The Most Valuable Home Renovations

Local realtors weigh in on making your house yours...and adding to its resale value

By Ellen Miller | Sept. 21, 2024

Sometimes you buy a house and the honey-do list is obvious: there’s a leaking bathtub. Peeling wallpaper from the eighties. A door hanging off its hinges. But if you’re ready to update rather than repair, where do you start? Which projects are going to be most impactful as you live in the house? And what if you decide to sell?

Luckily, real estate agents are experts in all of the above. They know just what buyers are looking for in a home, and they also know what makes it more livable for you. We chatted with two local realtors, Kyle Bowen and Hillary Voight, who have both renovated their own homes, so their tips come from professional and personal experience.

Fix It First

Bowen and Voight are in agreement: necessary repairs come first. You should always start tackling the must-do projects before you do the fun, cosmetic stuff, says Voight. For example, if your roof needs repairs, it’s better to fix it first, otherwise it might ruin the pretty new flooring or wallpaper you put in.

But necessary repairs don’t always have to be boring. “Get creative,” Voight encourages. “You don’t have to replace something with the exact same thing. You can still have fun, even if you’re tasked with big ticket items. Romance it up a bit!”

Voight gives an example of needing to replace windows. In a previous project, she replaced windows that had a break line down the middle of them with windows that didn’t have any divider. “That changed both the interior and exterior feel of the house,” she says.

“I think people are creative, there’s just a fear,” adds Bowen. “If you’ve been to a friend’s home and seen a feature you liked, think about how you can incorporate that into your home.” He also points to TikTok and other social media platforms as sources of inspiration.

If you’re still stuck on where to begin, ask yourself, “What are the pain points in the house?” For example, maybe you’ve lived in the house a few months and there are two closets but no shelving. That’s an easy fix and can make your home stand out, says Bowen.

Paint with Care

Next project? Paint. While Bowen cautions that most buyers are going to paint the house the way they want it, both Bowen and Voight agree that a bad paint job or multiple bright colors across a home can make it challenging for someone to envision living there.

On the flip side, Voight says painting can make a big impact, like making a small room feel more expansive, and that there are cost-effective brands like Benjamin Moore. Painting is often a project that homeowners can tackle themselves, cutting down on the financial investment.

A fresh coat of paint can also do a lot of work to cover the signs of use in the house, like nicks in the walls, stains, or that spot where your kiddo scribbled with permanent marker. To make the project worth your while, invest in the proper materials, take the time to do the prep work, and pick a color and sheen that will hold up to daily living and your changes in style.

Maximizing Your Current Space

Once you have the basics wrapped up, you have the opportunity to create impact in your home and address some of the big-ticket items without a full renovation.

“A lot of our neighborhoods aren’t cookie cutter; however, most homes were built in a similar style, size, and fashion, so standing out is key,” notes Bowen. “If every house has the same features, what can you do to make your house different? Do you have the house with the nice garden, the house with the waterfall feature, the house with the crazy man cave, the house with nice fit and finishes everywhere?”

Things like flooring, windows, and countertops can be updated piecemeal. Maybe you aren’t ready to gut the kitchen, but adding fresh countertops makes sense. If you’re looking to update flooring, Voight points to luxury vinyl plank as an alternative to hardwood—not only is it cheaper, it’s more durable, particularly if you have kids or pets.

“Another thing I love to do is to think about how we can create more usable space without changing the blueprint of your house,” adds Voight. That could look like adding a half bath to an existing laundry space, where there are already hookups for plumbing and electrical, which is an investment but a smaller project than, say, adding an addition with a primary suite. “It’s not cheap but it’s cheaper than building out!”

Bowen says that other ideas include turning an extra bedroom or bonus space that might just be used as storage into a home office or lounge area. He converted the attic in his house into a home office, adding functionality and removing unused space.

And don’t forget about our ever-hotter summers; while it might not be visible, adding air conditioning if your house doesn’t already have it can be a huge bonus.

Ready for a Major Reno?

Now it’s time to turn to the bigger renovations that improve both the liveability of the home and its resale value. Unfortunately, the areas that can have the most impact whether you’re living in or looking to sell can often be budget busters: kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and pantry.

These can be game-changers for how you live in a home. A kitchen tends to be a gathering space, and while not all homes have pantries, they can add a lot of storage and make your house feel cleaner and less cluttered. “It doesn’t have to be a butler’s pantry,” says Voight, “but space for storage of dry goods is desirable. People are wowed by that.”

Voight notes that many homeowners will save up, planning to do the kitchen as part of a five-year plan. Kitchens tend to be the most expensive, but also where you get the biggest return on investment, she says. The good news is that while appliances, counters, backsplashes, and hardware can add up quickly, they are always offered at a variety of price points.

Creating a new bathroom is almost always a value add for a house, and an improved laundry area can be essential for families in particular. If you can move the laundry to the main level as opposed to being in the basement, that’s also a big win.

Another functional update that might not come to mind immediately? Leveling. Most people want the primary suite on the main level with additional bedrooms upstairs, notes Voight. This could mean an addition, or it could mean reimagining your main floor and shifting a few walls around to use the space in a new way.

When You’re Ready to Sell

Just because you’re not in your forever home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t update it. And it also doesn’t mean that you have to make every decision based on what a future homeowner would like. (You live there now—enjoy it!)

But when the time comes to sell, here are the tips from the real estate pros:

Clean, clean, clean! “Clean like you’ve never cleaned before in your life,” says Bowen. Both Bowen and Voight mentioned tidiness as essential for buyers to imagine themselves living in your home…and for the photos that will be added to the Zillow listing. Bowen emphasizes that good photography matters, as those images are how people are introduced to your house and make them decide if they even want to drive past.

Cleaning includes the yard. Putting some TLC into your landscaping and planting a few shrubs can go a long way in making your house pop, according to Bowen.

Make strategic choices about what needs to be updated before you list. It’s easy to waste money making changes before you sell, says Bowen, who does a walk through with clients to determine necessary work before listing a house. No house will be absolutely perfect, so pick the projects that matter most and let the new owners handle the rest.