Feb 2, 2009 9:48 pm US/Mountain
Beat The Recession: Home Improvements That Pay Off
Good Question: Which Home Improvement Projects Give You The Most Bang For Your Buck?
Written by Alan Gionet
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Remodeling kitchens and bathrooms usually are the best way to increase the value of a home.
CBS
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Good Question, a regular part of CBS4 News at 10 p.m., is an opportunity for Alan Gionet to drill past the basic facts of a story and give it some depth & perspective. See more Good Question reports.
Lots of families are trying to beat the recession with home improvements. So which home improvement projects give you the most bang for your buck?
AURORA (CBS4) -- It a tough market out there. The competition is fierce if you want to sell. Realtor Todd Crosbie has seen it.
"A lot of clients are going into a house that before I could talk them out and say if you need to expand it, we could break this wall down and make it expanded and they're like, 'Don't we have 14 other homes to look at?'"
You'll need to stand out, but not too much.
"Simply put, you can paint, which is very economical and is just labor on your part. You can change out lighting fixtures which has a huge effect and again that's still a very economical thing."
First to the paint. You can get creative and paint colors you love, but remember as nice and warm and inviting as many of us think that Bordeaux red is in the dining room, you may just get a potential buyer who doesn't like it.
"There's a reason why most homes are realtor beige, lack of a better phrase -- is because it doesn't offend anybody and anybody can look at it as a blank palate," said Crosbie.
Next to lighting. Old fixtures quickly make a home look dated. You can get outrageous with lighting fixtures. I saw one a couple of weeks ago that cost $5,000. Imagine the profit margin in that. But there are perfectly nice, fancy, light fixtures for less than $400 that can be a focal point in your home.
"If you had a grand foyer you could go ahead and spend that extra money because it's an impact piece," said Crosbie as we stood in the bathroom of a home for sale near Washington Park. "But if it's just a ceiling fixture like this one, this one probably ran, $40."
Jeremy Bixler took us down the lighting isle at the Stapleton Home Depot where he's the assistant manager.
"A lot of the light fixtures that we have are what we call green tag, which would be a special order return."
We saw a big outside light fixture that looked like it cost a couple hundred bucks new, but had been returned and was not in a box. It was priced at $44. Even low-cost in-stock items can offer you a chance to update without breaking the bank.
"You can go down to little sconces for $14.97," said Bixler.
There are other cheap changes. Bixler says, "By simply changing out a knob, by going from a white plastic one into a brushed nickel creates a more esthetic pleasing environment, when you're in the bathroom, when you're in the kitchen."
He also points out porcelain paint. It's cheaper than buying new bathroom fixtures, but can make an older fixture look clean and new. Instead of tile, consider refinishing the tile by dulling the luster, or adding to it.
What was surprising to us was that going green may sound good, but may not be the most cost-effective way of upping the value of your home.
"Green is a very big marketing piece right now and a lot of people are going with florescent light bulbs, they're great, they're economical, they don't show a house very well," says Crosbie.
He tells his clients to change recessed lights to spots that create a more attractive cone of light -- like you'd find in a restaurant. Large-scale green improvements are a selling point, but on a cost-to-payback basis, it may be possible to do better.
"For example, if you had $20,000, you'd get more bang for your buck by doing a bathroom or a kitchen than you would by putting solar panels on your roof," Crosbie said.
There's more in the video version of the story on the right.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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