Does Remodeling Make Sense when Selling Your Cypress Home?

The numbers are in! If you are among the local homeowners counting the days until Cypress’s hot selling season begins, unless your house is already in perfect showing shape, you might be pondering which—if any—possible remodeling projects would be wise to take on before you list.

The answers aren’t simple. The first consideration is the calculation for whether your property is likely to attract top dollar in its as-is condition. If not, you need a prospect’s eye take on which areas are most likely to detract from the apparent overall value of the property. Then comes another factor: identifying which of those projects will go furthest in recapturing their cost.

Even if leaving everything as-is doesn’t inspire much confidence, it might be tempting to “test the market” just to see what happens. Unfortunately, the most common result is that offers (if any) will be lowered to reflect the cost you saved…less a premium, of course. Experienced bargain hunters look to be compensated for the value they’ll have to add.

A number of remodeling associations attempt to alleviate at least some of that guesswork via annual assessments. These survey current national data to compare average costs for remodeling projects with the average value they return at sale. These figures are difficult to pin down with precision, but the folks at remodeling.hw.net take on the challenge annually. As noted above, the numbers are in!

Their 2018 national survey names the top 4 remodeling projects earning the best returns:

• Garage door replacements returned 98.3% of its average $3,470 outlay.
• Manufactured stone veneer brought in 97.1% of its $8,221 cost.
• Entry door replacements drew 91.3% of its $1,471 cost (specified: steel doors).
• Deck additions returned 82.8% of an average $10,950 outlay.

Next in line were minor kitchen remodels, siding replacement, vinyl window replacement, and bathroom remodels—all of which averaged five-figure costs and all of which returned smaller percentages than the leaders. Cypress results could, of course, differ—but the national averages are food for thought.

Selling your Cypress home for the maximum price depends on marketing and presentation factors, too; yet everything begins with the value of the “product” being sold. I hope you’ll give me a call for feedback on what we are finding on what today’s Cypress buyers consider most important.