When Jim Holland bought his current house, the former engineer and do-it-yourselfer quickly made a mental list of the home-improvement projects he wanted to tackle.
At the top was a new garage door.
That might not be as flashy as a remodeled kitchen or a new deck — you’re unlikely to see a photo spread on garage doors in the next issue of Better Homes and Gardens — but Holland, as a longtime Realtor and broker in La Jolla, knows the value of curb appeal.
Is there a difference between curb appeal and “value?” To appraiser there sure is. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.
First, he wanted his new home to look good, and pulling into the driveway each day just felt better once the new door was up. But second, Holland has learned that improving the home’s exterior is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to increase its value.
“It made a major, dramatic change to the front of the house, and I got comments all the time from people,” says Holland of the neighbors he soon met. “ ‘Oh, you’re the guy with the nice garage door, right?’ They didn’t know my name, but I was known.”
Holland estimates the custom garage door cost about $5,000, which he says “is a lot of money to spend.” But he calls it a great investment when combined with a later re-stuccoing project to the front of the house that gave it a complete makeover and a significant upgrade in value.
To Holland and others with experience in San Diego real estate, it’s sometimes the smaller projects, a few cans of paint or an upgrade in appliances and landscaping that make homes not only more livable but also more valuable in the long run.
“Granite countertops, brand new cabinets, new fixtures, that sort of stuff is great, and it absolutely helps your property sell quicker and for more money,” says Seth O’Byrne, a San Diego Realtor. “But as far as bang for your buck, it’s really hard to compete with the value of improving the paint and flooring and staging the property well.”
Read more at: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/13/tp-big-bang-theory/
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