I’m currently looking at two home projects this spring/summer.
1) Widening my driveway. The current driveway is one car wide and my wife and I have to play car Tetris multiple times per week which can be quite annoying. Street parking overnight isn’t allowed in our town either and we live on a somewhat blind suburban corner, so I wouldn’t want to park there anyway.
2) Exterior Replacement / Repainting. We have cedar shakes that are 35-40 years old and looking a bit banged up. I’m debating replacing with James Hardie plank siding, and adding a couple of windows into a dimly lit room to brighten it up. Or, simply repainting to give it a fresh look.
Both are more curb appeal and quality of life improvements. I can easily afford to do both jobs, but I’m debating if it’s worth it, as I likely (but not for sure) will move in 5 years or so when my child starts school to be in a better school district.
Will either project help to fetch more buyers or a higher price when it comes time to sell. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews to “no you won’t get a dime back” to “you will get most of it back but not all due to the much higher curb appeal of the home”.
I would appreciate any insights from the community.
Home Improvement Projects that will have some return on investment
byu/ScatterRunner inRealEstate
Posted by ScatterRunner
1 Comment
The first is probably going to have a better ROI, because it’s a practical improvement.
Siding is uncommon in my market, so I don’t know really what kind of lifespan you can expect for that. But that’s really a maintenance question, not an improvement. I would not expect any return on either one of those. I’d repair/repaint it, until it’s at the end of it’s expected life, then I’d replace it. That just has to be done to keep the house standing.
New siding will probably make it easier to sell your house, but not necessarily for more money. If you think it can wait until right before moving though, I’d want. Because new siding might help, but 5 year old siding is just going to be seen as average. It’s not much help as a selling point once it’s a few years old.