19 Things That Actually Increase the Value of Your Home
A bumper issue with some surprises, plus the % increases for each job. Based on extensive research of the market and 27 years of renovating, buying and selling houses. Don’t miss this!
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Whether you are thinking of selling your home or not, we all like to know that the hard-earned money we spend on it has made a difference. Those late nights painting the living room ceiling, the long extra hours you worked to pay for that extension, the risks you took, all somehow need to mean something.
It could be that the wonderful times you’ve shared in your home have been enough to make it all worthwhile, and that’s enough, it really is, but if you’re anything like me, then you’ve also got a close eye on its monetary value and whether it’s more saleable because of your endeavors.
Of course, a home is not just a financial asset, it’s the place we feel safe and make memories, it’s where our children are born, where birthday parties happen and where disagreements get resolved at the kitchen table. It’s the place where you had that brilliant drunken night with friends and stayed up till 2am knowing you had work the next day and where you discovered a love of gardening by planting that cherry tree that’s now over ten feet tall.
But one day you will sell it, or at least your beneficiaries will. So why not, whilst you’re living life to the full and loving your home, also make sure that you spend your money wisely on it, safe in the knowledge that you’ve done the right thing?
Today I’m going to tell you all the things that you can do that will actually make a difference to how much your home is worth.
I’m going to use our last home as an example as even though we put a lot of love, care and attention in it, the sole purpose of buying it was to get back on the housing ladder and make a profit as quickly as possible in order to find our forever home. We both came from very simple beginnings, both born into social housing and have gradually worked our way up, tooth and nail, to a place that feels right, where we feel like we belong. I make absolutely no apologies for that.
We bought the Victorian home as a wreck in June 2021 and sold it in March 2024 for a quarter of a million pounds more than we bought it for. Here’s what we did and what you can do to increase the value of your home. By the way, this isn’t about accumulating wealth. This is about giving yourself the freedom to choose through bloody hard work. None of this is easy.
The rest of this post is for the amazing paid members of HOME & HORT who enable me to write all of this. There will also be a follow up post telling you all the things that definitely won’t add value and could even devalue your home! Join our merry gang to get full access to this post and my extensive archive, our community, the chat and me.