Remodeling Impact: Return vs. Joy

Yes, go ahead and refinish those hardwood floors.  You will love the new look and if you are selling your house, you will get a good return on your investment.  Check out this infographic that breaks down interior and exterior home improvement projects by the joy they bring homeowners vs. the return on investment during resale.Source: Return vs. Joy

This infographic reveals that the happiness home owners receive from home improvement projects and how much money they get back at resale isn’t the same for every project.

You can also learn more from reading the Realtor Magazine’s article New Roof is Greatest Remodeling Value

Projects That Make Owners Happiest

By contrast, owners who had actually completed one of the 20 home improvements being tracked in the study were asked how much the work increased their sense of happiness at home.  With one exception, it was the big-ticket items that brought the greatest sense of joy.

The resulting data was used to calculate the Joy Score, which combined the share of respondents who reported they were happy and satisfied when seeing their completed project and divided the share by 10 to create a ranking between 1 and 10.

Projects That Appeal to Buyers

REALTORS® were also asked, regardless of cost, which improvements were most appealing for buyers. Not surprisingly, the top five interior projects were very similar to those that give owners the greatest joybut REALTORS® said these big-ticket items arent the best in terms of payback when the home is sold. By contrast, REALTORS® said owners will likely recover more than 80 percent of the cost on four of the five exterior projects with the greatest buyer appeal.

 

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