Iowa is a wonderful place to live, a great place to raise a family, and a smart place to buy a home. Iowa home values are on the rise, and buying a home is often the smarter financial decision given the value of mortgage payments relative to rent.
When you buy your own home, you’ll own a valuable asset that can become more valuable over time if you take care of your investment. To some degree, whether or not your home increases (or even maintains) its value is beyond your control — it’s determined in part by variables like the national and international economy, the national and local real estate market, and complex market trends locally.
There are plenty of factors that can impact your home’s value are well within your control, however. In fact, every Iowa homeowner should be doing these things in order to maintain and even increase the value of their property:
Be proactive about home maintenance
The single most important thing that you can do in order to help your home maintain its value is to be proactive about your maintenance and repair needs. Homes can depreciate in value when they age, because they can become run-down. Even if the real estate beneath your feet is becoming more valuable, the structure around you could be depreciating, as older homes tend to have more problems.
Your home will have far fewer problems if you invest in preventative maintenance, though. Preventative maintenance aims to reinforce your home’s defenses against problems with its structure and vital systems.
Problems with your home won’t get better on their own — they’ll only get worse. And even if you repair issues, the strain that they caused could make your home more troublesome to care for down the line. Ultimately, it’s always more cost-effective to tackle repairs immediately and invest in preventative maintenance. With this, you’ll better preserve the value of your home.
Invest in high-impact remodeling projects
When homes age, the begin to look worn and potentially dilapidated. Not all areas of the home appear to age at the same rate, though. While there are certainly ways for bedrooms and living rooms to look out of date, the quickest way to tell how old a home is may be to look at the kitchen or the bathroom.
With all of their fixtures, kitchens and bathrooms can look dated very quickly. Kitchens, in particular, are prone to lagging behind big changes in layout preferences and improvements in household appliances.
You can expect the cost of a remodel to be taken into account by folks who make offers for your home. That’s why you should consider focusing on these areas for the most cost-effective remodeling projects. Especially right before you decide to sell, updating a bathroom or kitchen can have a huge economic impact when marketing your home.
Create more useable space
Your house’s square footage and your property’s acreage are big factors in your home’s value. But not all spaces are created equal, and a home can become much more valuable when its space is made more useful.
Take your basement, for instance, say experts in basement remodeling Des Moines. An unfinished basement doesn’t serve much of a purpose beyond storage space, but a finished one can be a wonderful thing. A finished basement is the perfect spot for a playroom, a bar, or a man cave. It can host guest bedrooms, exercise rooms, and more.
Similarly, you can expand into your outdoor space. Iowa summers are perfect for grilling, so why not invest in a patio, a deck, or even a whole outdoor kitchen? Creating more useable and more enjoyable space is another great way to boost the value of your home here in Des Moines.