Hello Ottawa,
In selling real estate in Ottawa a question that comes up frequently from my clients is; what should I do to increase the value of my home? Often the question is coming from people that are considering selling their home in the near future, however smart new home owners will consider the value of various renovations from day one. I agree with the opinion of the article that mainly you do need to do renovations for yourself to enjoy since a lot of them do not recoup their cost. However that doesn't mean you should ignore the resale value of renovations completely. Some renovations add hardly any value or worse; may actually hurt the resale of your home.
By Morgan Brennan
Like many people, you might be under the impression that home improvements are good investments that pay for themselves when you sell your house. You'd be wrong in most cases. Except for steel entry doors, that is.
Such doors tend to recoup 102 percent of the construction cost when a home is sold. A front door made of fiberglass — which actually costs more to buy and install — won't pay off nearly as well. It only pulls in 60 percent of its original cost.
The sad truth is that most home improvements are like fiberglass doors, and won't come close to paying for themselves. Some projects — namely room additions and upscale remodeling — are just plain dollar drains, according to the 2010-2011 Cost Vs. Value report.
The annual survey, conducted by Remodeling magazine in collaboration with the National Association of Realtors, compares construction cost estimates (provided by HomeTech Information Systems) with resale value estimates (provided by members of NAR) across the country for 35 mid-range and upscale home remodeling projects.
In 2005 renovations would, at the very least, recoup their costs on resale. Nowadays almost none do. With home prices tanking the past several years, the return on renovations has suffered, especially when it comes to high-end jobs.
The rest of the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41624719/ns/business-personal_finance/