Sales are moving at a snail’s pace and frustrated sellers may weather the storm easier by taking their home off the market and doing that temporary fix.  Remodeling.

Updating an existing home may curb the sale for a year or two while our economy corrects and stabilizes.  Home sales will pick back up and what owners need to keep in mind is that prices are all relative.  When sale volume picks up, so will price of both the existing residence and the next purchase.  Remodeling can be one of the best ways to protect your Portland real estate investment and get you through a bumpy economy, provided it’s done correctly.

Follow a few simple guidelines and recapture of costs will be there.  Check out the following:

• What are the Joneses doing?  Consider the neighborhood.  Has everyone else already updated or are you going to be the first?  Add square footage that matches the neighborhood.  Small houses carry higher $/ft, larger ones mean lower $/ft.  If yours is big for the area don’t add on.

• Kitchens and bathrooms are the big hitters.  Don’t neglect the rest of the house completely.  Eliminating the textured 80′s blue carpet in bedrooms is a given…

• Square peg, round hole. When renovating or adding on, avoid too much customization of space so potential buyers can envision the home suiting their needs. A well-designed fourth bedroom to you could be an office, workout room or home theater for someone else.

• Put a Band Aid on it and paint.  No cheaper way to update.  If you’re not sure what colors to use check out builder’s model homes.  They are cutting edge in design and finish!

• Don’t put a $30,000 kitchen in a $200,000 home.  Going overboard is not the goal and if there’s an awesome kitchen it better be attached to an awesome house for best recapture of cost.

• How’s the curb appeal?  Neighboring houses are dragging down the top dog.  Top dog brings up value of the one with a weedy front yard.  Curb appeal is easily accomplished by manicuring the front to look inviting but you don’t need to hire a landscape architect in most cases.

There are no guarantees that you’ll recapture 100% of every dollar spent.  Furthermore, how would you ever gauge it?!  Careful planning will take your remodel dollar the furthest and help you sell much quicker!  For more Portland real estate investment tips check out the website.  www.maxwellsinclair.com

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 1:19 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.