How Much Should I Do???

Many of my clients have asked me over the years… “Should I do this?” or “Will I get my money back if I do this?” Or maybe they will tell me… “I am going to do this… it should raise the value of my home by thousands.”

What is the answer to those great ideas? Is there really and answer? To be honest with you, I don’t know if anyone knows the real answer here. But a few stories from personal examples may bring some light into it.

In 1976, I bought an old home that had been built in 1899. It was a mixture of Victorian and Colonial style… and was absolutely beautiful; or at least it was to me. We had another home to live in, and so I began the long and enduring challenge of “fixing it up.” It had 16 foot ceilings; the windows were about 12 feet tall, a wrap around front porch with huge columns. The supports (I guess it could be called a foundation) were in pretty good condition, but the inside needed a major overhaul. It was not a project to make money so much as to move in and live there “for the rest of my life… ha ha)!

Weekends and nights were the hours of operation, and soon, it began taking shape. I had the Living Room and Dining Room completed… and was about to start on the kitchen… a major undertaking! Along this time, my wife decided that we just HAD to move into it. After much delay, I finally succumbed to her pressure and decided that after the kitchen was finished, we would move in.

It was a disaster. We got moved in and then the work stopped… Each evening, I would have to move everything to work, then put it back… and finally decided to cosmetically cover the rest of the home and sell it. It was too much… and I now hated the home!

The emphasis that I have not made is that of the work itself. When we started the work, we uncovered more work. Each project brought on even more projects. A few bucks here and there became a major undertaking of expensive trials. When all said and done, it was definitely not worth the expense to “Fix up and Sell!”

A friend of mine in Iowa is remodeling his home. He has found major work when trying to remodel or remedy small problems that he has found. Not that this is a bad thing, but it seems to be a never ending problem of details. Almost daily we chat and he has new and better stories to tell me each day.

I have read publications that indicate that if you spend money on your home, you can expect to get about 10% of your expense back on your home. If it is Kitchen remodel or adding a bath, the estimates go up a good deal. But painting, hardwoods, tile, and other amenities that make the home a lot nicer, usually have very little impact on the sales price of your home… although it will definitely make it more sellable.

Most “do it yourselfers” often get stared in a project and don’t have the skills or knowledge to finish it, especially when you find things or uncover things that need to be corrected as you go. Thus brings about an even greater challenge of paying someone to finish or sometimes “Fix” what you have done.

Major repairs such as electrical and or plumbing on older homes can become expensive because they need to be brought up to meet the current code rather than just “fix” them. Again, these items can get really expensive.

My answer? I still don’t have one. If you want to make changes in your home that you know you can do… and want to do them for your own enjoyment, and then do so! If you want to do them to make the home more sellable, then do so! But if you’re trying to raise the value of your home… find out what the market conditions for your neighborhood. See how your home’s “worth” stacks up with the rest of the neighborhood. Then do the research and find out how much it will cost do the things you want to do. If you can justify them, then by all means do so. It’s been my experience over the years though, if your thinking of selling do the least amount of “expense” work that is possible to make it look as good as you can and move it out.

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