How To Add Value To Your Home: The Remodeling Quandry
This is a guest post by Libby Balke, head staff writer for Smart Money Focus. There she writes about finances and family life as a full-time online entrepreneur. If you enjoy this article, feel free to jump over to Smart Money Focus and check it out.
It’s most likely the single largest purchase – and probably the biggest investment – you’ll ever make: your house. Thanks to the recession, homeowners are holding on to their properties longer than ever. Between 2001 and 2008, homeowners remained in their house for an average of six years before selling; last year, that length of time had ballooned by 50 percent up to nine years. And what are these same homeowners looking for when they ultimately do sell? I can sum it up in two words: bigger and better.
That’s where renovating comes in. Whether you want to add value to your home in hopes of selling it down the road for a higher price, or you just want to give your family more – or nicer – usable space, remodeling can help you reach your goals. But it doesn’t always make sense. Here are three rules you have to read before picking up a hammer:
Create Your Real Estate Road Map
How much longer do you plan to stay in your home? If the answer is less than five years, you may want to reconsider taking on serious house improvements. The average bathroom remodel cost $16,552 in 2011, while a new kitchen cost an average of $19,588 for even a minor remodeling project. Say you paid for these two projects in cash – and if you did, please call me, because I’d like to take out a personal loan at zero percent interest from you. You’re talking a grand total of $36,140. Divide that over five years – it comes out to nearly $20 a day! Is a new kitchen really worth $140 a week?
Price Your Neighborhood
There’s an old adage that you never want to be the highest priced house in the neighborhood. Why? Because these homes are far less likely to sell for their full real estate value. Adding on additional square footage or updating your kitchen and bath are not how to add value to your home if your home’s value – based on the worth of your neighbors’ properties – is already maxed out. Instead, strive to have a housing value between the 25th and 75th percentiles in your neighborhood to maximize your resale value.
Getting Your Money Back
Many novice remodelers think they’re adding value to their home when they update a bathroom or finish their basement, and they are: just not as much value as they think. Take, for example, the average cost to turn an unfinished walk-up attic into a bedroom. While you’ll likely spend about $50,000 to complete the project, you’ll see only a fraction of that – 72 percent, on average – in resale. And that’s on the high end: according to Remodeling.com, most house improvements see an average return between 45 and 75 percent, with home office remodels giving owners the lowest return at just 42 percent.
Lessons Learned The Hard Way
What gives me the authority to spout off about the cost effectiveness of a pricy remodeling job? I’m not a realtor, nor am I a contractor: rather, I’m an average consumer – just like you – who learned this lesson the hard way.
Four years ago, my husband and I decided to add a four-seasons room on to our house; in reality, it was a glorified sunroom, but since the addition would be fully heated and have electricity, we would ultimately be able to count it in our home’s overall square footage. We’d been in the house two years at the time, and thought we planned to stay there long term. So, we plunked down $18,000 to pay for our addition.
Fast forward to today, and we’re trying to sell our home – turns out, the extra 140 square feet afforded by our sunroom addition wasn’t enough to offset the addition of two children during the intervening years. Although we paid $18,000 for the extra space, our tax value only went up $11,000. That’s a 61 percent return on our investment – and we’re the lucky ones. The average sunroom addition only sees a 46 percent return.
My husband and I broke the first and third rules of renovating: we thought an addition was the epitome of how to add value to your home. We learned the tough way that, unless you plan to stay in your home long term, it’s a financial decision that doesn’t always pay off.
Six Online Calculators Useful for Improving Your Finances
When it comes to improving personal finances, just about every one of us could use a helping hand. In particular we could use some free help. While there’s no direction to be pointed in that will lead you to getting free sit down time with a financial adviser, there are a number of online tools you can use to get your spending in shape and a savings plan in order. In particular, online calculators come in pretty handy, such as the following:
Credit card repayment: Courtesy of the Federal Reserve, all you have to do is enter in a desired monthly payment or payoff period and the opposite figure will be shown to you. It’s the easiest way to get a realistic picture regarding your credit card debt, and for judging whether or not your current monthly payment makes enough of a dent.
Student loan repayment: Before taking out those Stafford, PLUS or Discover college loans, run the numbers through this federally-created student loan repayment calculator. While borrowing is a fact of life for most people who choose to attend college, nobody needs the burden of added thousands of dollars of debt after graduation.
Mortgage payment reduction: The Home Affordable Modification program created by the Obama administration aims at ensuring those with mortgages at risk for foreclosure stay afloat for as long as possible. One aim of the initiative is to get mortgage payments to less than 31% of household income. Use this calculator to determine how much you could save by getting your monthly payment lowered.
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Getting a Rental Property for Cash Flow
The is a guest post by Robert.
If you are looking to diversify your investments, or want an investment that is based on cash flow, then getting a rental property can be a great investment. However, it is important to remember that a rental property is part investment, part business, since it does require some work on your part.
The Mortgage
The first piece of that is figuring out what you can afford. This means looking at cash flow minus expenses, and the biggest expense is usually the mortgage. Since you are looking at this property as an investment, it is essential that you calculate your mortgage payment using a buy to let mortgage calculator. Buy to let mortgages are ones specifically designed for investment properties, as they factor in different information compared to a standard mortgage payments calculator. For example, it will take into consideration the cash flow from the property, instead of just relying solely on your income as the borrower.
Other Key Expenses
Beyond the mortgage, you should also take into consideration expenses such as insurance, property taxes, maintenance, utilities, and more.
With insurance, you can usually get a fire policy that is specifically designed for rental properties – it excludes personal property, and as such, may be cheaper than a traditional home owners insurance policy.
You also need to remember to save money for maintenance and repairs. It is inevitable that something will break or need your attention, and repairs cost money. Make sure you save some money each month to plan for this.
The Cash Flow
Rental properties are about cash flow, so make sure that your investment will deliver. Take your estimated rent, and subtract your expenses, and that is your cash flow.
It is important to note that you also get one important tax benefit – depreciation. This is counted as an expense on your tax returns, but you don’t technically lose that money. As such, if you had income that matched the amount you depreciated your property by, you would not pay any income tax on it since it would be a wash. That is one of the biggest benefits of rental property ownership.
Save Money This Winter By Greening Your Utilities
Most of the country has experienced a mild winter thus far, with the number of cold days, the amount of snow, and the general gloom of the season well below normal January levels. This has translated into lower utilities bills for those who live in colder regions. Heating costs, which can skyrocket in winter and take a hefty bite out of your budget, just aren’t at those same levels this year.
But don’t get too complacent. Meteorologists predict that the cold will finally arrive in the next couple months, bringing with it those higher gas costs that we dread. If you act now, you can take steps to reduce these expenses and save some money this winter – and, moreover, go green in the process. A greener home can also be more convenient for you and it can translate into lower insurance costs. Getting an Insurance quote can help you determine that with certainty.
Here are some tips for being more eco-friendly and wallet-friendly with your utilities this winter:
Get Energy Efficient Lights. These lights cost more money, but they also last longer and save more energy in the process. At the end of the day, they should result in noticeable savings.
Get A “Smart” Thermostat. High-tech thermostats, developed by a company called Nest Labs, have the ability to learn your habits and regulate your home temperature in a way that best maximizes heating efficiencies. As with light bulbs, this can translate into savings – substantial ones, in fact – despite costing more than traditional thermostats.
Insulate Your Attic. Adding insulation to your walls may be a costly and time-consuming undertaking, but in many homes it is not to difficult to add a layer of insulation to your attic floor. Since heat often escapes through the roof, this layer can be incredibly helpful in the winter.
Caulk Your Windows. Similarly, adding extra insulating protection to your windows can help trap heat in your home. If you live in an older structure, you may be surprised how much heat you are losing around your windows every day.
Taking all of these steps are all great ways to improve the efficiency of your home’s energy use, in the process making your house a more environmentally-friendly place. And, as an added bonus, this efficiency will extend into the area where to you it matters most – your personal finances.
Things First Time Homebuyers Need To Know
The best deals when buying a home are often given to first home buyer. That is because there are so many different programs and incentives that are giving to help first time buyers realize their home ownership dreams. You will find that you are in line for a lot of monetary perks when making your home purchase. Listed below are some of the great benefits of buying a house for the first time.
Home Buying Programs
First timer homeowners have an easier time qualifying for government programs than repeat homebuyers. The federal government has many federal programs that offer low interest rates and loan guarantees to first time buyers. State and local government also offer price discounts to first time home purchasers that enter the teaching and nursing professions. That is one of the ways that they attract candidates.
More Loan Options
New home buyers have a number of loan options that they can go to for financing. You can always go to a bank, credit union, or mortgage broker. There are special VA loan programs for people that have served in the military that guarantees a really low interest rate for first time buyers. The FHA has first timer buyer loan programs that only make borrowers put down 3 to 4 percent of the loan’s value. That is well below the twenty percent mark that most banks are requiring. Take a few days to compare the house loans being offered to you until you find one that fits.
Saving Money On Taxes
One of the big benefits of buying a house is the mortgage interest deduction. You can lower your taxable income and the amount of taxes that you pay by writing off all of the money that you pay in interest. You can also deduct your property taxes from state tax returns leaving you with a much lower tax liability. There is even a first time homebuyer tax credit that you can claim.
Lower Fees
When doing a home loan comparison, take the time to look at the fees that the lender is charging. First time homebuyer loans often have lower fees since they are offered to people who have never owned a property before and have lower income levels. Most first time buyer programs will keep the loan affordable by capping fees and loan amounts.
Now you know why it is so advantageous for a first time home buyer to buy a piece of real estate.
How to Stay Out of Debt When in School
“Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt,” claimed the great playwright Henrik Ibsen. Truer words have never been spoken. The surest way to add more stress to your college days is to get yourself into debt.
Being a student means making sacrifices. While frequenting the local bars or traveling to exotic destinations for spring break may sound like fun, this is not the time to go into debt in order to maintain a luxury-laden life. By managing your funds in school you will be well prepared to take care of yourself after you graduate and well on your way to enjoying the finer things in life.
1. Explore Grants and Scholarships
Always look for any and all free ways to pay for your education and avoid student loans. Student loans are alluring, but remember that loans are not just a way of securing extra money – they must be paid back. Instead, explore the countless private and federal scholarships that target people with all sorts of backgrounds, degree paths (which often even include courses offered through online universities), ethnicities, income levels, etc. In addition, government grants are very generous these days and most students from low income households will qualify for a grant.
2. Buy Groceries/Plan Meals
A student’s life seems to never slow down, making it easy to fall into a fast food lifestyle. However eating out all the time quickly adds up and the term, “freshman fifteen” comes from the weight gain student’s often experience when all of their meals consist of processed foods.
Luckily, both of these dilemmas can be avoided by planning meals and going on weekly shopping trips. Commit to making this a habit while at school. Of course, this takes some preparation. Think of this experience as another lesson; a lesson in life skills. Plan each week’s meals and then shop accordingly, and don’t forget to take advantage of any coupons or student discounts that might be available to you. The average fast food bill for one person is $15 these days. Yet for $30, you might be able enough groceries to last you more than a week.
