Episode 2046
Home Improvement ROI: What’s Your Money Really Worth?
Get ready, listeners, because we’re diving headfirst into the nitty-gritty of home investments in this mid-week update with Eric G. If you’ve ever wondered what renovations are worth the hype and which ones are just a money pit waiting to happen, you’re in for a treat. Eric’s got the lowdown on what projects actually pay off when it’s time to sell. It's like a crash course in flipping your home without flipping out!
Eric kicks things off with a candid update on his own home selling journey, which is basically a real-life episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” As he preps his house for the market, he shares the juicy tidbits of what renovations have been the most bang for his buck. Hint: it’s not what you think! Who knew that replacing your garage door could yield a staggering return of 194%? Talk about a home improvement hack!
But hold on to your tool belts, because not all projects are created equal. Eric pulls back the curtain on the renovations that will have you crying over your bank statements. He candidly discusses the most lackluster investments, like primary suite additions that barely recoup 24% of the costs. Ouch! This is the real talk you didn’t know you needed, and it’s packed with insights that could save you thousands.
So, if you’re contemplating a home makeover or just want to feel better about your DIY choices, this episode is your roadmap to success. Eric’s witty banter and expert advice make this a must-listen, ensuring you’ll be armed with the knowledge to make savvy moves in the world of home improvement.
Join me, Eric G, as I unravel the perplexing puzzle of home improvement investments. This episode is all about the cold, hard facts and figures that will help you make sense of where to pour your hard-earned cash when it comes to renovations. Trust me, there’s nothing worse than investing in a project that sounds fabulous but ends up being a financial black hole.
I get it; you want to enhance your home’s value, but which projects actually deliver returns? Is it that gourmet kitchen you’ve been dreaming of, or is it more about curb appeal with a snazzy garage door? Spoiler alert: it’s the garage door. I spill the beans on the renovations that will have your neighbors green with envy AND fatten your wallet when it’s time to sell.
Throughout this episode, I share personal anecdotes from my own journey of readying my home for sale. From packing up my life to swinging hammers, I paint a vivid picture of the hustle behind getting a house market-ready. Along the way, I dissect the numbers behind various projects to help you identify which ones are worth your time and investment. You’ll learn about the surprising ROI on manufactured stone veneer, the mediocre returns on upscale kitchen remodels, and why you might want to rethink that extravagant primary suite addition. It’s time to get real about home renovations, folks!
Takeaways:
- When it comes to home improvements, some projects can actually make you money back, like replacing your garage door for a whopping 194% ROI, because who doesn't want a shiny new door?
- Entry door replacements might sound boring, but with a 188% return on investment, they’re basically the cool kids of home upgrades—don't underestimate their power!
- If you're thinking of selling, remember that not all upgrades are created equal; some fancy additions might only return 24%, which is basically throwing cash out the window!
- Always consider your competition when selling your home; if the neighbors have brand new everything, you might need to step up your game—or just lower your expectations and price.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Monument Grills
- Clopay
- Zillow
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.
Speaker A:G. Is here to guide you through.
Speaker B:The latest tips, tricks and trends.
Speaker B:So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.
Speaker A:Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker A:This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.
Speaker A:If you're looking for a brand new barbecue, Labor Day coming up, check them out@monument grills.com and make sure you're watching Monument Grills week.
Speaker A:There's a lot going on over@monument grills.com now is the time to save.
Speaker A:Happy midweek, everybody.
Speaker A:This is the show that, well, it's the one that we didn't fit stuff into last weekend and we're not fitting stuff into this weekend show.
Speaker A:And I'm gonna have a lot of stuff coming out here soon.
Speaker A:I tell you what, in full disclosure to where I'm at in my life right now, I am on my last week and a half or so, probably better be within two weeks of getting my house done so I can put it up on the market and get it sold here in Lake Oswego.
Speaker A:So I'm packing stuff up, moving stuff away so we can get into the next version of around the House.
Speaker A:And I can't wait.
Speaker A:We're gonna have a lot of great things coming up in the next year ahead.
Speaker A:So stay tuned for that new TV show.
Speaker A:Lots of great stuff happening and we're going to be elevating the game here over and around the house.
Speaker A:But I tell you what, I am spending a ton of time swinging hammers, putting in windows, things like that, getting stuff done, getting things trimmed out, getting projects wrapped up.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, there is a lot out there.
Speaker A:One thing I wanted to talk about, we haven't talked about it in a while and it's an interesting one.
Speaker A:And it's about what are the things when you're working on your house that give you the most return?
Speaker A:People go, oh, I'm do this so I can sell my house next year.
Speaker A:There are some harsh realities on what those numbers are and what you get back really.
Speaker A:Across the US There are only about three things, almost five things that make you money right off the bat when you put it in.
Speaker A:What's the biggest one?
Speaker A:Guesses.
Speaker A:Yeah, garage door replacement.
Speaker A:If the job cost is about 4,500 bucks.
Speaker A:Your resale value is almost nine.
Speaker A:So you get 194% cost recoup.
Speaker A:So big curb appeal thing there.
Speaker A:That's a big one.
Speaker A:Luckily I've got a brand new Clopay garage door that's just a couple years old.
Speaker A:It is built stout and it's going to look good for another 50 years in that place.
Speaker A:The next one, entry door replacement steel 2,355.
Speaker A:And these are installed prices, guys, and a resale value of $4,400.
Speaker A:So you get about 188% return.
Speaker A:That's huge.
Speaker A:Now as we all know, steel doors are great.
Speaker A:They're good on a budget.
Speaker A:But if you're in a coastal area or an area that gets a lot of abuse, they're not as good.
Speaker A:So if you look at other types of doors, whether it's wood or fiberglass, you've got a bigger job cost, of course for that project just because the materials are more.
Speaker A:The next one, manufactured stone veneer.
Speaker A:Job cost $11,287.
Speaker A:Resale value 17,291, 153%.
Speaker A:Now our two honorable mentions, we got our grand entrance fiberglass eleven three hundred and fifty three dollar project.
Speaker A:Resale values 11,000.
Speaker A:So it's a 97% in your minor kitchen remodel kind of mid range.
Speaker A:This is not removing cabinets.
Speaker A:Replacing.
Speaker A:This is what I call the fluff and Buff.
Speaker A:This is 27 for 27,492 bucks.
Speaker A:Resell your value of 26, 406 at a 96% cost recoup.
Speaker A:Those are national averages from the Cost versus Value report.
Speaker A:Everything less than that is pretty bad.
Speaker A:We get into the 80s.
Speaker A:You know what the worst one on the project is?
Speaker A:Upscale primary suite edition at $339,000.
Speaker A:$81,000 recoup and a 24%.
Speaker A:That's a horrible investment.
Speaker A:Other ones that are similar that are under 40% is the upscale major kitch model.
Speaker A:Primary suite edition, mid range, bathroom edition, mid range, all those super high end ones, little return on value.
Speaker A:Now these are averages and averages.
Speaker A:Here's the thing.
Speaker A:This is what it doesn't take into account.
Speaker A:And this is what I say when it comes to selling your home.
Speaker A:And I'm going to prove my point.
Speaker A:In my house, when you put that house up for sale, let's say that it's going to be a $500,000 house.
Speaker A:Some of you are laughing because you're living in areas.
Speaker A:You go, I can't buy a one bedroom apartment.
Speaker A:Room, space, I can't buy 350 square feet for that.
Speaker A:While other people out there in the audience go, man, that's a mansion.
Speaker A:I can have a four car garage with that.
Speaker A:Just depending on where you're located.
Speaker A:Now here's the thing.
Speaker A:If your house and your price point, if you say, hey, I'm going to sell it at this, what's your competition have?
Speaker A:If you're buying, people are out there buying at $500,000 and they're going to buy brand new homes with brand new kitchens and you want to sell yours and you want it to be content contenders for that, you might need to elevate your house game a little bit.
Speaker A:But if you've got a 10 year old kitchen that looks decent and you've got that going on, maybe that's not as important.
Speaker A:So think about that a little bit.
Speaker A:Who's your competition?
Speaker A:Easy way to find out is take a look.
Speaker A:And here's the thing, guys.
Speaker A:Zillow evaluation or an algorithm?
Speaker A:It is not an appraisal.
Speaker A:My house, the beach house.
Speaker A:Houses that have had work done to them and hasn't been on the market since do not show up with correct figures on Zillow.
Speaker A:They look around the neighborhood and go, yeah, it's probably close to this.
Speaker A:It's not close.
Speaker A:They have not been able to do the algorithm.
Speaker A:And in my area, whether you pulled permits or not, it doesn't matter.
Speaker A:Our beach house pulled permits on every little thing on that thing because we knew that we were under the biggest microscope known to mankind.
Speaker A:Flying colors past those things every time, which was awesome.
Speaker A:Did it change the valuation on Zillow?
Speaker A:Nope, not at all.
Speaker A:Sometimes the tax appraiser will take a look at it with a tax man will take a look at it, change it, and they might make a comment and Zillow might pick it up.
Speaker A:But that's really not how this works.
Speaker A:So be very careful with that Zillow evaluation.
Speaker A:You almost want to do what the realtors do and get comps and take a look and see what size your square footage is.
Speaker A:Where in the city or county or out in the woods you are or out in the prairie, doesn't matter.
Speaker A:So you got to take a look at what you're up against.
Speaker A:What's your competition look like?
Speaker A:That's how you're going to know what project to do to sell your house.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, right now, I love my DIY projects.
Speaker A:I love getting stuff done.
Speaker A:At the same point, I can't wait to get this house up for sale.
Speaker A:And take a little bit of a chill on knocking out so many of my own projects.
Speaker A:I want to knock stuff out for you guys.
Speaker A:Have some great projects.
Speaker A:But I am tired of being under the gun.
Speaker A:I have hit that burnout stage of a project where you just got to get out there and grind at it.
Speaker A:Are you guys working on a project like that?
Speaker A:Are you putting your house up for sale?
Speaker A:Make sure and send a message.
Speaker A:You can find it on the podcast player or just head over to around the house online.com and you can message me over there.
Speaker A:I'm curious to see what you guys are doing out there on your projects.
Speaker A:And yeah, my divorce has been final for a while.
Speaker A:I gotta get this house up for sale and so I can get that chapter closed.
Speaker A:And yeah, we haven't talked much about it on the radio.
Speaker A:I try not to get too deep in the personal stuff here, but unfortunately that house is going up for sale.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, right now I can't wait to get on the market.
Speaker A:We've.
Speaker A:I've done so many nice things to it.
Speaker A:I'm gonna have to redo that one of these days on the next project.
Speaker A:But I tell you what, it's probably not gonna be one of those projects where we take it down to the studs and do it that way.
Speaker A:Unless I find something that I'm just absolutely in love with and I can work with it that way.
Speaker A:All right, guys, we got a lot coming up on the show this weekend.
Speaker A:I'm going to be taking some time off here this week.
Speaker A:The rest of the week I am pushing on my house.
Speaker A:So what I have coming up this weekend are some shows that you probably haven't heard.
Speaker A:These are ones that are from the Way Back catalog and I remixed them, I fixed audio.
Speaker A:There was a couple of them here that we had that the interview wasn't the highest quality.
Speaker A:But with my editing software I went back and remastered them so they're much more easier to listen to.
Speaker A:Re edited them up so you get right down to the brass tacks on what's going on.
Speaker A:And they're going to be great episodes coming up this weekend.
Speaker A:And then when we come back the following week, we'll be working through here for a while.
Speaker A:I'm just getting everything knocked out, but needed to give myself a little bit of a break so I can get these projects done.
Speaker A:You know what it's like, guys.
Speaker A:I'm just cranking through, trying to get stuff done like you are out there and get those final things done on the project and if you've been watching the around the House Northwest show, I'm going to be doing some social media here as well, showing some projects that I'm getting wrapped up that are almost done and I can't wait to show it to you because either these were things we didn't finish on the show because of us stopping the show and can't wait to get these wraps shown so you can see what they look like when they're done.
Speaker A:It's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker A:If you need to get a hold of me, head over to aroundthe house online.com you can find out more there.
Speaker A:And then on YouTube.
Speaker A:I see so many of you, including this podcast here that are watching the YouTube channels that are listening on here but are not subscribed to the show.
Speaker A:So make sure you hit that subscribe button so I can make sure and show you all the new stuff coming up because we got some exciting stuff coming up that we're going to have a lot of fun with.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.
Speaker A:Have a great rest of the week.
Speaker A:Stay safe out there.
Speaker A:We'll see you soon.
Speaker B:Make sure to follow us on social media.
Speaker B:Just head to aroundthe house online.com for all the links.
Speaker B:Make sure you check out our new YouTube channel.
Speaker B:Just type in at around the House with Eric G. And click subscribe and ring the bell for updates.
Speaker B:We will see you next time.
Speaker B:All over the radio Take my hand out Nowhere to go all over the radio with you.
