Let’s get into some home improvement project tips and budgeting. Home renovations have a ton of benefits – from improving your quality of life, to adding value to your home. However, affording these improvements up front is always challenging and figuring out the cost-benefit of any project is an important part of the process.
Today, we’re going to give you some tips as to how you can do a better job of budgeting for your next significant home improvement project. Let’s jump right in!
Priorities
Having a solid plan and sticking to it is important for any home improvement project. It’s also going to allow you to keep costs down as much as possible. Try to put a list of the things together that would be nice to have, that you need to have and what you could potentially do without. While the bells and whistles are all fun to have – they can also balloon your costs quickly. So be sure to prioritize the things that are most important to you and stick to it!
Set a limit
Set a limit on what you’re willing to spend and don’t exceed it. This is as much of an accountability tool as anything. Zillow has an awesome tip we picked up on a blog a few weeks ago for folks who aren’t quite sure how much they should be spending. They said that you shouldn’t spend more on a room than the value of that room as a percentage of your home’s overall value. So for example – if your home is worth 200k and a kitchen is about 15% of a home’s value, then don’t ever spend any more than 30k on a renovation on that room. Again – it’s not a perfect formula – but should give you a solid starting point.
Choosing the right people
We talk a lot about this here, but choosing just anyone isn’t advisable. Contractors come in a wide range of specialties and abilities and choosing the wrong one can be a potential disaster. Take your time, interview at least 3-5, call references and get as clear of a picture as you possibly can before getting a commitment. Also be wary of proposals. Call around to friends and others who’ve undertaken similar projects and try to get an idea of what they’ve paid in the past to get a better idea of what the true costs might be. It’s probably a good idea to avoid hiring both the most expensive and least expensive contractor.
Don’t rush yourself
Home improvements aren’t repairs, so time isn’t necessarily of the essence in most cases. So take advantage of it! Draw the bidding process out. If you don’t like what you’re looking at in terms of price/terms? Look in more places! There’s nothing wrong with looking under rocks and taking your time to find the right deal!
Hopefully you found some of these tips helpful. The biggest thing to remember is that this is your project and you set the parameters. Come up with a plan, stick to it and you’ll be in great shape. If you need advice, feel free to reach out to us and we’ll be happy to provide you with a free consultation – until then – good luck!
