Home Improvements That Waste Your Money

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Posted on by Forest in Home Savings, Saving Money & Finances

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Home Improvements That Waste Your Money - If you are looking at improving the value of your home with various improvements you have to be careful not to get too hammer happy or flashy with your decisions. Many improvements may seem like a great idea at the time but could end up wasting your hard earned cash!

Home Improvements That Waste Your Money

Home Improvements That Waste Your Money

You need to ask yourself a few questions and give yourself honest answers. Some of these questions include:

• Is the update / improvement value for money and will the money spent likey come back to you?
• Will the update save you money in the long run or turn a profit somehow?
• Does it make you enjoy your space and property far more? As long as it isn’t too personalised it may well be a bonus for others too.

Of course if answers to these kinds of questions are negative then you may be looking at the wrong improvements and might as well go and drink your money away in your local bar (I didn’t advise that, ok!).

So what home improvements are generally considered a big waste of your money? Lets take a look…..

Customized Spaces

- Home Office

- Wine Cellar

- Home-Movie Theater

- Library

Often these kinds of spaces are just way too personal. That does not mean that you should not do them if you intend to use them and it will improve your living experience but it should be for you only and you shouldn’t expect it to add to your properties resale value.

Outdoing Your Neighbors

They calling this keeping up with the Jones’. It isn’t a good thing to get involved in and can lead to terrible decsions. Where my Dad lives everyone has a hottub now and I think this is due to the domino effect. Will it add value to their places? Maybe, maybe not. Anyway here is a interesting quote from Forbes:

“It is important that your home be up to snuff with the neighbors, but going beyond them will result in a low rate of return, according to the Appraisal Institute.”

Technology

Remember movies from the early 90s where people had TVs built into wall spaces and flashy controls for the lights? Those systems cost a fortune to install and although still kind of cool (in a retro kind of way) the fact is they date quickly. Expensive tech will become old hat extremely fast so you need to not use this as a wealth building asset.

Adding a Garage

A garage can be a money suck. Here is an excerpt explaining just why:

“Because garages are considered to be a standard element of a home, adding one won’t increase your home value too significantly.  Not enough to make up for the investment of building the garage.”

A Swimming Pool

Krista Scruggs, writes more insight into why a pool may be cool but is a bad idea:

“Truthfully, a swimming pool can and often does increase the resale value of your home.  But more often, potential buyers are turned off by the massive maintenance costs and potential risks that pools present.“

This contents of this post was based on Emily’s post here.

Home Improvements That Waste Your Money, Closing Thoughts….

It is simple really. The improvement needs to either add value (cost less than it adds to the home), fix a problem that is dragging down value or save money in the long term on things such as utilities like gas and electric.

You need to be clinical if thinking about the cash aspect and taking a look at how much homes in your area are selling for and what improvements they have done can be a good way to make a good assessment.

Do you have any thoughts to add?

Related: Average Cost of a Kitchen Remodel

Thanks for reading – Home Improvements That Waste Your Money

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Tags: DIY, home improvements, home updates, home value