How to Raise Your Home Value for Resale

In today’s housing market it is important to know what can be done to raise your home’s sale potential. Estate agents and other "authorities" seem to be promoting short-cut solutions such as removing smells from your home, decorating a few rooms and planting some flowers in the garden. These are just cosmetic touch-ups which fool only a small percent of buyers. The fact is most homeowners have done their study on the property market and know what gives value to a home.The home remodelling magazine, "Remodelling" stated that on a national average the most cost effective additions to your home which raise value and the potential of sale are bathroom additions and house extensions.

House Extensions

Per National statistics of home sales 94% of home owners who have added a side-return extension, double story extension or simply extended the house out a few metres for extra room, found the selling process rather simple. Extra room is a clincher in selling a house and home extensions are considered the best way to go.

Bathroom Additions

85% of UK homes have a small bathroom on the ground floor, usually tucked under stairs or even placed where the old utility closet once was. Again, this is not the best solution as it clutters the home and is in fact an eye sore for potential buyers. Low ceilings and tiny-windowed bathrooms are archaic and considered deterrents for buyers.A bathroom addition would preferably be done by extending. As most homes have a decent or mid-sized bathroom either upstairs or on the ground floor one has a couple of solutions.

1. Small bathroom extension: The bathroom can usually fit nicely in a little extension 3m X 2m out the back of the house.
2. Double story extension: If you consider the extension climbing up the side of your home you can have a good sized bathroom or kitchen extension on the lower floor and an additional bedroom on the second floor.

Don’t try the usual estate agent method of cookie-cutter (cosmetic) home touch ups when you want to sell your home. Most home owners doing this have to resort to a year of hassle pestering the selling agent to eventually having to drop their asking price by 25-15% because new buyers are in the know.