Ganser Company

When you buy a home, and you’ve stayed there for a few decades, it’s understandable if you eventually want to spruce things up. After all, by improving your home, you can easily breathe new life into it, potentially improving its value while making it a home you can fall in love with all over again at the same time. However, if you want to improve your home, you should also make it a point to avoid overimproving it.

However, surprisingly enough, some homeowners don’t actually know what it means when they overimprove their home. When it comes to the topic of overimproving, this means that you put more money into your home than you can get out of it. This is a possibility because some homes will never be worth more than a certain amount, and to remodel your home to try and go beyond this would be a colossal waste of your time and finances. As such, it’s highly recommended that you avoid doing so. But how?

Decide How Long You Intend to Stay in Your Home

When you’re remodeling your home and trying to avoid overimproving it, experts strongly recommend that you first ask yourself how long do you exactly plan to stay in your current home. If you intend to sell within a few years, then it’s best that you only focus on areas that can somewhat improve your home’s value so you can at least net yourself a tidy profit upon the house’s sale. However, if you intend to stay for a few more decades, then you’re more than free to improve away. But keep in mind that your improvements should always be within reason, and, if needed, don’t hesitate to consult an expert contractor for assistance.

Focus on Improvements That Can Increase the Value of Your Home

Often, homeowners tend to overimprove their homes because they’re sometimes too focused on aesthetics instead of the value the improvement brings. As much as possible, try not to do this as this can be a waste of your time and money if the improvement doesn’t pan out. Instead, focus on the features that will certainly help increase your home’s overall value. These usually include improvements to your landscape, replacing your old windows with newer, energy efficient models, adding a deck, updating your master bathroom or even investing in a kitchen remodeling project. By focusing on these areas, not only will you be able to increase your home’s value but you can also make it a home that you can enjoy living in as well.

Look at Your Neighborhood’s Comparable Sale

Real estate comparables are the recent sales of similar homes in a certain area, and, normally, they’re used by an appraiser to help home sellers decide on the fair market value of your home. If you’re trying to avoid overimproving your home, you should also consider asking your local real estate agent to pull up comparable sales in your neighborhood before you start the home improvement project. This is because by doing so, you’ll be able to see how much buyers are willing to pay for a similar home in your area and determine just how much value you can add to your property before your risk overimproving it, which in turn allows you to narrow down the home remodeling projects that are worth the investment. If planned improvements can no longer raise your home’s value, on the other hand, remodeling professionals strongly recommend that you hold off on carrying them out.

Don’t Buy an Overpriced Home

If you want to avoid overimproving your home in the future, one thing that you should keep in mind is avoid purchasing an overpriced home from the start. According to experts, if you pay for a home that’s overpriced to begin with, it’s less likely that you’ll be able to get your money back regardless of any improvements you make. With that in mind, don’t hesitate to turn to a trustworthy and reliable realtor so you can make sure that you’re actually paying at or under the home’s worth when you’re purchasing a house.

What to Do if You’ve Already Overimproved

As some homeowners are unaware that it’s actually possible to overimprove a home, they tend to get the remodeling done before even realizing that they’re doing it. In fact, some may not even realize that they actually overimproved until it’s time to sell the house. If you intend to stay in the house for a few more decades, then the overimprovements may not be a problem at all. Unfortunately, however, if you intend to sell your home in the near future, there’s nothing you can do once the home has already been overimproved. Instead, you might want to consider working with an experienced listed agent to price the home and accept the fact that you might have to lose a bit of money to sell the property.

How to Find the Right Contractor for Your Remodeling Needs

If you want to do a home improvement project, it’s never recommended that you attempt to do it on your own, especially if you’re inexperienced. If you want your remodeling project to come out perfectly, it’s best that you hire a professional contractor to get the job done instead. While finding the right contractor may sound difficult, with the aid of the internet, this is something that can easily be done.

To make your search for an expert remodeler easier, simply go online, and search for the best remodelers in your area. Once you’ve made your selection, you can go to websites like the Better Business Bureau to learn more about your prospects. If they have any history of unresolved complaints from previous clients, or they poorly conducted themselves in their last few jobs, don’t hesitate to part ways with the company to further narrow down your options. When you’re down to the last three to five contractors, meet up with each of them, and get an estimate so you can choose one that you feel is reasonable. Finally, sign a contract with the selected remodelers.

Planning to remodel your home soon? Don’t hesitate to turn to Ganser Company. With a whopping 82 years in the home improvement and remodeling business, we are dedicated to giving homeowners nothing but the best products and customer service. You can count on us! Give us a call at (608) 222-1243, or fill out our contact form to get in touch with us and request a quote today!