[10 min. read]

Your ROI on Home Improvement.

We’re sure you want to get your money’s worth, so GR Design and Construction Firm is providing you with the insights necessary to know WHAT your investment is worth. That “WHAT” is called your ARV and it stands for After Repair Value. It is the metric used by tax assessors to evaluate if your house is worth more, same average or priced less.

Another terminology we’ll be discussing is ROI, or otherwise Return On Investment. For those homeowners who don’t know this term. This metric shows you the profit you’d make from paying for renovations. When you use this metric you’d find out exactly how to spend household expenditures to increase profit, home value, and fix the necessary responsibilities in daily life.

Congratulations on homeownership!!! and even if this is not your first rodeo, you need to know key things that make your home ownership easier, better, and more efficient. Employ your dollars in the right direction with confidence. Know where it goes, and how it grows. As a design and build firm providing professional construction services, We can attest that certain upgrades are tax preferential when renovating your home. 

Here’s 4 improvements and a rule of thumb to keep handy so you remember what actually works. 

1. Kitchen
2. Bathroom
3. Basement
4. Bedrooms

KITCHEN

The kitchen is one of most important renovations you can make in your home. Why? Because the family spends the most time in the kitchen. This area is responsible for where breakfast gets made in the morning, lunch gets prepared in the evenings, and where dinner is cooked in the night. An updated Kitchen raises home value, it not only is an enjoyable experience for you but also has worth when comparing homes in the housing market. Improvements in the kitchen such as painting, installing or painting cabinets, painting the room, upgrading electrical, upgrading the plumbing and having stainless steel appliances are the improvements that move the needle. Repairs in this room all counts towards a better home price evaluation. This matters to you because the ARV is the factor that determines your home value, and these improvements increase your repair value. The difference between an investment and a repair are differiantiated by size of project and material replacement. For example, fixing one corroded pipe in your drainage system is not as significant as replacing the old pipes in the drainage system with copper pipes. Keeping this aspect in mind is essential to know what addresses the problem — not just puts a patch on it, and how the service makes your home appreciate in value. To sum it up, painting your kitchen, installing new or painting kitchen cabinets, drywall repair, drywall installation, plumbing, more wall outlets, installing islands, upgraded cooking/bake areas, dishwasher, flooring, new countertops, natural lighting. These improvement areas insure that your money builds home equity and is not wasted.

BATHROOM

The second most visited area in every home. Some people don't cook at home but everyone uses the bathroom everyday. A bathroom that has the same square feet as a mini closet or a badly designed bathroom seriously cramps your style. Improvements such as new tile (with waterproofing construction), functional bathroom sink, updated plumbing, insulation, drywall repair, and rewiring light switches/replacing lighting are major factors that increase home value.

Best Bathroom Renovations to Increase ARV

Preventing Disasters starts with maintaining the integrity of materials. Don’t wait until the toilet is stopped up, that’s risking a flood and a wretched smell. Call your plumber into check if your pipes are in good shape. If you haven't guessed it…. the #1 thing to fix or upgrade in any bathroom renovation is Plumbing. The pipes in your home carry the water you use to shower, the water you rinse your mouth when brushing your teeth, the water used to cook or boil meals. What if those pipes are corroded, moldy, and barely working? Yuck right? Yeah a scary eye opener I know. What happens if the pipes then leaks or bursts due to rust? Or is it corrosion?… that gradually happened over time? Clogged? Due to oversized or hazardous materials being flushed? All of these outcomes result from bad plumbing. That of which leads to water leaking from your ceilings and walls. Not fun. Call reliable contractors to upgrade your plumbing to make sure you’re drinking and using clean no bacteria water for daily use. Prerably us, if you live in one of our service areas.

Painting. Right after plumbing comes painting and drywall. Why? To access the pipes, plumbers have to cut into your walls. The drywall and painting guys are the ones who patch up or build that wall that needs to be replaced. It also makes a house a home. Painting makes an unfinished room finished. The icing on the cake but it has more than just aesthetic purposes. The paints and primers protect your bathroom from holding water in the wood preventing the risk of mold forming due to condensation from constant showering.

BASEMENT

Having a finished basement appreciates your home value for various reasons. Those reasons are… additional livable square feet(room conversion/additional unit), proper maintainance of electric meter and other utilities, and multipurpose reasons. What multi-purpose reasons? A home office… private cinema... a private gym.. Indoor pool…you can think of the possibilities. Those possibilities is what tax assessors and other home owners view as valuable. Especially because some people use the basement just as storage for anything that can't fit or don't want to be seen within the units. This point is straight to the point because its self explanatory and we’ve already covered ground with this value-add.

BEDROOMS

Spacious or cozy rooms? Big rooms or small rooms. What do you want to see when looking for a place to live? If a room is big enough to be converted into 2 rooms then it’s like finding gold. While we’re on the topic, room conversions are a great value add. They create more liveable space, more rooms for families or rental. The name of the game is square feet. Getting back to the bedroom though, the value-add renovations in this space are intrinsic.

Think all things that makes a space livable. Natural lighting is a big one, Is there enough windows in the room? What about the layout? Is it an awkward badly designed floorplan? Call an architect asap. You may have to call a contractor that has a license, to pull city permits to make those changes to the floorplan. Nonetheless adding a window makes a property more likely to sell in the market. Redesigning the layout rejuvenates the vibe in the space also attracting prospective buyers for your home. Improvements like that falls under the category of Remodeling. Think of remodeling as a update. While renovations adhere to upgrading a home’s current floorplan and components, Remodeling is replacing those aspects entirely. Not to be confused with replacing materials, upgrades are considered remodels when it comes to the home’s structure. Removing a non-bearing wall? Remodel. Room conversion? Remodel. Drafting 2D floorplans and designing a new house or store establishment? Remodel. These remodeling projects are a great value-add.

Rule of Thumb. Your biggest return on investment will be money spent on these value-add renovations/remodels. The most significant value-adds that impact and influence the ARV are those services mentioned. When renovating or remodeling, these things are key renovations. Painting, Plumbing, Electrical, Drywall Installation and Repair. When it comes to Remodeling, Room Conversions, Adding sq. feet, Finishing the basement, etc.

There’s more to say but this article is getting too long. We’re approaching the 10 minute mark. If you’d like for us to elaboarate. Comment below requesting a part 2.

Until next time ladies and gentleman!