Stay or Sell: Home Improvement Investments to Make On a Small Budget

If you plan to stay in your current home, keep in mind that it is still necessary to update your home to help its value and if you plan to sell, then these improvements will help you sell your home quicker. Whether you have a small, medium, or large budget, there are plenty of home improvement projects for you to tackle. Here are home improvement investments for your home if you have a small budget.

With a small budget, the home improvement projects you need to tackle may be the nitty-gritty aspects of the home rather than the luxurious transformations of living spaces. Priority is key in this situation, therefore, stick to the budget and improve the function of the home.

• Replace the Furnace/HVAC as this will help save on costs and create a more comfortable living environment. It takes roughly five years to see cost benefits from this replacement; therefore this is a good investment if you plan to stay in your home for a while. Replacing the HVAC could cost between $3,000 and $8,000 depending on brand.
• Make sure your plumbing is updated. Having rusty pipes could harm your body due to ingesting metal from drinking water as well as possible water damage due to pipes breaking. Most new homes now have PVC pipes which are much more reliable. PVC pipes run throughout the home much easier and call for less holes in your walls. The average cost of replacing all of the pipes in your home is between $2,500 and $4,500. This depends on size of home and how many pipes you plan to replace.
• Insulate your home. Adding insulation is not the most luxurious home improvement project, but it will help you keep the warm or the cool temperatures in the home and essentially save you costs. Consider caulking around windows and doors as well. This will reassure the warm/cool air stays inside the home. The cost of insulating your home is between $1,000 and $3,000.

• Replace the flooring. Home owners are becoming more educated in details such as flooring and prefer real wood or real tile floors over laminate. This sort of update will not only spruce up the look of your home, increase your home’s value, but it will also help you sell your home once you do plan on moving. It costs roughly $2,000, at its highest, for 200 square feet to install hardwood floors.

• Update the entryway. Adding a fresh coat of paint to railings, door, and shutters will help in keeping your home looking inviting and new. Paint is the easiest and cheapest way to update a space, therefore take advantage of it. Update the hardware as well because the small details count and can go a long way. The cost varies depending on paint that you purchase.

Although these home improvement projects may not add much visual appeal to your home, functionality of the home is the most crucial aspect of increasing the home’s value. Having a home that looks nice but keeps breaking down will not only affect your costs of keeping up with the home, but it will make living in that home less comfortable as well as much more difficult to sell in the future when you plan on moving.