Kevan Lewis - HomeLife Benchmark Realty

 Have You Been Thinking About Renovating?

Renovations can be a great way to get more enjoyment out of your home and to make it your own. Adding or changing aspects of your home can also have an impact on the value of your home once the time comes for you to sell. My recommendation is to do renovations a couple years before you sell so that you can get some enjoyment out if them as well! Don't wait too long though, otherwise what was trendy when you did the renos could very easily fall out of style! Of course all of these recomendations are quite generic, so if you are thinking about doing some renos, give me a call and I would be more than happy to come and suggest any changes that will help appreciate the value of your unique home.

1- Update the Paint and Lighting 

I am always amazed how much a space can change for only a couple hundred dollars! Lighting and paint colour can have a huge impact on the appearance by themselves, but together, you might feel like you are in an entirely different home. I usually recommend light cool grays and daylight bulbs for all of the main lighting in the home, as the cooler colours combined with the whiter lighting create a much more modern sense of space, and allow a would be buyer to imagine themselves in the home as it becomes much more neutral than warmer colours and lighting. I go into a lot of homes, and even buyers who tell me that they prefer warmer colours are usually more drawn to the more modern feel that the cooler colours give off.

If you are not a fan the harsh daylight bulbs once the sun goes down, filiment bulbs are an amazing solution! A few well placed lamps with very warm filiment bulbs will cozy up any space in an instant and are a great balance to the super bright daylight bulbs!

2- Redesign Your Kitchen

While the first tip was on the more affordable side, this one certainly does cost a little more money. Even though the upfront costs are higher, the return you will get from it towards the value of your home will be higher as well. If you can afford to update your kitchen, it always goes a long way towards making your home more attractive to potential buyers.

The easiest and most affordable way to freshen the kitchen just takes a little elbow grease and a couple hundred dollars of paint. Painting the cabinets can go a very long way to freshen up even the most outdated kitchens. Simply remove the doors and hardware and get going on the sanding. Most finishes, whether they be real wood or even artificial coatings can be painted if the surfaced is correctly prepped, which means sanding and cleaning thouroughly with a good degreaser such as TSP. Once the doors and cabinets have been sanded it's time to start painting!

As far as paint colours go, a good crisp white is always a solid option, matched with stainless steel hardware. A quick tip is to always use a semi-gloss or shinier so that your kitchen is much easier to keep clean and wipe down the cabinets with any quick spills!

Along with painting the cabinets, new quartz or granite countertops will go a long way to freshening up a dated looking kitchen!

3 - Time to Replace that Old Flooring

If your current floors are not outdated or worn out, this would be one reno that I would recommend skipping. If you are not sure about the state of your floors, just give me a call and I would be more than happy to swing by and share my opinion! The reason that it might not be worth replacing is that like paint, many buyers will want to customize this part of the home. Unlike paint, flooring costs a fair bit more so if the current flooring is presentable than it might be best to leave it be.

In saying all of that, if you are wanting to upgrade your floors for your own enjoyment, it will likely help to increase the value of your home! Laminate flooring has come a long way in recent history and is more affordable and better looking than it ever has been before.

If you are replacing the floors with the main goal being to increase the value of the home, I certainly suggest laminate flooring over carpet as carpet is not as trendy as it once was. If you prefer the feeling of carpet on your feet in your home, you can always put a nice rug down to really tie the room together!

4- Don't Forget About Your Outdoor Space

Even though it is currently fall and the wet winter weather is quickly creeping up, you likely have a pretty good view of your outdoor space from within your home. Plus, there is a good chance that you will end up selling in the spring or summer anyways, so why not make a few investments into some landscaping and garden/patio decor! If you have a green thumb, some simple flowers will always make any outdoor space look much more inviting, and if your thumb is not so green, there are many fake flowers that can look quite nice (and even survive through winter, unlike the real thing)

If you do have out door space tha goes beyond just a patio in a condo or some townhomes, consider upgrading the surfaces of the driveways and other areas of your land. Artificial turf has come a long way over the years and when installed correctly can help you have the best maintained lawn on the block for years to come! Not to mention that there is no more need to spend hours cutting watering reseeding and weed killing your grass!

5- Spend Some Money Now to Reduce Your Hydro Bill in the Future

While these small investments will likely save you some money in the meantime, many buyers are looking for more energy efficient homes to move into as well.

The easiest way to save money with one quick item is with a programmable or smart thermostat. Depending on the type of heating you have in your home, there are different devices that will be the best bang for your buck.

If you live in a condo or a home with individual electric baseboards in each, I recommend going with programmable thermostats in the rooms that you occupy on a regular basis. There is no need to heat the bedroom all day long while you are at work (or working down the hall in your home office) but you might want the room to be nice and cozy when you are ready to call it a night. With a programable thermostat there is no worry about forgetting to turn the heat up 30 minutes before bedtime, because it's programmed to do so automatically! As a bonus, many people, myself included, like to sleep in a cool room but wake up to a nice warm room. Just program the thermostat to turn on about 30 minutes before your alarm clock and a nice toasty room will welcome you to the rest of the day ahead. These typically sell for about $40-$60 each, so a couple rooms will not likely run you more than $200. That $200 will likely be saved over a two year period by not heating rooms when it is not necessary, a true win win!

Of course, smart thermostats like Nest can't be beat when it comes to central heating systems!

Another quick and affordable energy saving tip is LED bulbs. I know that I cut my hydro bill in half when I switched all the old halogen pot lights running at 35 watts a piece to more efficent 3 watt LED bulbs that put out just as much light!

These are of course not all the renovations that will make a big difference in the sellability and value of your home, but they are certainly some of the best ways! Like I mentioned above, don't hesitate to get in touch to have me come by and suggest any renovations to make your home worth the best value it can be!