Bathroom and Kitchen Projects and the Value of Your home

Are you in the process of renovating your home and wondering what impact those remodels will have on the value of your property? In particular, are you asking if upgrading the kitchen and bathroom in your home is the best use of your money? If you answered yes to these questions, this article is just the thing you are looking for.

Due to the rate at which new home designs enter the market and old ones become obsolete, remodeling sections of your home is now the standard way to protect your property’s value, explains McKenna & Vane Management Company. Strategic remodels done occasionally help keep your home from becoming outdated. These upgrades do not have to be wholesale overhauls; they just need to target key areas of the home.

Regardless of which part of the home is remodeled, every good home improvement project is expected to do the following for the property:

Improve its aesthetics

Since the visual appeal of your home is the first basis on which the home is assessed, the project must make the home more desirable. This is important because people’s first impressions of your home matter. All other things will not count if potential buyers do not find the home attractive.

Improve functionality

Any additions to the house should make the home easier and more comfortable to live in. The upgrade could make better use of existing space, or it could add more space. It could introduce functions that were missing in the old features of the home. Or it could reduce the overall cost of living in the house.

Boost the home’s value

Buyers will automatically rate a home higher if the remodeling project delivers real value. All buyers want a home that costs less to maintain but offers more. They also want a home they can show off to their acquaintances. If your home does these well, it won’t be hard to convince buyers of the value of the property.

That said, how much value should you expect when you remodel your home? What qualifies as a reasonable ROI? Is it realistic to aim for a 100% return on investment?

The bare-boned fact is you will not get back 100% of the money you spent on a home improvement project. The most you can expect is to get back some of your money. How much will depend on the type of project.

How will a bathroom or kitchen renovation affect the value of your home?

As already stated, no home upgrade will return 100% of your money. Having this in mind will keep you from passing up good offers to sell the home because you are holding out for a higher price. Before you do the project, it is a good idea to set a realistic target for how much you want to realize when you eventually sell the property.

Here is how a kitchen or bathroom upgrade will impact the value of your home.

On average, a bathroom remodel will increase your home’s value by 56.2% to 70.1% of the cost of the project, depending on whether you did an upscale remodel or a midrange renovation respectively. But to achieve that level of return the aspects of the bathroom you renovate also matter. The highest performing bathroom renovations are:

New bathroom addition – Adding a new bathroom trumps other bathroom renovations because it extends the functionality of the home more than any other bathroom project.

Improved layout – The next best bathroom remodel after adding a new bathroom is making better use of the floor plan to achieve ease of movement and improved use.

Add energy-efficient features – Improved lighting with energy-saving bulbs and mood lighting, as well as water-saving plumbing features; these are features that buyers value.

Others – Installing a walk-in shower with a glass door, rainfall shower, and new plumbing hardware will help the overall appeal of your bathroom.

For kitchen remodels as with other home improvements, the more expensive the project, the lower the ROI. That’s because even if a costly remodel will make your home more attractive, other factors influence your property’s value. Two of those factors are the value of neighboring homes and how much demand there is for a particular kitchen remodel.

Generally, however, you can expect between 53.5% and 81.1% ROI on your kitchen remodel. Upscale projects fetch an ROI in the range of 53.5%. For midrange projects, you can expect a return of 59%. But the highest performing remodels, at 81.1%, are minor kitchen remodels, perhaps because the lower cost of the project makes it so easy to recoup the investment.

These are the kitchen remodeling projects that perform best:

Replacing outdated or damaged countertops

Refreshing the cabinets by repainting or refacing them

Replacing plumbing and cabinet hardware like faucet and cabinet knobs, pulls or handles.

Improved lighting, including recessed lighting and under cabinet LED strip lighting

Installing energy-efficient appliances

Expanding the kitchen space

Installing a kitchen island