Renovating your home is a great way to enhance your lifestyle, comfort and health, plus it can be a smart way to increase the value of your home on re-sale.
If you want to maintain the original look of your home and/or retain its character, then you can retrofit modern systems into the home in such a way that they are not noticeable, and retain your home’s original charm.
Or you can remodel and create an entirely new look – the choice is yours.
Either way, if you plan on living in your home for the foreseeable future, then remodelling it to suit your needs is a great way to get full enjoyment out of it, so feel free to run wild with your plans.
But if you plan to move in the next few years then it is smart to take a moment to consider if your changes are going to have wide spread appeal.
It is important to understand that not all renovations add instant value to your house.
In fact, some modifications can depreciate the value of your home and drive potential buyers away.
Bathrooms
Adding a new bathroom or kitchen to a house are the two renovation items that time and time again prove to push up the price of a property. So, on the outset a bathroom overhaul appears to be a smart renovation decision.
But before you rip out your old, dated shower to install something flash and new, take a moment to break down the cost of the job.
The price of a bathroom renovation can quickly add up, some of the factors that can seriously push up the price include moving load bearing walls, moving plumbing, rewiring outdated electrical systems and replacing water damaged drywall. These necessary evils can empty your wallet and outweigh the financial benefit of a bathroom renovation.
Spare bedrooms
Once the children have flown the coup it can extremely tempting to turn that spare bedroom into a study, hobby room, or maybe your own personal gym.
But by essentially removing a bedroom you are limiting your home’s appeal to a large percentage of the market. The average Kiwi family is on the hunt for a three-bedroom home, not two bedrooms and a study.
This is not to say you shouldn’t go ahead with your project, but make sure whatever renovations you do make can be easily undone and converted back into a bedroom.
Swimming pools
On the surface, installing a swimming pool in your backyard can make your home look pretty impressive.
But let’s face it, we can have pretty limited summers and sometimes we’re lucky to get six weeks of hot weather when you can freely use a pool.
Bearing this in mind a pool can be considered an unwanted burden by many potential buyers who don’t want to wear the cost of maintaining it. This investment is very unlikely to pay off in the long run.
