The Rocca Sisters Blog

Welcome to our weekly feature, “Ask the Rocca Sisters”, where we answer the important questions we get from clients, colleagues, and members of our community. This week’s question comes from Robert in Burlington: “What renovations should I be doing to get the best resale value for my home?”

Renovation Dos and Don’ts:

Hi there, Tanya Rocca here again to help answer this great question! There are certain renovations that we have noticed really help with home resale value, and some that are not worth the cost and can even hinder your home selling prospects.

Last year, Royal LePage put out a survey of over 750 real estate agents across Canada and came up with a list of 10 common renovations and how much they can impact the sale of your home.

DO: Renovate Your Kitchen

This is the #1 renovation to help increase the value of your home. For many buyers, a kitchen is the heart of the home. A well-designed and modern kitchen can actually increase the value of your home by more than 12.5%! A kitchen renovation can be very costly and time-consuming, however, so keep this in mind when making this big decision. It might be more worthwhile for you to decrease the price of your home and let the new owner take care of renovations.

DO: Renovate the Bathroom

This ranks as having the second highest potential for increasing a home’s selling price and can put the value of your home up by between 2.5% and 12.5% for good reason. Of all the rooms in the home, the bathroom is one of the ones we use the most. Unlike a space like a garage or even dining room, which can range from being used daily to just occasionally, allowing a buyer to picture themselves starting and ending each day in a bright and modern bathroom can seal the deal!

DON’T: Add A Pool or Deck

These are the two lowest-rated home improvements and will not increase the value of your home by much, if at all. A pool is a lot of added cost and upkeep, and a deck may not appeal to people who might want their yard as spacious as possible and will not enjoy sacrificing precious square footage for a deck they may not want.

Here’s my bottom line:

DO: Picture your prospective buyer. It seems very obvious, but when doing home renovations for selling your home choose colours and materials with wide appeal. You may absolutely love hot pink (I know I do!), but the majority of people who will be looking at your home will not appreciate the colour in their basement flooring, for example.  Trying to appeal to the greatest amount of people is the easiest way of getting people in the door and making an offer.

DON’T: Be too cheap. While being cost-effective is often a great way to go, people do notice if materials used are of the bargain-basement variety. This is especially true in kitchens. You do not have to break the bank to buy marble countertops, but if you are going to do the job you should do it well enough to communicate that this renovation will withstand the test of time and not need to be done again for many years.

If you are thinking of selling, please give us a call or contact us by email. With our years of experience, we can help guide you through the home renovation process and even put you in touch with our network of specialists and handypeople who will ensure that you will get the most bang for your buck if you are renovating to sell your home!