From the Record:
If you’re looking for improvements that can boost a home’s sale price, start with the outside.
That was the finding in a recent Remodeling magazine survey. Though most home improvements don’t pay for themselves at resale, the survey found that the projects with the greatest return on the dollar are those that improve a home’s curb appeal, such as new siding, decks and windows.
Overall these days, home sellers recover about 70 cents for every dollar they’ve spent for home improvements. That’s down from more than 80 cents in 2005. The survey’s authors say this is the result of higher costs for home remodeling and declining sale prices. But in the New York metropolitan area, which includes North Jersey, home prices have not dropped as much as in other regions. As a result, sellers can recoup a higher percentage of their home improvement expenses, the study found.
Still, as a general rule, sellers don’t get back the full cost of improvements.
“In a market that’s flat to declining, which is the kind of market we’re in now with home prices, I’m counseling sellers not to dump tremendous amounts of money into their homes,” said Sal Poliandro, an agent with Re/Max Properties in Ridgewood. He cited one recent seller who had spent $200,000 on a pool and landscaping in Franklin Lakes. “He had a 45-foot waterfall,” Poliandro said. “It was very nice, but no one is going to pay extra for that.”
Renovation projects in the region generally cost more than they do nationally. For example, a metropolitan-area homeowner who replaces siding will pay $11,954 for a mid-priced job, but receive an additional $13,711 at resale. By contrast, a mid-priced siding replacement runs about $9,910 nationally but the homeowner will recoup only $8,245 at resale.
The least profitable projects, nationally and in the region, are a backup generator, sunroom addition and home office remodel.
One of the most popular jobs — a kitchen remodel — returns about 95 percent of its cost in the New York metropolitan area, the survey found, compared with about 80 percent nationwide.
There is a difference between remodeling and maintaining your house.
A 45 foot waterfall is a silly whim. Go for it if you want, but don’t expect anyone to pay you back.
However, as a buyer, there are things that sellers should be doing right now if they really want to sell. Put down some new neutral rugs, replace that linoleum that has holes in it, spruce up the landscaping, patch the crater on your driveway, fresh neutral paint.
As far as kitchens, I wouldn’t do a full remodel right now to sell, but as I said, I would make sure the flooring was ok, the counter tops aren’t cracked, perhaps throw in an upgraded faucet, hopefully have a matching set of appliances.
I am shocked at the houses I see in supposedly “fancy” upper Bergen County towns and how many updates haven’t been done and the total lack of curb appeal. I think people in less “fancy” towns might keep their houses better than these supposed fancy folks.
Many people are so cheap, they don’t want to put a dime into their places, they want to sell you all the problems for top dollar. And then they wonder why their houses haven’t sold for eight months.
Any my personal pet peeve, TAKE DOWN YOUR WALLPAPER! No buyer wants your wallpaper. If wallpaper is so easy to take down, if it’s just cosmetic, then TAKE IT DOWN!
“Remodeling” magazine has done research that finds remodeling is good. Stunning.
I am thinking of selling my 3br/3ba condo in Mahwah and wanted to get some comps on it.
The real estate agents are like hawks.
Is there anyway for me to get info on how much I could get for it? We have a new combo washer/dryer, freshly painted (most rooms), new dishwasher. The kitchen has been wallpapered new however we need to put a backsplash. Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks
Maria
Ann #1: Even the people we bought our house from did that (took down wallpaper). Not everywhere, but I am told by a neighbor that they used to have gold-and-black flocked wallpaper in the living room. I’ve managed to live with the red carpeting for 11 years (it’s expensive wool carpeting, which makes me wonder why they picked that color, it’s still in reasonably good shape, and with the right furniture you can get sort of a Moroccan casbah effect…sort of.), but gold-and-black flocked wallpaper and I doubt I would have bought the house.
If I had to sell my house now, I’d finish the cabinet refacing that I’ve been working on for a year, spray-paint the harvest gold oven door and cooktop, replace the countertop, put down a new floor, pull up all the carpets and have the floors finished, and replace the downstairs bathroom floor. All told it’d probably be around $8000 to do and I’d price the house accordingly. Nothing had been updated since 1975 when we bought and we didn’t sing the siren song of home equity loans, so we haven’t done much on the interior (though we did replace the windows and siding and exterior doors).
Wallpaper is such a personal thing it’s amazing that anyone still uses it, let alone leaving it up.
Jill,
Wallpaper is a tough one! People really shouldn’t use it anymore if at all possible. I can take one room of wallpaper, but more than that is too much.
Sounds like you put a lot of work in, windows and siding and exterior doors.
The carpet sounds like good quality.
I don’t get the appliances thing. Maybe its cultural – in the UK appliances move with the owner – but I don’t particularly want someone elses dishwasher with the food particles or the washing machine they cleaned their skid marked underpants in. I don’t care how new it is – it is used. I’d rather get a credit and go out to Sears and buy myself everything all brand new and shiny and exactly to my specifications.
Am I the only one?
For the washer and dryer, I don’t care if the people take it or leave it, if it works.
For the kitchen, I prefer they leave everything because then the appliance set is broken up.
You can be left with a decision to buy the missing piece (usually the frig) which is in some funky color that you don’t necessarily love, or buy a whole new appliance package.
If it’s all crap though, then they can take it all!
I have always been under the impression that exterior work has the worst return on investment especially landscaping. Make it look clean and nice but don’t spend a fortune on curb appeal. Less is more.
Kitchens and Bathrooms have the highest return.
Most kitchens can be saved with a little work and replacing hinges and moving a magnet here and there.
Appliances are a questionable item. We don’t supply a refrigerator, washer, or dryer but would replace a dishwasher and stove with a new one if needed. Some stoves clean up nicely enough not to warrant replacement but it must look close to new. Dishwasher if there is any discoloration in the tub or looks more than 3-4 years old. Appliances usually look like their kitchen items. If the kitchen looks new then the appliances must look or be new. Leave the tags and instructions also with warranty information. A problem is if you go to stainless steel appliances because there are varying stainless steel colors. Donate any old appliances to someone like Habitat for Humanity or ask you local police man if he knows of any needy family in the area. Local police know who might need a break in life.
As to poster #6 You are an exception. Most people want a house they move in and start using they don’t want to go to Sears and get a dishwasher.
Wallpaper is a huge NO NO. So many homes wont sell if there is a trace of wallpaper in the home. Same with wood paneling.
Upgrade faucets and generic lighting in the home. No Gold.
PAINT is the cheapest upgrade to a home you can do. No GLOSS unless your a pro otherwise you will have streaks. Always go for the flat neutral colors. Leave out your personal color choices your not the buyer.
Paint is great.
Paneling is bad, very very bad.
Wallpaper is not good. Wallpaper all over your entire house, very, very, very bad. I could probably get suckered into paying someone an extra 50K if their house didn’t have any wallpaper.
OT, here’s another thing I’ve been running into lately…sellers who are in the house when I go to see it.
Get out of the house, take your kids and your dogs WITH YOU. Why can’t people go drive around for an hour? I did it about 15 times by myself with two kids and a dog. You and your husband can’t take your two kids out for a lousy hour on a Saturday. Even if I liked your house, I don’t like it with you in it and you ruin it.
I’m not going in them anymore if the people are there.
Oy….paneling. My house had tons of it — the basement family room, one wall in the living room, the stairway to the upstairs, the upstairs hall. We took off the living room and stairway paneling, but the rest is still there. The stuff upstairs is affixed tightly and I’m not convinced there’s even sheetrock under it, so we’ll eventually paint it. And the basement paneling has NO INSULATION BEHIND IT (!!!) so that room is functionally unusable in winter.
Don’t even talk to me about the celotex stapled-on-the-joists ceiling tiles down there. We had a squirrel get into it via the chimney last year and mice since then, and now I have a 5-tile hole in the ceiling at the edge and can’t replace the tiles without removing the wall-edge trim AND the trim around my window. I smell basement remodeling, except I can’t afford it.
Mitchell, I don’t think H4H takes used appliances I had an air conditioner brand new in the box that I donated, and I’ve donated some new comforter sets where they sent the wrong thing and I never noticed; but they would not take any bedding that wasn’t in the original packaging. Of course this is “prestigious” BC. Your local H4H may differ.
I would prefer to remodel a kitchen myself when I move in rather than live with the choices the previous owner made in an attempt to upgrade right before moving out to sell faster. But that is just my choice. I would hate to feel like I paid for the previous owners “upgraded kitchen” and then have to spend more to redo it because I hate the color of the countertops and cabinets they picked and didn’t want stainless steel appliances all over just because they are trendy right now.
Our H4H will take stoves, dishwashers, washers, and dryers.
They will even take sinks, faucets, doors, toilets, doorknobs too.
Our house had wallpaper almost everywhere when we bought it, even some of the ceilings! Wild wallpaper from the 70’s, like silver, turquoise and black with portraits of Roman emperors. Life-size peacock feathers. The kitchen had silver wallpaper in a star pattern on the ceiling. If you looked up at it, you got dizzy. Old, shreddy grass cloth. It was a huge, expensive project to get rid of it. The top layer of sheetrock came off with the wallpaper. We had to have everything respackled. What a mess.
I would never put wallpaper anywhere; its too personal. I see people complaining about paint colors on HGTV’s House Hunters but who doesn’t expect to have to paint when you move into a house? And its nothing to paint; I do it myself. Important thing is to use a primer and Walmart sells Kilz paint in colors, which is wonderful stuff. All of the hallways and guestroom I painted Linen White Eggshell, walls and ceilings and they will never be any other color.
Our house had been on and off the market for a year and a half with no offers when we bought it. Real estate agents (ours and the seller’s) blamed the interior decor. It was that scary. All of the doors and moldings were also painted weird colors, in fact, nothing was just one color! We were able to knock a lot off the price and now we love this house so it was well worth it. But in addition to the cost, it was miserable to live with the spackling and dust for months.
I’d be wary of doing remodeling to sell. People want the latest thing nowadays so they won’t be happy with your choices of counters, appliances, cabinets, tub, sink, faucets. Get rid of wallpaper; get rid of semi-gloss paint (we had a lot of that, too); we got rid of all the wall-to-wall carpeting because its easier to live with wood and tile but that would be an expensive remodel project to do for a sale and, again, so many people want their personal choice.