Home Remodeling Advice: Avoid Overbuilding

When remodeling your home, one of the most important pieces of advice to follow is to avoid overbuilding. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that you want to increase the value of the house relative to the neighborhood that it is in. If you overbuild, or remodel the wrong things, you won't get a reasonable return on the investment when you sell. Although you might be planning to live in your home for a long time, you should always consider what would happen if you were forced to sell due to unforeseen circumstances.

To avoid overbuilding, you must first know the average cost of the homes in your neighborhood. A local real estate agent should be able to provide a market analysis for little to no cost. When you improve your home, you should aim to increase the value to no more than 20 percent about the neighborhood market rate. That assumes that you will be selling your home in a strong market. In a weak market you might want to be more cautious and avoid going over the market value at all. Of course it is hard to know what the market will be when you move in the future, but keep in mind the cyclical nature of real estate.

The next thing you can do to prevent overbuilding is to prioritize your needs/wants list. It's highly unlikely you have the budget or time for every project that you would like to have done, so it's necessary to decide which remodels to do first. There are few different ways to decide what is important. Part of this is just personal preference. If you've been dreaming of a sun room for years, that might be a high priority for you. But most homeowners will want to get the most return on the projects that they undertake. An outdated kitchen can hurt your home's resale value, so you might want to start by updating your kitchen. If you only have one bathroom but most of homes in the neighborhood have two, adding an extra bath might be the best use of your money.

While it is important to consider resale value of the home, it isn't the only thing you should look at. Above all else, consider your family's needs. While the rules of remodeling will apply to most families, others will have special needs. Larger families might need to spend more so that their home can be comfortable for everyone. Other families might need to make their home wheelchair accessible.

It might seem difficult to make a list of wanted and needed remodels, prioritize, and budget for the most important ones, but it is an important step in remodeling ones home. You and your spouse need to consider both short term needs along with long term factors, such as the house resale value. Since you're unlikely to have the same ideas, compromises will be needed on both sides. By keeping these things in mind you'll be able to get the most out of your home remodeling budget.