One of the biggest responsibilities than any of us will ever have is being a homeowner. Not only do you have to concern ourselves with paying the mortgage on a monthly basis, but when you own a house, there is no landlord to come and do the home improvements that are needed. Basically, you are the landlord and so those kinds of responsibilities are solely up to you.
And so, when you’re looking around thinking about what kind of “upgrades” you need to make, you might be wondering which ones are better (and cheaper) than others. That’s why we’re here: to provide you with five of the most money-wasting home improvements that you could make:
A fiberglass door (over a steel one). A lot of us love the look of a fiberglass door and if you’ve been told that it’s a wise house investment, you’re not alone. However, the truth is that you’re actually better off installing a steel one. A fiberglass door that costs around $3,500 will lose approximately 44 percent of its value once you install it while a $1,000 steel door retains about 73 percent of its costs. The fiberglass may be prettier, but it’s basically a money pit.
Remodeling your home office. As more and more people are opting to work from home, it’s understandable why they may think that it’s a good idea to remodel their home office. If you want to do it because it will simply make you a happier and more productive person, we’re all for that. However, if you believe that it will add to the market value of your house, the reality is that if you spent around $30,000 to remodel your office space, once you put your home of the market, it may be worth about $12,000 (at best)– especially if the person purchasing the house works outside of the home.
An in-ground pool. OK, we’ll give you the good news first: by installing a pool onto your property (especially if it’s something like one of those fibreglass swimming pools), the value of your home can increase anywhere between 6 and 11 percent. Now here’s the other side to that story: it costs roughly around $25,000-50,000 to install it and then $2,000 a year to maintain it. If you really want a pool, putting in one that is above ground is much cheaper (around $3,000 for a really nice one).
Backup power generator. There is something to be said for being the one who is always prepared, but some things that you are paying for can prove to be more of a waste of money than anything else. One of the items on that list is a backup power generator. A large majority of us do not experience power outages enough (or for a long period of time) to warrant paying $15,000 in order to have one. So, before you make this decision, weigh out if you can wait a few hours for your electricity company to come restore your power (for free).
Adding on a master suite. Two places where people look first when choosing a home is the kitchen and the master suite. The main thing to keep in mind is that you can easily fork over $100,000 to make the addition and normally, you’ll only get about a 59 percent return on your investment (around $60,000). Not a lot of us have $40,000 to blow off and so before you call a contractor, make sure to give this some serious thought. You might just want to remodel the big bedroom that you already have instead.