Twenty remodeling projects that will hurt your home’s value

Whether you’re getting your house ready to sell or you have no immediate plans to sell but know the day could come, it’s important to keep in mind how the decisions you make as the current homeowner could affect the value of your home when it comes time to sell. Not all remodeling projects will add value to your home. In fact some projects can actually make it harder to sell your home and can actually hurt your home’s value. Here is a list of 20 such projects.

 

• Lavish lighting fixtures. Light fixtures are highly subjective. Just because you like it doesn’t mean the next homeowner will. It’s best to go with something simple and the next homeowner can swap it out if they chose.
• Too much wallpaper. Wallpaper design is also subjective and it’s a major pain to remove so potential buyers might see wallpaper and run.
• Textured paint on the walls. Like wallpaper, it’s hard to remove so stick with a traditional paint job.
• Quirky tiling. As a general rule, avoid overly-personalized design choices. If you love it, but it’s non-traditional, it’s probably going to make it harder to sell your home.
• Too much carpeting. These days, homeowners prefer hardwood or tile. Carpet in the bedroom is fine but resist the urge to put carpet everywhere.
• Bright and bold paint colors. Bright, bold colors, whether for the interior or exterior is a bad idea. A light, neutral color is going to appeal the greatest number of people and will sell the easiest.
• High-end kitchen. Prospective buyers love a modern kitchen and will pay more for a newly remodeled one. But if you go overboard, very few homeowners will be willing to pay what that kitchen is worth.
• Luxury bathroom. Same rule applies for bathroom. Make it nice, but not like one fit for a palace.
• Home office conversion. Bedrooms increase the value of a home more than any other kind of room. So don’t convert a bedroom into an office, or anything else for that matter. Use a bedroom for your home office, but don’t make any drastic changes to it that will prevent the next owner from using it as a bedroom.
• Combining bedrooms. Empty nesters might prefer a couple of large bedrooms to 3-4 smaller ones but the more bedrooms, the more the house can sell for.
• Remove closets. Every bedroom needs a closet. If you’re using the bedroom for some other purpose, leave the closet where it is.
• Sunroom. Even if you love the idea of a sunroom, keep in mind that most homeowners don’t and it has a very poor resale value.
• A built-in aquarium. They’re difficult to maintain and costly to remove so unless you want to limit your prospective buyers to fish enthusiasts, stick with a normal fish tank.
• Home theater. If you’re a big movie fan, this idea might seem like a good one but it takes up precious space that the next homeowner might prefer to use for something else.
• Swimming pool. This one may come as a shock but a swimming pool isn’t a big seller. They’re expensive and difficult to maintain and only families with children in a specific age-range are specifically looking for a home with a pool.
• Outdoor hot tub. They take up valuable space in the back yard and are expensive to maintain. Most buyers will just be paying to get rid of it first thing.
• A garage-to-gym. Buyers prefer to have a garage where they can park their vehicles. Don’t covert it into a gym or a living space.
• Too much landscaping. A little curb appeal is good, but go overboard and no one wants to take on the amount of work it will require to keep the yard looking nice.
• Messy trees. No one wants a tree that drops little berries or flowers all over the place.
• DIY repairs. Unless the quality of your work will be indistinguishable from a professional’s, let a pro do it. Buyers can tell when a repair or project has been done shoddily.

 

Source: Nasdaq

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