 | Dee Hodges is the owner of D & D Garages. He was born and raised in Wichita. During high school, he owned a lawn maintenance service, but general contracting was always his first love. At the age of 18, after a hail storm hit Wichita and damaged virtually every roof in town, Dee saw an opportunity to start his own business and did so, being one of the youngest business owners in Wichita. Today that business is thriving and consists mostly of garage construction, concrete work and roofing. You can reach Dee Hodges @ 687-3900. |
Home Improvement
2006-06-01 08:40:00
Can home improvements add value?
ANSWER: When deciding on a home improvement or addition, you will want to consider the value that improvement will or won’t add to your home. Based on my experience, below is a list of what will and won’t add value to your home.The five best investments• Redecorating is probably the cheapest improvement that you can make. Yet the cost of a few gallons of paint can add significant value to your home. • An extra bathroom can also add value to your home. If the home is fairly large and has several bedrooms with one bathroom, you stand to gain with the addition of another bathroom. However, if the extra bathroom means going from three to two bedrooms, don’t do it.• Garages are important and popular features. Built professionally, they will typically add to the value of a home. At the very least, you should be able to recoup your investment.• Lofts, especially those which add an extra room and maybe even a separate bathroom, can add to the value of a home, as long as they follow the design of the rest of the home and are built by professionals. You want to make them a virtually indistinguishable part of the rest of the home.• Heating system replacements may be expensive and won’t necessarily add to the value of your home. But they are important to maintaining the sale price of your home.The five worst improvements • Plastic double glazed windows. This will cost a bundle, and almost certainly not increase the value of your home especially if the other properties in the area don’t have it. • Creating parking for a car directly outside your home. Yes, it’s probably safer, but you have lost some of your front yard. If you need to do it, try to do it at the side of the property.• New kitchens are popular home improvements but homeowners are unlikely to get back more than their actual investment. In some cases, you will lose money.• Adding a third bathroom to a two-bath house unless you don’t care about ever recouping your investment. In effect, you have just said goodbye to thousands. • New carpet. Surprisingly, new carpets really don’t add to the value of a home. However, if the previous carpet was in horrible shape, a new one will allow you to justify the asking price. In which case, go for the cheapest –neutral – carpet you can find.
