, they can recover 60% to 70% of their investment on the upgrades. In cases where the homeowners do not intend to sell the property, they will enjoy maximum satisfaction from the upgraded features.

Upscale and midrange bathroom renovations offer a joy score of 9.6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Midrange upgrades deliver more returns than upscale remodeling. However, upscale upgrades perform better than midrange remodeling on the joy scores. As a result, upscale bathroom renovations will make the property sell quicker for homeowners who intend to sell the property.

If you spend up to $65,000 on bathroom renovations, expect to recoup about 60.2% of that money. However, you should expect a return of 67.2% of your investment in bathroom renovation if you spend around $20,000.

Bathroom renovations that offer the best returns on investment are:

Installing energy-efficient features that reduce electricity and water bills like energy-saving bulbs, low-flow toilets, and faucets.
Install a heated floor.
Repair and repaint the walls.
Improve lighting and allow more natural light.
Replace the floors.
Install an exhaust fan to reduce humidity.
Upgrade the vanity area; add granite countertops and modern sinks.
Replace outdated and worn plumbing fixtures with new ones.
Install a rain showerhead that has multiple flow settings.
Install a walk-in shower with a glass enclosure.
Update the cabinets.

How kitchen renovation can affect the value of your home

Like bathroom renovations, kitchen upgrades also have three levels: minor, midscale, and upscale. On average, kitchen renovations offer a return of between 60% to 80% of homeowners’ investments on the upgrade. Kitchen renovations rank as the best interior upgrade for improving the value of a property.

However, homeowners should note that the increase in value is not because the renovation is expensive. If the upgrades you conduct are costly, it doesn’t mean that you will earn more returns. For kitchen renovations, minor and midscale remodelings offer more returns than the major ones. But major remodelings will help you sell the house quicker.

Minor upgrades may involve things such as deep cleaning, repainting walls, upgrading appliances and countertops, and replacing or refacing drawer front and cabinet doors. Major kitchen renovations include the ones that involve expanding the floor space, removing or rerouting the plumbing, and replacing the floors.

Kitchen upgrades that deliver the most value are:

Installing new floors.
Installing a new backsplash.
Buying new appliances.
Adding extra storage with a pantry or an island.
Installing new cabinets with under-cabinet lighting.
Creating an open floor plan by merging the kitchen and dining.
Painting the kitchen in modern colors.
Installing stone or stainless-steel countertops.
Implementing smart storage ideas.
Changing plumbing fixtures.

The bottom line

A do-it-yourself approach to bathroom and kitchen renovations will not add more value to your home. Instead, it would be best if you hire experts to execute the project. Your aim for the renovation should be to enhance the functionality, improve the quality of life, replace damaged items, and improve the overall design.

[Guest blog post by our friend Michael Francis of Rollingwood Management]

Jul 15

Love0

Creating the Perfect Home Office: Tips & Tricks

By Jacki Resources

Many Austin, Texas based companies have decided against transitioning employees back to the office after over a year of working form home, despite restrictions becoming a lot more relaxed. Working from home has become the new norm for many of us, and lots of people have grown to actually prefer working this way. This means that those make-shift home offices (such as sprawling out across the coffee table in the middle of the living room) may not cut it anymore. It’s the perfect time to take the plunge and commit to renovating a new office in your Austin, Texas home.

Find The Right Space

It’s important to find the right space for your home office. An underutilized spare bedroom, or an unnecessary dining room are great candidates from a home office conversion project. If options such as these are unavailable, you can always think outside the box and look into converting a garage or adding a home extension. However, these options often require even more planning, budgeting and proper permitting from the city.

Check for Required Power Connections

Once you’ve chosen the right space it’s time to make sure it contains enough required power connections for your home office needs. Take some time to think about how power connections are necessary for all of your work from home needs; this can include plugins for your router, computer, second monitor, lighting, as well as laptop, tablet and phone chargers. You may find it’s time to consult with an electrician.

Design Around Your Needs

Not all work-from-home jobs are the same, so make sure to consider all of your own unique home office needs when tackling your home office conversion project. For example, if your job requires a lot of video conferencing think about the kind of lighting and backdrop space is needed. We recommend really thinking about your own daily work tasks when designing, building, converting and renovating to accommodate!

Select a Desk & Comfortable Chair

These two things make a big difference. Your desk should meet all of your needs for storage and devices. The right chair is one that doesn’t cause an achey back at the end of the day. Pro-tip: read reviews or even try sitting on different ergonomic chairs at office supply stores before buying one. We also suggest measuring your home office space before buying these things, so that you know they will fit properly.

Incorporate storage

A functional home office requires an appropriate amount of home storage. Make sure you leave enough room for filing cabinets, shelving and even building out a storage closet if necessary when planning and measuring out the conversion. If you are converting a bedroom, you can utilize the existing closet as office storage.

Personalize the Space

Once all the heavy lifting is done its time to personalize the space. Personal touches can help with daily work motivation and inspiration. Think about paint, plants, accents and art that you want to personalize your work space with. HGTV has some great decor ideas here.

The Good News

Creating the perfect home office may require a lot of work, but there are plenty of benefits to having this dedicated workspace: more inspiration, higher productivity, and even some tax write-offs (especially for those of ya’ll who are self employed). We hope you are able to find the perfect spot to create your own home office. We are here to help as well! If you’re ready to commit to creating your own home office, contact us today for a free quote.