5 Ways To Add Value To Your Home

Given how much money you spent on your home in the first place, the chances are that you want to do what you can to increase your investment. While house prices tend to rise and fall of their own accord, some homeowners manage to almost double the value of their house by the time they sell.

As you can imagine, increases like these are unlikely if you do nothing. Still, drastically increasing value might not be as much effort as you’d otherwise assume. There can be some quick wins, like transforming rooms such as making a conservatory as a bedroom, or a full size cupboard into a walk in wardrobe. Or, simple redecorating jobs.

Whatever measures you consider, we’re going to look at five reasonably simple ways to guarantee home investment, and the options to look at for instantly adding value to your home.

Extend square footage

Extending can increase property value by up to 30%. That’s a fair amount given how much your home was worth in the first place. If you’re unsure, consider the price per square footage in your area, and then work out how much even a small extension could earn. A home addition is often considered when people don’t have the real desire to move house, but would benefit from having extra space, ideally to make their home a forever home. And as mentioned, they will add value to your home.

Kitchen extensions are a popular option and add a great deal of value, but even living room extensions or new bedrooms could work wonders. Note, too, that outside additions also extend square footage, so a conservatory or garage could both have an impact. The most modern types of conservatories these days come with floor to ceiling windows and a solid conservatory roof to make these spaces perfect for all year round and not just the summer months.

Update your windows

Updating windows can always make a massive difference from a value perspective. Something like the sash double glazed windows or even replacing old stained glass into something more modern can look amazing. Remember it’s also more about improve the energy efficiency of your home as well as the visual appearance, too.

By updating any old and single-paned window options, you could add up to 10% onto property value. Even better, modern windows like new sashes or even bi-folding doors which contain floor to ceiling windows are easy to maintain once fixed, so you can enjoy them for years and still rest easy they’ll one day pay for themselves.

Renovate the rooms you have

It’s also possible to add value by renovating what you’ve got. Studies suggest that something as basic as a bathroom or kitchen renovation can add up to 5% in value. Even if you don’t have the cash flow to do a complete overhaul of the rooms, you can still increase the value by making the renovations based on your budget. Suppose your budget is on a lower scale. In that case, you can make up the difference with sweat equity, from painting the walls yourself to taking off the cupboards and giving them the modern update they need.

Just make sure you do watch a few YouTube DIY videos beforehand, just to catch a few tips. But you can still be a genius shopper when you set out to buy fixtures. Yes, the sales section is your go-to place to save a few pounds. Those same few pounds that you save there is precisely what you need for those stunning shower walls. It’s all in the budgeting, making sure what you really want you can afford by being an intelligent buyer in other areas. The brilliant thing about renovations is that no one needs to know your secrets of what was done professionally and if you actually paid full price on it. Even better than that, renovating an unused attic space could increase costs by around 10%.

According to some studies, a total cellar conversion could even increase by 30%. That’s as much as an actual extension, and unlike an extension, most renovations are tasks you can tackle alone. That guarantees you can keep cellar conversion costs down while still enjoying the returns.

It’s worth nothing that when selling your house, potential buyers will be put off if it looks like the first thing they need to do is to do a full renovation themselves of the kitchen or bathroom. However, one that has been done up recently or has had time and money invested into it to ensure it’s modern will be a huge selling point.

Add a driveway

In an age where most households own multiple cars, it’s also well worth adding a new driveway to your property. Even if this means losing some of your outside space, inner-city homes can increase in price by around £20,000 just from a driveway alone. Everyone these days needs to park their car – or cars – or even offer a space for visitors to be able to safely park when visiting. Again, it’s something that when selling your home becomes a big part of the buyer interest process too.

If your home doesn’t have a driveway currently, yet there is space to do this, it’s worth looking for a company that installs a range of driveway surfaces. For me, who lives across the North of England, I would look for a company like Build a Drive, who specialise in driveways including resin, block paving, gravel, Indian Flagstone, tarmac and pattern imprinted concrete. One of the best options is to opt for Imprinted concrete driveways, as these not only look visually appealing and work well with all brick homes – old and new – but is also hardwearing, so makes the perfect solution for a long-lasting driveway.

A driveway like this will add huge curb appeal to your home, and the specialist team will be able to assist with a range of patterns and colours, so you always have that choice to match your driveaway to your home vision. They are super easy to clean and maintain, therefore definitely worth looking into if you are looking at increasing the value of your home for little work.

Add a garage along with the drive

If you have space at the side of the house, a driveway that has been installed looks perfectly finished off and complete with the addition on a garage. Of course, this would come under an extension, but once you have a practical and handy new driveway at the front of your home, it makes sense to have a garage to give the full package.

Garages can open up to your driveway and encourage a space for people to do DIY and other various work. They can also double up as amazing storage solutions, whether it’s for bulky items like fridge freezers, washing machines and dryers, or a home office or playroom for the children.

Both a garage and a driveway completely ‘finishes’ off the house package, giving potential buyers everything they need for cars, parking and storage.

Remember that if you want to get the most for your home investment, then be sure to always stay on top of it and keep an eye and ear out for things to be doing to keep your home in it’s best shape.