WHICH HOME IMPROVEMENTS CAN PAY FOR THEMSELVES IMMEDIATELY? THINK CURB APPEAL!
PREMIUM SIDING PROVIDES ALMOST A 100% IMMEDIATE RETURN IN CHICAGO AREA!
Check out the website costvsvalue.com. Here, you can download a fresh survey, conducted by Remodeling Magazine, as to which home improvements will yield the fastest, highest dollar return when you sell. This is timely reading indeed, in today's shifting Chicago Real Estate market. In Chicago, and in most suburbs, most buyers first spot the home on the internet, run it by their Real Estate Professional, then take a drive by.
If the curb appeal doesn't tickle their fancy, they often keep driving!
In Chicago, average cost to side a 1,250-foot home with premium fiber-cement siding is $14,000. For mid-range vinyl siding, the average cost in Chicagoland - $11,759. For each quality, the survey predicts a 99.9% return on investment when you sell. Indeed, the added curb appeal the siding adds may actually lure the buyer that might otherwise have never seen the interior of your house!
Other high-return improvements here in Chicago were new decks, which returned 81 to 94 percent of their cost depending on the materials used. Wood replacement windows offered a 90 to 94 percent return, according to the survey.
Those projects bringing back far lower returns - sunroom additions, back-up generators, and new high-tech offices in the home. These improvements only brought returns in the 62 to 66 percent range, depending on the project and the quality of work.
The overall conclusion of the survey - the market seems to be now favoring practical home improvement projects, rather than more novel or exotic ones that tickled the senses of home buyers just a few years ago. Curb appeal, combined with overall home maintenance, seem to be the best improvement investments today.
Also view Mary Umberger's report in the Homes Section of today's Chicago Tribune.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
