Are you thinking about making changes to your home? Larger changes can be beneficial for a variety of reasons. For instance, they can be used to add value or they might deliver practical benefits to your property. However, you do need to approach a change like this the right way. You need to think about how much you are spending and whether it is going to pay off for you in the long term. Here are some of the key factors that you must keep in mind when you are considering a change like this to your property.
What Are You Hoping To Achieve?
A key factor that you should keep in mind is what you are hoping to achieve with changes to your home. It’s possible that you want to make your home a more fun and exciting place for the entire family. If that’s the case then there are lots of possibilities that might be worth exploring. For instance, you can think about adding a home entertainment system to the living area. While expensive, this is going to mean that you will have the perfect place to enjoy evenings with your family. Use it to watch movies as well as your favourite TV shows.
Alternatively, you might be more interested in practical changes. The right practical changes will ensure that your home is better suited for specific needs. An example would include insulation options. Better insulation will mean that you will be able to take advantage of lower energy bills. You can use the money you save here on other aspects of your life.
In terms of better insulation, you should think about changing the windows. While a significant addition to your home, a change like this is always going to pay off in the long term.
Will It Add Value?
A key drive when making changes to your home is the desire to increase the value of the property so that you can earn more money when it’s time to sell. This does make a lot of sense. However, if this is your ultimate goal, then there are some factors that you should be aware of.
First, there are misconceptions about the type of changes that will add significant value to your home. For instance, you might be thinking about adding a pool to your property. While this is going to add lifestyle benefits it might not increase the investment that you have already made in your home. The reason for this is that a lot of buyers will be deterred by the maintenance costs of a pool. You could also potentially out price potential buyers if you add a pool in an area where surrounding properties don’t have this type of feature.
If you want to add value, then the best way to do this is to increase the usable square space of your home. That can be accomplished with either a conversion or an extension depending on the type of home that you are working with here.
Are You Keeping the Home?
Next, you should think about whether you are planning to keep the home for the foreseeable future. If you are then you can spend as much money as you like on your property. You could also be approaching this as your forever home and if that’s the case then again, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make large and more significant changes. There can be more issues if you are thinking about selling over the next few years. If that’s the case then you need to be more careful with your budget. You must make sure that you are not spending more than you can hope to make back on the sale.
If you are planning to sell, then you might also want to explore the different possibilities that buyers are going to be interested in. For instance, there is a lot of demand right now surrounding green friendly homes that do offer the right features. An example would be solar panels. You can add Blue Raven panels to any home on any budget and they will immediately make your property more modern. You just need to make sure that you are aware of how many solar panels you need to make this a beneficial choice. Solar panel subsidies are available from environmental groups as well as governments to ensure that they are far more attractive and cost friendly.
Other features that you might want to consider would be ensuring that your home is open plan. Open plan living is one of the most popular modern choices on the market today.
Is It Protected?
Next, you need to make sure that the change that you are making to your home is fully protected and that you are not risking a massive potential loss in the future. The easiest way to do this is to think about insurance options and your home warranty. If you add a feature like a pool or even a hot tub to your home, then it’s important to understand that it might not automatically be covered by your home warranty. You’ll need to check this and you might also need to alter your coverage to ensure that there isn’t an issue here.
If your home isn’t protected then you’ll need to cover the cost of any repairs or maintenance that a new addition to your home needs over the next few years. The cost of this can be substantial and may put pressure on your budget which is the last thing that you want.
There are other ways that you can protect a change to your home like this as well. For instance, you might want to think about exploring options such as annual inspections. This can be useful for features such as a hot tub because it will mean that a repair doesn’t grow out of control or become more than you can handle.
Are You Hiring The Right Help?
Finally, when you make larger changes to your home, it’s important to hire the right support. Most jobs like this can not be approached from the angle of DIY. Instead, you need to think about bringing in a professional contractor to complete the work for you. That way you can guarantee that changes to your home match the right standards of quality you are hoping for.
It’s important to make sure that you do find a contractor that you can trust. You should look at their reviews and hopefully check out their portfolio of previous work. Be aware that costs should not be the main concern here. It’s far more important that you can trust a contractor that you are thinking about hiring.
Don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as possible when you are speaking to a contractor. The more questions you ask, the more comfortable you should feel using their services.
At the very least, you should ensure that you are hiring licensed contractors to complete work on your home. Licensed contractors will provide the peace of mind that you need that the work will be completed to the right standards.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you can take to ensure that you are approaching changes to your home the right way. If you face issues here, then you could end up struggling to get the money back that you spend on a change like this. You might also find that it doesn’t deliver the practical benefits that you were hoping for when you first planned this renovation.
