Most Profitable Home Improvements

Your remodeling plans should include only the most profitable home improvements. The scope of any restoration you undertake must be based on a careful analysis of your goals for the house.

At the most basic level you will do nothing other than cut, clean and cap. When selling an old second home, you cut the grass, clean up the junk, and paint the front. Depending on the market you might not even bother to paint the front.

In many, if not most cases, this may be your best approach. Your primary objective is to extract as much cash from the house as possible and any money you put in only detracts from that objective.

For all you know a developer might come along and tell you, "i'm going to level it and start over." Then your most profitable home improvements will have been for naught.

However, there may be times when it is in your best interests to restore the old house to a certain level. For one thing, it may be your primary residence and you simply want to improve your standard of living.

But typically this is a second home and you reside elsewhere. If this is the case you may decide to rent the home and bring it up to an acceptable standard for that purpose.

Or maybe the city inspector has cited you for a code violation and you must improve the property or risk losing it. Or maybe you are trying to sell the house through a realtor. He has advised you that certain improvements must be made before the home may be listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

Outside deck and siding give the best return on investment. Inside it is minor kitchen or bath remodel. Other value improvements include a second floor addition and window replacement.

You will be encouraged to learn that a lot can be done for virtually nothing. Dolf de Roos' "101 Ways to Massively Improve the Value of Your Real Estate" is a gold mine of information along those lines.

That is the best place to start in identifying the most profitable home improvements Once you have exhausted all of these possibilities, you can turn to other more substantial improvements on a priority basis Click here for additional tips on allocating your remodeling dollars.