Tag Archives: money

Remodeling Without Breaking the Bank – New Websites help with Cost Estimates

Posted on July 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

There’s a reason that many people who have gone through a major remodeling job eventually refer to their homes — no matter how beautiful the result — as “The Money Pit”: All too often, the costs outstrip their expectations (and that’s being kind).

One could make a convincing argument that any entity that could effectively arm consumers with realistic, reliable notions of cost — before they sign a contract — would garner considerable loyalty. Maybe even a Nobel Prize.

Will remodeling add value to your home? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your home value questions.

So in recent years, various players in the housing business have certainly tried. Remodeling magazine and the National Association of Realtors have teamed to offer an annual cost roundup of prototypical projects, featuring estimates from contractors that are tied to real estate agents’ estimates of the jobs’ payback at resale time. Earlier this year, Zillow launched Zillow Digs, which featured photography of actual projects paired with contractors’ estimates of costs.

Now comes Houzz, the popular home improvement site that’s known for its 1.7 million photos of rooms and other household improvements: It recently introduced the Houzz Real Cost Finder, which surveyed 106,000 homeowners who had completed numerous projects within the last five years to learn how much they had spent.

“It’s a tool that enables homeowners to see specific costs for building and renovation and decorating in their local areas and at different price points,” said Houzz Vice President Liza Hausman.

The Pay-as-You Go Remodel

Posted on November 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

SOMETIMES not having enough money to renovate right away can be a blessing in disguise.

At least that’s how Nina Johnson-Milewski, an art dealer and the owner of Gallery Diet, and her husband, Dan Milewski, an artist who owns a cafe and wine bar, have come to regard it.

In 2006, they bought a 1939 bungalow here for $230,000, but they couldn’t afford to make the changes they envisioned before moving in. So they spent the next six years living in the one-story house while they gradually renovated it, putting in thousands of hours of their own labor, as well as $75,000 — in bits and pieces, whenever they could.

The advantages of slow renovation quickly became obvious. “You only see what you need once you’re living in the space,” said Ms. Johnson-Milewski, 27. That’s when “you see how you want the house to function.”

So it was first by necessity, and later by choice, that the couple, who met in 2004 as students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, let the design of their 2,100-square-foot house evolve room by room and chair by chair.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Use Your Remodeling Dollars Wisely

Posted on July 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Time was, and not all that long ago, that putting money into your house before putting it on the market paid off at resale.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your questions if remodeling project will add value to your home.

But the “sluggish housing market continues to push down remodeling return on investment,” Sal Alfano writes in the most recent Cost vs. Value Report issued by Remodeling magazine, with the overall average cost-to-value ratio dropping to 57.7 percent from its peak in 2005 of 86.7 percent.

Even though the cost of remodeling itself has continued to fall, that’s effectively counteracted by a drop in resale values, Alfano said.

Bottom line: There is no guarantee that any improvement will boost the sale price of a house, especially in a real estate market in which even multiple offers typically result only in an amount near or slightly above asking price.

Yes, doing the necessary improvements to a house will help it compete. If two houses are for sale on the same street for the same price and one has a new roof while the other needs one, it’s not hard to figure out which might sell first. But “might” is the operative word in an era when little about the real estate market is a certainty.

New roof or not, a house’s list price must be appropriate for the market to attract buyers, who likely will not only expect leak-free conditions, but also a furnace and air conditioning that work properly.