6 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home in 2020

Your home is likely the most valuable asset in your possession. It’s where you eat, sleep, relax, and spend quality time with loved ones. For most people, that alone is enough reason to continue investing in value-adding changes and improvements, be it a fresh coat of paint, some additional furniture or a full-fledged remodel.

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But investing in your home doesn’t just make it a more pleasant place to live. It also makes a reliable contribution to your long-term financial wellbeing. History has proven that real estate is a wise investment. It’s more dependable and lucrative than stocks, as well as offering a range of tax benefits.

Make the right improvements and you’ll reap the rewards come the day you decide to sell. Read on to discover six tried-and-tested ways to increase the value of your home in 2020.

Landscaping

Attractive, low-maintenance gardens are a major selling point. This is especially true for the front yard, as buyers value properties with high curb appeal. Tidying up your exterior can make a world of a difference. An affordable and reputable landscaping company such as ALD, Inc can work with you to make the right improvements.

Energy Efficiency

There are many reasons to identify how you can use less power. The most immediate benefit is a lower utility bill. Additionally, you can leverage an energy-efficient mortgage to reduce your rates. The value of your property will also increase, especially if it’s located in a particularly hot or cold region.
Start by switching out old light bulbs for LED units. Double-paned windows and enhanced insulation are also great investments. A programmable thermostat will significantly reduce heating and cooling expenses. While pricey upfront, solar panels are a reliable value-booster. A free energy audit can help you find more solutions.

Visual Space

Increasing physical square footage is usually a costly endeavor. Instead, increase the visual space in your home by making a few clever adjustments. This includes adding mirrors, reducing clutter, and replacing heavy draperies with vertical blinds or shutters. You can also install a few shelving units to clean up and organize busy spaces.

Air Quality

An often-overlooked factor, improving the air quality of your home can make a noticeable difference to its value. The best way to do this is by replacing carpeted floors with tiles or laminate, thus reducing the presence of allergens and contaminants. Hard surfaces are also more visually appealing and easier to maintain.

Ceilings

For added value and architectural interest, consider refreshing your ceilings. This can include removing popcorn ceilings, installing faux beams, adding a new coat of paint, and using beadboard panels to cover unattractive areas.

Bathroom Improvements

Upgrading your bathroom is always a smart move. You can anchor a towel bar, pick up a frameless shower door, retile the floor, replace old wallpaper, prop up a cabinet or install a ventilation fan. Anything that cleans up and modernizes your bathroom is bound to make a difference.

Conclusion

The possibilities are endless here. Take a look around your home and see where you can make an improvement.

How to sell kitchen cabinetry: my slide back into advertising part five

The fifth and final (for the time being) installment in my design stories is something called Grounded. To reprise:

I have a couple of sidelines, one of which is doing project work for an ad agency. Over the last year or two, I've been taking on some different things to see where I want my career progression to head next. Part of that is writing for this ad agency. Well as luck would have it, the agency happens to be the agency of record for the design studio where I ply my trade. I'd been unhappy with some of the copy that ended up in ads and on the website and as someone who's a pretty good writer and who has a vested interest in how a kitchen studio presents itself, having me write for the new website was a logical choice.

In January, I was in a brainstorming session with the ad folks and we were figuring out how to position the studio in the new website. Kitchen design's a curious thing in a lot of ways. Kitchen designers make their money from selling cabinetry but selling cabinetry isn't what I wanted to emphasize. Any monkey can sell cabinetry, and many of them do. It takes a real designer to build on that and to make rooms that capture the fundamental essence of a particular client.

I refer to my essence capturing as story telling. I work with my clients to have their homes tell their stories. Good design follows a narrative. Always.

I've been at this for long enough that I know that kitchen design as a business presents itself to the world by showing completed kitchens. These completed kitchens are terrific for portfolios, they tell a potential client what a given studio is capable of. However, these completed kitchen designs don't allow a client to project himself or herself into the image. Often times, these completed kitchen images are a barrier. Most people lack the vision thing. And when I show someone one of these photographs, I spend a lot of time guiding the person in front of me. "Imagine your home with something like this but not really like this." It makes for unnecessary confusion a lot of times.

Usually, I assemble a presentation board of finishes when I'm rolling out an idea rather showing a lot of completed projects.

So when it came to how to show the skills of a kitchen design studio on its website, I wanted to take my presentation board idea and make it a more fleshed out marketing position.

The result is something I call design stories.

We played around with this idea for a couple of months and then three weeks ago we booked a photographer and a studio. It was a collaborative effort but my resume claims sole credit for it. Resumes exist to toot my horn, right? And just for the record, none of this would have been possible without the great Amy Allen of Allen Harris Design or incredibly talented and patient photographer Chris Stickney.

Anyhow, we spent the day in the studio and assembled five still lifes (I was calling them Still Life with Cabinet Door) and shot all five of them in a single day.

The fifth one is called Grounded and my body copy follows.

Every room tells a story, and every room has a different story to tell. At Kuttler Kitchens, we consider it to be our top priority to help you select the finishes that tell your story.

To help you get started; here are five, very different color and finish palettes. Each one tells its own story and we call them Tranquility, Classic, Sustainable, Grounded and Energetic. Using these as a starting point, how can we help you tell your story?

Your home is much more than an investment; it's your anchor, your oasis. It tells the story of being grounded. Medallion Cabinetry's Trinity door in chestnut-stained cherry, earth toned paint colors and forged hardware from Schaub and Company declare your kitchen to be the nurturing refuge it is. The clock stops in such a kitchen and there's ample time for unhurried meals and heart to heart conversations. Authentic, unpretentious finishes and colors tell this grounded story.

And that the last of them for the time being. We're going to keep debuting a new palette, a new story, every month through the rest of 2010.