Wo-Built Inc: Clients' Advocate for making their Dream Home happen: Adding Value to Your House

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Adding Value to Your House – How About Adding Value to Your Life?!

Add value to your house – add value to your life, clip art: Family under a roof

Collage: Add a Value Your Life
Illustration: Family under a roof
Credit: MS Office ClipArt MC910216993

"The key factor is to ensure that renovations increase at least two of three elements: comfort, convenience, luxury. Both aesthetics and function should also be improved with the work."
Top Renovations That Increase Home Value
by Sheila Doris

Over the years we have mentioned that certain renovations will increase the value of your house. In the Toronto Housing Market renovating your kitchen or adding another bathroom to the house are top of the list. Best return on investment is painting and other cosmetic home improvements. Even some ‘green’ measures, such as solar panels are becoming popular for added value. So, if you want to treat your home as an investment you are best served to do those renovations.

But a home is so much more than an investment. It’s were you feel comfortable, where your family lives and where you will make memories. You have a lot of emotions invested in your home, how it felt when you bought it, the improvements you made to make it your own. But suddenly there is more space required or you want to implement something that you always wanted to have, like a conservatory, another bedroom, an open concept or just more space. But you like your house and you don’t want to move. Often the choice of doing an extensive renovation like a basement or adding a second storey or rear extension is due to wanting to stay in the same house and area. Also even if you moved house you still would have to renovate to your taste.

Large renovations are costly. A typical 800-1000 sq.ft. basement renovation will cost around $50,000 to $100,000 depending on if you need a bathroom, have to raise the floor to ceiling height and the type of finishes required. A 800-1000 sq.ft. second storey finished addition depending on the work done on other floors can cost anywhere between $250,000 to $400,000. A 2-storey rear addition will be in the region of $150,000 to $250,000 depending on scope. Unless you acquired the existing house and land well under market price it is unlikely that the costs could be recovered immediately.

These renovations are all about adding to your life. Enjoying the renovation you have done, using the space as you want to. In these cases you are adding to the benefit of your lifestyle and comfort. They represent the fulfillment of your dream.

We specialize in additions and larger renovations because we feel we want to add value to people’s lives. Not only because we want to fulfill dreams of a more beautiful house or added space, but we also believe in keeping families in communities they lived in for a while. There is a lot to be said about staying in one area for a long period of time. Families can integrate into communities which in turn can enrich life. Communities often mean stability, prosperity, safety and security.

We can work with you to add value to your life and value to your house.

Martina Ernst
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build