Rockport Area Happenings

Owning a house is likely the biggest investment of your life. As such, maintaining and updating your house is key to ensuring that when, or even if, you sell you’ll get the best return on your investment. Here we present the top 5 home renovations that will help recoup the most amount of money when it comes to selling your home.

Garage Door Replacement

We’ve all heard that first impressions make lasting impressions and while we know about the importance of curb appeal, nothing is going to turn a potential buyer away like a rotting and neglected garage door staring them in the face as they approach the front door. Replacing your garage door with a brand new wood, metal or even vinyl door can greatly improve the look of your home and makes enough difference to allow for a potential recovery of nearly 90% of the cost of purchase and install. As the national average cost to purchase and install a garage door often exceeds $3,000 that means a whopping $2,800 back in your pocket come sale day, virtually paying for the entire expense.

Replace Those Old Windows

Old leaking single-pane windows are not only an eyesore, but they also aren’t terrible efficient causing leaks and adding extra expense to heating and cooling bills. Replacing all the windows in your house is a pretty big expense but when you can recoup nearly 73% of the cost with vinyl windows or 72% with wood, it’s well worth it. To top that off, the amount you’ll save on your utility bills will only add to the amount you’ll recover. With an average national cost of around $14,000 to $18,000 for replacement that’s a hefty price tag but you can expect anywhere from $10,000 to $13,000 in resale value.

Replace Your Front Entrance

Is your current door boring, lacking character, color and charisma? Replace it with a new grand entrance door made of steel, wood or a more modern material like fiberglass and add some nice sidelights. You’ll more than likely have to hire someone to do this install since there will be a fair bit of carpentry and maybe even electrical involved but with a return of almost 70% in resale, it’s definitely worth it. Costs are extremely variable but with an average expenditure of $7,900 you can expect to pocket nearly $5,500 when you sell your home, plus a warm and welcoming entry provides an incredible first impression and just adds so much to the curb appeal.

Kitchen Remodels and Updates

Most new homes will already have that gourmet chef’s kitchen that everyone dreams of and it almost seems commonplace now. However, as the busiest and most used room in the house, having a nice kitchen is important for enjoyment and resale. The average kitchen remodel costs a staggering $119,000 but with 61% recouped at resale, that’s roughly $73,000 put back into your coffers. Don’t have the cost of a small cottage to invest in your kitchen? It doesn’t matter. Whatever you can update and upgrade be it countertops, cabinetry or even the flooring will still gain you a pretty sizable return after all is said and done.

Backyard Deck Addition

Last of our top five, but certainly not least, affects how you spend time outdoors. Building a composite deck addition is something that many homeowners undertake at some point in their life as a homeowner and rightly so. Simply updating, updating or building a new deck off the back of the house can realize nearly 58% in recovered costs at the sale of your home. That means that if you spend that national average of almost $38,000 on a new deck you’ll recoup roughly $22,000 when your house sells. That’s a pretty decent return given that a deck puts up with all sorts of abuse from the weather and summer BBQs and entertaining. Plus, you’ll be able to enjoy even more outdoor leisure time while you enjoy the fact that your efforts will eventually pay off.

Even if you aren’t planning to sell your home in the near future, it’s entirely possible that if you own an older home, at some point you might be looking at having to update and upgrade at some point. As long as you’re renovating, you might as well take a look the best renos that will provide you with the biggest bang for your buck. Have you undergone and recent renovations to your home? What were the best, and worst, decisions you made? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear your thoughts!