We all know owning a home is an investment, and that means that any renovations we do will have an impact. Whether you’re planning to sell your house soon or just want to keep track of what you’ve put into the place, it pays to think about your return on investment (ROI) on home renovations—especially because not all renovation projects increase your home’s value.
When it comes to renovations, people tend to think about big, splashy projects like kitchen renovations or adding square footage. But you can actually have a dramatic, positive impact on your home’s value with small-scale, relatively affordable renovations or cheaper alternatives to pricey projects. Here are ten home renovations you can often do for less than $10,000 that will boost your property value.
Install new garage doors
If you have a street-facing garage door on your house that’s showing a bit of wear and tear, you can get some real bang for your buck. Garage doors are a big part of your home’s curb appeal, and offer a whopping 93.8% ROI on a job that typically costs anywhere from $750 to $4,000, depending on the size of your garage and the kind of door you have installed. But due to its role in first impressions when people come to see your house, its “soft ROI” is huge.
Replace your old siding
If you have vinyl siding on your house with staining, cracks, and other defects, the good news is that replacing it offers over 60% ROI. While the average cost of re-siding a house is a hair over our limit at $11,676, the price range starts around $6,000 and depends on the size of your house and the product you use. Like garage doors, however, your siding is a big part of the curb appeal of your house, so the actual positive impact it can have is likely much higher.
Install replacement windows
Replacement windows are expensive—even if you go the vinyl or fiberglass route as opposed to wood. But the cost depends on how many windows you have to replace as well: double hung vinyl windows can cost as little as $825 per window, so it’s easy to imagine this project coming in under $10,000 depending on the size of your home. While vinyl windows won’t be as impressive to potential buyers, any time you can use the phrase “all-new windows” in a real estate listing is a win. And both vinyl and wooden windows offer a solid ROI of about 67% to 69%.
Do a minor bathroom remodel
You can spend a lot of money turning your bathroom into a spa experience—an “upscale” bath remodel can run as high as $76,000. But you don’t have to spend that much to get a clean, fresh new space and a decent ROI on the project. Small-scale bath remodels can cost as little as $6,000, and offer a strong ROI of about 60%.
If a full bath remodel is out of the cards, you could consider adding heated floors, which range from a few hundred bucks for a small bathroom to a national average of about $3,867. While it’s hard to quantify the ROI on heated floors, the cost is low enough to almost guarantee a decent return.
Buy a new front door
Like garage doors, your front door is a big part of your home’s curb appeal and first impression. Replacing or upgrading it can offer a significant value boost without huge expense. For example, replacing your entry door with a high-quality steel door can cost less than $2,000, but offers a robust ROI of about 65%. You can also splash out and install a grand entrance with sidelights and other features for a bit less than $10,000 and a decent ROI of about 53%.
Add updated appliances
Even minor kitchen remodels can start between $20,000 and $30,000, and can soar as high as $150,000. But smaller projects like replacing countertops and updating cabinets and backsplashes won’t break the bank. If you’re looking for a boost to your home’s value and your budget doesn’t come close to tens of thousands of dollars, consider just updating the appliances. According to Zillow, real estate listings that included references to high-end appliances like steam ovens or pizza ovens sold for as much as 5.3% more. Depending on the size of your kitchen and where you can find appliances, you can probably swap everything out for higher-end models for $10,000 or less.
Install updated lighting
One straightforward, affordable renovation project is updating your home’s light fixtures to energy efficient LED models. At an average cost of $112-$286 per fixture, this is definitely a project that can come in under $10,000 (it might even be less than $1,000 depending on how big your house is), and according to Zillow homes with updated LED lighting sell for about 1.5% more than asking.
Install new $10,000 flooring
You might think putting in new flooring is too big of a project, but that depends on the scale (how many rooms actually need new floors?) and material (replacing carpet is cheap). You can replace gross old carpet for about $300-$500 per room, and while your ROI on that will only be about 40% at most, its low cost makes it worthwhile, especially when you consider the power of telling potential buyers they’re not buying decades of your dust embedded in the carpet pile.
While putting in hardwood floors can cost as much as $2,000 per room, your ROI can be as high as 80%. A decent in-between choice is “luxury vinyl” flooring, which looks much better than standard vinyl floors and only costs $2 per square foot, but adds about 1.4% to the sale price of your house.
Paint—Interior and Exterior
Every homeowner eventually learns the stunning power of paint. Most exterior paint jobs can be done for less than $10,000, and it adds a whopping 152% return on your investment, which is...a lot. Giving your home a fresh coat on the inside helps too, to the tune of a 107% ROI, which is also high, especially since you can probably get your house painted for as little as $6,000—and maybe less, since this is the sort of project you can actually do yourself.
Add a laundry room
Adding a laundry room sounds like an intimidating amount of work, but it’s actually not. You’re typically using an existing space in your house with existing connections for the washer and dryer, in which case you can whip up a laundry room for as little as $2,000—or less. Even a low-end laundry room will bring a 67% to 78% ROI, though, so this is the little renovation that could.
Boosting your home’s value is always a good idea, and you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to make it happen. Choose your projects carefully and you can do a lot of value boosting for a surprisingly small investment.
