Home improvement bang for your buck?

[Sylvanfan]

Okay, I have a house in St.Albert right now and the market up here is pretty hot like anywhere else in Alberta. I just took a new job thats going to allow me to work from my house, and more importantly work from whereever I want to live. So since I do have some common sense I want to get out of Edmonton and move back to my hometown of Kamloops. I don't want this to be a I hate Alberta or go back to BC you stupid hippie type of thread so we'll leave it at that. Mostly it's due to recent circumstances and that living in Kamloops puts both my wife and I closer to family which is probably our number one want.

I'm trying to figure out if it's going to be worth my while to do a few things to tweak the house, and if I do what should I do. Options would include new tile and hardwood flooring on the lower level (something I can do myself). Also the two bathrooms upstairs could use a few spruce up things as they've been finished pretty cheaply (ie they put baseboard around the tubs as opposed to tile). I could look at maybe starting some basement development where I'd really make the money, but I don't think I'll have the time to do that. Not to mention I'd need to try and find an electrician and plumber which might be impossible. So basement development is likely limited to starting some framing, finishing the stairwell into the basement, and doing some rough wiring for electrical etc.. I could insulate and drywall the garage, but I think that wouldn't add much of anything for value to the house. My biggest complaint about the house is actually the lack of cupboard space, but to be honest you don't notice it when you look at the house. It wasn't till I moved in that I saw the cupboards were pretty shallow and that the shelfs were cut back like 6 inches in the base cupboards so I'll pass that one on to the sucker who buys the place.

My thought right now is that I'm probably smarter to keep the house here until the spring as the rate of growth for real estate here will outpace Kamloops. Not that Kamloops is a cold market, but it's just not as hot as this market. Although if my wife found the right job in Kamloops we'd likely uproot sooner rather than later. But than again my mom has two fairly large houses in Kamloops so it's not like I can't find a temporary place to live if we did move.

Thoughts?

[IGGYRULES]

New flooring would be nice. If you are going to hold out until next spring finish the basement. The biggest money makers are kitchen and bathrooms (very important to the wife who makes the final decision). Garage would be last on my list (important to the Husband who has little say).

[V]

My personal opinion:

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Options would include new tile and hardwood flooring on the lower level (something I can do myself).

Good idea, especially if you can do it yourself. Check out some auctions, you should be able to pick some hardwood and tile for really cheap.

Also the two bathrooms upstairs could use a few spruce up things as they've been finished pretty cheaply (ie they put baseboard around the tubs as opposed to tile).

Another good idea, bathrooms are always a good idea for resale value. Just don't go crazy. Try to get it up to average or a little bit better than the average houses in your area. Anything more will probably do little for resale. Also, it depends on what the house looks like. There's no point in putting in a $7k bathroom when a $2k bathroom matches the condition of the rest of the house.

I could look at maybe starting some basement development where I'd really make the money, but I don't think I'll have the time to do that. Not to mention I'd need to try and find an electrician and plumber which might be impossible. So basement development is likely limited to starting some framing, finishing the stairwell into the basement, and doing some rough wiring for electrical etc..

Don't do it. You'll never get your money back, not unless you could get yourself a finished basement for under 5k. Basements don't add a whole lot of value to a house's selling price, from what I've seen.

I could insulate and drywall the garage, but I think that wouldn't add much of anything for value to the house.

Don't do it. You probably won't get any resale value whatsoever from this.

My biggest complaint about the house is actually the lack of cupboard space, but to be honest you don't notice it when you look at the house. It wasn't till I moved in that I saw the cupboards were pretty shallow and that the shelfs were cut back like 6 inches in the base cupboards so I'll pass that one on to the sucker who buys the place.

Exactly. If it looks good on the outside, no one will bat an eye.

I think the best piece of advice is to do the renovations so that it becomes more appealing to Joe Average. You're not planning on living there, so the little touches that you would normally do in your own house now just become improvements that cost you money and don't make that money back. For instance, install some nice 3-4 dollar / sq. ft hardwood, even though that 8$ stuff looks really nice. Chances are your average prospective buyer isn't going to notice the difference on his first walkthrough.

Is the market that hot in St. Albert right now? I heard from a friend that it is, so it seems to be lagging Calgary a little bit. Things have slowed down here now for the summer, but some 'experts' I know in the real estate game are saying they're going to pick up again here in September. Sure hope so.

[shane_c]

I'm glad this post is on here because we're going through the same thing. We picked up some hardwood for the living room on the weekend and will be installing it next weekend. Then we'll be doing tile in the kitchen, entry and bathrooms. We'll do it ourselves and hope that we get a good return on investment. We are hoping that September spurs the market to get hot again. Last year did it stay hot through the winter or did it cool off and pick up again in the spring?

[JerzeeGirl]

One guideline to remember is that many real estate types advise plunking in around 1% - 2% of the total resale value of the home for upgrades in the most important places to make the home worth more - specifically, kitchens, bathrooms and family room. Hardwood/laminate floors are big too right now. Also the best thing to do when selling is of course to de-clutter and pack away as much as you can without making the house look too empty and to neutralize the paint colours with some nice warm neutral.
Good luck on getting your place sold and enjoy the move closer to home!

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

Is the market that hot in St. Albert right now? I heard from a friend that it is, so it seems to be lagging Calgary a little bit. Things have slowed down here now for the summer, but some 'experts' I know in the real estate game are saying they're going to pick up again here in September. Sure hope so.

Well it's not as hot as Calgary was by any means, but I think things are still going pretty good around here right now. Edmonton and area's always seemed to be lower than Calgary and I think it took about 2 months after Calgary's exploded this area really heated up too. I think things are still pretty good though as listing inventory is low. Every house that was for sale in the neighbourhood save one place sold withing 3 weeks (that includes the comfree stuff, realtor listings seem to go much faster) type of thing and last I looked on MLS theres two houses listed in the area. I'd make good money if I sold the place as is right now after only being there a year. Of course I'd make a hell of a lot more had I kept my old house in Sylvan Lake and bought this one two! Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!