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10 Ways to Add Value to Your Home

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Don’t let your home just take money from you! These 10 Easy Tips will help you to Add Value to Your home and make the most of your investment!

We’ve moved more times than I care to count, but through all our moving we’ve bought 4 houses and sold 3. I wouldn’t necessarily call us experts but all that buying and selling has taught us a few things. Our very first house we lost big! Embarrassingly big. As mad as I was when it happened, it taught us a very good lesson and prepared us for the future. Now that we’ve passed that point in our life I’m kind of grateful for the experience because my husband and I can both be hard headed and we needed that lesson to help us actually profit from selling our homes. Let’s talk about how to add value to your home.

10 Easy Ways to Add Value to Your Home

Buy Low Sell High

This really isn’t a way to add value to your home directly, but this was the first lesson we learned, and it’s worth talking about. We first bought in a really high market right before the economy crashed back around 2008. We were very young. In fact I was only 19 when we bought our first house. While this might not be something completely in your control, if you know you won’t be in a house long I highly suggest you consider the real estate market. Even if you aren’t investing, do your research!

When housing is low, buy baby buy! Because when the market comes back, and it always does, you’ll have equity you didn’t even have to work for (other than living there of course). Shopping for your dream/forever home is very different and not what I’m talking about here today. If that’s your goal it’s really a personal decision you need to make. Investing is a little different than just buying smart.

Making an Investment

The house we are remodeling right now was a big investment. It was also a big risk and we are working hard to make sure it pays off. I’ll let ya know how all that works out in the end. One word of advice, if you are going to make a risky investment and you don’t have so much money you can’t keep track of what day of the week it is (anyone pick up on that Jim Gaffigan quote??), make sure it’s a house that you’re ok getting stuck in!

If you guys are ever interested in real estate investing, like I said, I’m by no means an expert, but I’m happy to share what I do know, but that’s a whole different post. Let’s move on to adding value to the home you’re in!

Add Value To Your Home Before Selling

This post contains affiliate links

Fix Anything You Hate About Your House

Chances are if you just absolutely hate it, others will too. There is however a difference between not liking something and hating it. You might not like a small bathroom, but you would HATE not having a 2nd bathroom. Be very careful not to over improve or spend more than what you will get back. In our first Wisconsin house I HATED a cabinet by the back door. It was awkward and weird so I chopped it in half. This was a project that didn’t add a lot of cost, but made the kitchen look SO much better, thus allowing you to add value to your home! See the difference below.

  • Awkward Kitchen Cabinet that needs to be fixed to improve value of home.
  • Change kitchen cabinets to a functional layout to add value to your home.

Update Flooring in Your Home

A good rule of thumb is to think about what you would think walking through your house if you were a potential buyer. If you look down at your old carpet and you want to immediately put shoes on, it’s better to take care of that yourself then hope a buyer doesn’t mind. If you have old vinyl floors that are physically in good condition, but are butt ugly consider painting them. Granted ours weren’t UGLY per se, but they weren’t my style and it greatly improved the look of the space and elevated it. The goal is to elevate your spaces without spending a fortune!

  • laundry room vinyl floors
  • Paint vinyl floors to add interest and add value to your home.

Other Flooring Options to improve value:
Install new carpet
Add Luxury Vinyl vs Wood

Update Bathrooms to Add Value to Your Home

Bathrooms and Kitchens are a HUGE deal in a home. Let’s talk about bathrooms. You can do a full bathroom remodel, or just do some upgrades, but you almost always get your money out of a bathroom renovation. Just make sure you don’t overspend for the value of your home. You can’t put a $30,000 bathroom in a house that’s worth $100,000 and come out on top. Make sure you are staying in line with the area your home is in. However if you want nicer things and are afraid of over improving, DIY it and save on the cost of hiring it out. This gives you higher quality without spending more.

  • Complete Bathroom Remodel - Gut job
  • Black and White Industrial Bathroom Remodel

Other ways to improve a bathroom:
Frame a Builder Grade Mirror
Paint
Install a New Vanity

Create a Functional Kitchen

A kitchen is probably the number 1 thing a woman considers when walking through a house. It’s also one of the most expensive things to take care of in a house. So when adding value to your home, obviously a lot of that value takes place in this room. There are several different options when attacking a kitchen remodel. You can do an entire gut job, you can refresh everything, or you can make some minor changes, but regardless the kitchen needs to be addressed. Something you’ll keep hearing me say is don’t over improve our house, and I can’t stress this enough. Unless you are in your forever home, only do what’s necessary for the price point you’re hoping to achieve. Here are a few things I’d suggest doing in a kitchen all the way from simple paint jobs to completely redoing your kitchen:

You can see all our Kitchen Renovation below. We’ve done one of each. The 1st one we did some DIY projects to improve what was already there. Our 2nd Kitchen was only 4 years old so we just added backsplash and new countertops. And the kitchen in our current house was a complete gut job!

  • Add value to your home by remodeling your kitchen
  • Upgrade a kitchen to add value

Easily Add Value to Your Home with Curb Appeal

I don’t have any finished pictures for this particular category because we are still in the process of working on the exterior of our current home and our other ones didn’t need much on the exterior. I do have some of the progress I’ll share with you though.

Curb appeal is VERY important in the value of your home. Nobody really likes to tackle the exterior because of the expense involved and it just feels like a big task. Taking care of the roof, siding, paint, porches, etc will leave you with a clean inspection on the exterior and people are much more comfortable with that. Since the exterior is the very first thing people see, you don’t want someone coming to your home with a bad taste in their mouth because the outside wasn’t desirable.

  • old house before photo. Home needs lots of work and has no curb appeal.
  • Remodel the your house's exterior to add value to your home before selling.

A few simple and affordable ideas to add to your curb appeal:

Paint the Interior of Your Home

Paint. This is one of the easiest and most affordable things anyone can do to their home. Obviously you can hire it out if you just don’t want to do it, but it’s not cheap to hire a painter. Even if you’ve never done it before I promise you, you can do it! I’ve used sprayers as well as all your standard painting supplies. I definitely suggest a sprayer if you’re painting a big area that isn’t already filled with all your stuff. You can still spray in a furnished room, I just don’t like that risk personally (but I’m a messy creative). Here’s a few tutorials to get you started:

  • How to Paint Your Whole House Quickly-3
  • Paint walls with a paint sprayer
  • Paint Ceiling with a Roller

Finish a Basement (or unfinished area)

In our Utah house we ended up completely finishing the basement. Obviously this depends largely on the area you live, but taking the opportunity to create square footage in an unfinished space whenever possible. It’s a great return on your investment if done wisely. We essentially doubled our square footage allowing the value to go way up. We did hire out some of this because it was such a big project and there are certain things like sheetrock, taping, and floating that are just better left to the professionals. Texturing is 100% an art form and not something I’m very good at. Knowing your limitations is also very important when doing work on a house.

  • Finish your basement to add square footage
  • Add a bathroom in the basement

Install Upgraded Interior Doors

When we were fixing up our first Wisconsin house we ended up replacing all the interior door slabs. It’s amazing what a 6 panel door can do vs an old flat hollow door thats grungy. It totally made the house feel brand new! Little things like this also allow you to love your home more while you’re in it, which is never a negative. It’s a pretty easy fix, and I even have tutorial for you that shares all about the tools you need to replace door slabs yourself!

How to Install a New Door

Update Hardware in Your Home

Hardware is another easy swap. A lot of times you don’t even need to make a mess for this project if you’re able to use the pre existing holes. This is also an easy way to elevate your furniture if you’re looking to just make a space look more high end. If you do need to create new holes for hardware, I highly suggest using this cabinet jig. There are some more affordable options at the hardware store, but this one is much easier to customize. We used it on our most recent kitchen and I LOVED it. But if you’re only planning on using it once, you could go with the more affordable option I shared in my tutorial.

Upgrade Hardware to Add Value to Your Home

Add Storage to Small Spaces

And we end this conversation on storage. Oh how we all love good storage! There are many different ways you can create little spots to keep all our things organized. I’ve got several tutorials for you below on how you can add storage to your home. The best way you can figure out where you need storage is in the spaces you are most frustrated with. If it’s your laundry room, consider adding some cabinets and shelving, if it’s your entryway, create a locker system, if it’s your pantry, sometimes just a few quick organization tips can make others see how an existing space can be more functional!

Ways to Add Storage:

  • Do laundry in style in this Modern Farmhouse Laundry Room. Come see the transformation from builder grade to gorgeous on a low budget!

For More Ideas, Tips, and Tutorials you can check out my Project Gallery.
And don’t forget to follow along on Instagram as we work through remodeling our historic home, I’ll be sharing all kinds of tips as I go!

How to Add Value to Your Home Before Selling

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About Ashley

Ashley is a stay at home mom to three beautiful children. She and her husband recently settled in the Midwest after spending the beginning of their marriage in Texas (what a change!). Together they are raising their children, and turning their house into a home one project at a time. Ashley enjoys decorating and crafting, but her true passion lies in redoing old furniture and making things look old.

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Comments

  1. Ardith says

    Of course, I am an oddball and have gone in a different direction. I’ve moved away from most social media and split my time between blogs and YouTube (plus sites like Pinterest have devolved to be so one-dimensional, boring, and no longer facilitate community engagement). Your comments make me understand why I’ve become disenchanted with a number of bloggers. Their sporadic to rare posts probably reflects the same frustration you face.

    Since I refuse to support the entity behind Facebook and Instagram, I’m pretty much on the outside of the social media mainstream anyway. I think I’m awaiting some new form of online communal interaction. It’s bound to come, it’s just a matter of when.

    What I really want to share with you is how much I appreciated your email introduction to this post. Life has a way of stirring things up and leaving us feeling disjointed, floundering. It’s temporary, but it feels otherwise. Thank you for your honesty about struggling with blogging. It’s very understandable. You’d think by now that blog followers know that life happens behind those pretty pictures and videos. Why people like you have explain or apologize for these images is beyond me.

    Ultimately, to continue blogging means it has to matter to YOU. Your blog needs to reflect you and what moves you at any given time. Because at the end of the day, it should make you happy, give you fulfillment.

    May I add that for me personally, bloggers don’t need to always provide advice to be valuable, poignant. Just sharing experiences that come with renovating, decorating, life, is very valuable in an era when face-to-face conversations seem all too rare.

    As an aside, when it comes to that respect thing, sometimes all it takes is “assume the sale.” Exude that you expect it, deserve it. Or, if you will, fake it until you make it. At some point you’ll likely discover that you have come to believe it and just feel good within.

    Best wishes to you, Ashley. Cheers, Ardith

    Reply

    • Ashley says

      Thanks so much for sharing Ardith! This comment seriously means so much to me! I’m definitely working on finding my happy place of this being my full time job, but also feeling like I’m making a difference. I don’t want to just be another person writing something about her living room ;). But it really means so much when you share things from your perspective and it’s greatly appreciated!! <3

      Reply

  2. Taylor Bishop says

    Thanks for the advice for adding value to a home. I’m glad you mentioned that you doubled your square footage simply by finishing the basement. Maybe it could be good to think of how much work needs to be done for a basement to finish it, especially if you know you can slowly work on it.

    Reply

  4. Kippi says

    STUNNING! I love what you have done with your home it is amazing. You really have a great eye for makeovers. Please share this post over at my site in the You’re The Star blog hop.
    Ps. Sending you an email too!
    Happy summer,
    Kippi

    Reply

  5. Mein Gmx.de says

    amazing. You really have a great eye for makeovers. Please share this post over at my site in the You’re The Star blog hop.
    Ps. Sending you an email too!

    Reply

  7. BellaVita says

    Agreed with the flooring one. It is the first thing I see whenever I walk into someones house and definitely one of the factors whenever I choose a home. I would also want my bathrooms to be clean, besides, who wants their comfort rooms filthy? You really have a good taste when it comes to makeovers. Kudos!

    Reply

  9. Create Room says

    We appreciate your efforts in writing such a detailed post on Guide to Adding Value to Your Home, that would be helpful for every homeowner. Adding a loft to your house will definitely add the value of the home. We also wrote an article covering Loft Stair Ideas – Loft Extension Stairs
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  11. johan william says

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  18. Mary Loveland says

    This was a great post to take a walk thru all the work you guys have done on your homes. I know it doesn’t touch on all you’ve done but you did A LOT! I truly hope you are very proud of your work. Do you all intend to stay in the midwest? Thank You

    Reply

  23. Cathy Maloney says

    Well Done, Young Lady!
    Best wishes in the next chapter, enjoyed your post. You really did lovely transformations with this place, you should feel great!

    Following you from Montana xoxo

    Reply

  25. Jack Milgram says

    That rarely happens that EACH point is dead-on!
    I painted almost everything in my house, from walls to doors. Yes, it cost me a couple of thousands of nerves but saved me a fortune! That was a real hatred of those ginger red kitchen cabinets. Now it’s finally cozy inside.

    Reply

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  53. cam says

    That’s amazing information! I really love renovations and decorating and stuff. So for me as a homeowner this was very helpful!

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  54. Studio AsA says

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  62. Henery Decosa says

    The home is the most important asset you have. It is your sanctuary, where you can relax and recharge after a long day at work. However, while your home will always be a central part of your life, it is also one of the biggest investments that you will make in your lifetime.

    Buying a home is a major decision and should not be taken lightly. You should make sure that you get the best value for money by doing some research and looking at what other people are paying for their homes.

    To help you find the right property for your needs, here are 10 ways to add value to your home:

    1) Upgrade Your Kitchen

    Kitchens are often neglected elements of a home because they are viewed as being too small or lacking in space. However, this can be an opportunity for you to upgrade them with some simple additions such as new appliances or decorative features to make them more appealing to potential buyers.

    2) Change Up The Bathroom

    The bathroom is another area where people often overlook adding value, but it doesn’t have to be this way!

    3. Install a smoke detector

    4. Declutter your home

    5. Paint your house (and/or rooms)

    6. Wash windows and blinds

    7. Replace old appliances with new ones (or at least clean them out)

    8. Fix leaky faucets and plumbing fixtures

    9. Install a new ceiling fan or light fixture (or both)

    10. Get rid of clutter

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  85. Sanders&Johnson says

    I also think it makes sense to go forward with sustainability and improve the home’s energy efficiency. This is what attracts buyers these days. Some sure ways to incorporate sustainability in your home are to insulate homes properly and update the HVAC systems. When upgrading your HVAC system, look into appliances with a high SEER rating — these ones are more energy-efficient.

    Reply

  87. Happy Hiller says

    Thank you for sharing your ideas! I also want to add a few words about exterior lighting – it can really work wonders if you want to boost your home’s value! A well-lit home is more attractive to potential buyers, making any lighting addition both practical and financially responsible. And according to the “Most wanted things” list, 41% of people said that proper exterior lighting is a must-have, and 49% said it is desirable.

    Reply

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