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Home Improvement Guide
Before Launching into any home improvement project you should carefully consider your motivations and goals. Enhance your lifestyle? Increase salability? Accommodate an aging parent? Start the process here and use our interactive tool
Which makes more sense, move or remodel?
It happens suddenly, over a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper, or perhaps as you make your way across the obstacle course of clutter that was once your living room. Your house doesn’t fit your needs, and you can no longer deny it.
Time to make a hard decision, one potentially worth thousands of dollars. Should you move, or should you remodel? The typical family faces this decision several times in life. The first milestone tends to be when children arrive. “The Standard Cambodia lifestyle is to buy a starter house, but when kids come along that starter house may not be big enough anymore, ” Simorn say.
Children become teens, and shared accommodations soon feel more like and invasion of privacy than a slumber party. Within a fem years a third challenge hits: college. As children move away for school or into their own apartments, the large, teenager-friendly house suddenly feels too big. It may be time to downsize or perhaps convert Junior’s bedroom into that hobby utopia you always dreamed about.
Finally, families often face the prospect of becoming caretakers for an aging relative, or perhaps a spouse falls ill and the home needs to become more accessible. Time for yet another change.
Should I stay or go?
The problem is there is no single motive for each choice and precious little reliable professional help in making that decision. “Contractors won’t give you an unbiased opinion because they want the work,” Simorn says. “Real estate agents have a financial stake in you moving. They aren’t paid to help you make decisions.” Sophy said.
Project Manager of DREAM TOWN, Eam Sokun, says the best place for a family to start their evolution is with the physical layout of their existing property. Many communities put limits on how big a house can be in relation to its plot of land.” A number of homes are already being built to the dimensions of what can be done.” Simorn says. If your house is as large as it can be, planning an addition would be out of the question; you will need to either work within your existing footprint or move. On the other hand, simply because you are able to expand your home doesn’t mean it is a good financial move.
Beware the white elephant
First, get a cost estimate. Then figure how much that work would add to your home’s value. Finally, compare your new value with comparable home prices in your neighborhood. “In some neighborhoods, you just won’t get your investment back.” Simorn says.
Housing values are falling across the country now, too. Homeowners should tread with extreme caution if they own one of the most expensive houses on the block. “You don’t want to create a white elephant,” says “White elephants are worthless. You have to look out and say’ I don’t want to put $300,000 into a house if in five years the house won’t be worth $250,000.” Sophy, Managing Director of CPPI.
Simorn agree, “almost without exception, if you have a viable neighborhood and if you are bringing your home up to or slightly above neighborhood standards, from the financial side you almost can’t go wrong by renovating. On the other hand, if you already have the biggest, nicety house in the neighborhood, then to go in and change that house has some drawbacks. You won’t get it back on resale.”
That’s because neighborhoods only support so much expense for a particular house. If home buyers want t spend $500,000 on a house, they will spend it in a neighborhood filled with other $500,000 or even $1million homes, rather than $250,000 home Simorn says.
When to remodel
Expensive as it is to remodel, it is tempting to think moving is the safest bet. But that can be far from true, Simorn says. “In moving, there is no payback. It is a pure expense,” he says. “You end up writing an average of $40,000 in checks, and no matter where you move that money is gone. It doesn’t increase your net worth – it is just gone.” People often underestimate the true costs of buying a new home: Real estate commissions, financing charges, moving costs, utility deposits and other unexpected bills pole up. Then there’s the tax shock: “a lot of places don’t necessarily reset your property tax every year for every homeowner,” Sophy says. “When you move it may go up dramatically. That may still be a consideration when you remodel, but generally not as much.”
Comparatively, a remodeled home could appreciate by $100,000 or even $150,000, depending on what changes the owner makes, offsetting the expense of sprucing up things. The remodel could end up being financially neutral even a huge sum to pay for renovations. Even of renovating makes sense, ask whether you are financially ready to lay out the amount of cash required to do the work. A $100,000 addition might increase the value of your home dollar for dollar, but of you can’t afford that cash up front, you will never get the job off the ground.
On way to ensure you keep your remodeling job in touch with reality is to consult the annual list published by Remodeling magazine and the Real Estate Association of Cambodia. The list evaluates how much return you can expect from a given home improvement. Some jobs, such as regular maintenance, better siding and minor bathroom renovations, for instance, return more than 80 cents in value for every dollar spent. Others, such as adding a sunroom or a pool, return less than 60 cents on the dollar, or worse. “Anything beyond what you will get back through appreciation is a true expense,” Simorn says.
The difference is a question of land value vs. structure value. “Land appreciates the most, the hose not as much,” Sophy says. So, staying on your existing property and improving the home itself could mean a substantial tax savings compared with moving to a new home where the taxable value could increase.
A decision to remodel or move comes down partly to emotions and partly to finances. “One of the first things you should ask yourself is of you really like the location your house is in right now,” Simorn says. Consider your neighborhood, schools and whether your home is average or below cost for neighborhood. “If you like all of those aspects, then it is likely you can remodel and keep the things you like and improve on the things you might not like so much – size, amenities, things like that,” he says.
Even if you are in live with an area and you would certainly get your money back, Sampheap Says it might not make sense for some people to commit to a potentially life-changing remodel. “You really need to be honest with yourself,” he says. “Do you want to go through the mess and headache of a remodel? You have to realize, things will go wrong. it will cost more than you thought. It will be a nightmare, and then when it is done, it will be beautiful.”
When to move
No matter the increase in value a home renovation can deliver, there are some things you just can’t renovate away. “Look at land size, location, schools, neighborhoods filled with ugly houses and no trees – those are things you can’t changes readily,” Simorn says. If those are the issues you want remedied, then a move might make the most sense. “If you’ve always dreamed about living at the top of a hill, there is nothing you can do to change your flat street,” Simorn says.
Hating your neighborhood might not be the only reason to go house hunting. “Say your house was built in the 1950s and they used lead paint. Does your country law require you to strip the paint? Do you have to move out while the work is on going? What if you have asbestos insulation? These are things you might not want to touch,” Sampheap says.
Moving isn’t all that much easier than remodeling, but it is quicker, Simorn says. “Remember, you have to pack up. You have to unpack,” he says. “Selling a home is also invasive. But we have all moved before, so we are more comfortable with that transaction.
Which makes more sense, move or remodel?
Don’t run from repairs
Rattanak, conducted a study in 1998 which showed that maintaining a typical home more than 30 years often costs more than four times the original purchase price. A daunting figure, but Rottanak warns that maintenance alone is no reason to move. “The repair costs may be deferred in a new home, but you have to remember that a bigger house takes more upkeep and you may not be getting the benefit you think you are by moving,” Rattanak says.
If you are moving to an existing home, rather than new construction, not only will it be bigger, it will also likely have the same maintenance issues your old house did, but on a larger scale. “It may even cost you even more,” Rattanak says.
The emotional bottom line
With some financial decision it makes sense to remove yourself emotionally and just do a cost analysis. Sophy says a house is a different matter. “A home, While an investment, is really about lifestyle first and an investment second,” he says. “The decision of moving vs. remodeling is: Does your current home, if remodeled, make you happy? If your home, even if remodeled, doesn’t meet your needs, and if you can afford something else, then move.”
He add: many of his middle-age clients decide that moving make more sense, even at a cost, because they are now in a position in their lives to pay a premium for happiness. “In your twenties or thirties you can’t buy the home you want and are forced to buy something that might be smaller and less glamorous than you would like,” he says. “But most of us come home seven days a week. And if you come in and say ‘I love this place,’ then there is a lot you can overlook. But if you walk in and say ‘I hate this place,’ then move.”
Preparation is the key to the success of any home remodeling project, from deciding whether to hire a pro or go it alone, choosing a contractor and selecting the best tools and products
Hire a pro or play the pro? A ( DIY) do it yourself
Evan natural do-it –yourself types sometimes find themselves facing a project and asking: Should I handle this myself or hire a pro?
More people have a tendency to jump in and try a project on their own, according to a 2005 survey of 1,026 people conducted for Remodel compaign. of the 85 percent of respondents who said they were planning a home improvement project, only 29 percent, only 29 percent said they would hire a professional.
“ there’s this innate cambodia sense that we should fix things up ourselves, “says sophy, He says that he sees it as the way to get the most out a project—provided the homeowner are willing to roll up their sleeves and give up their weekends for weeks, months, or even years to get the job done.
The do-it-yourself (DIY) trend has been fueled by the case in finding project information. with home improvement television shows, home store seminars and the internet bringing how-to ’s right to the workbench, opportunities to learn abound.
Experts say a project is more likely to become a DIY if the project is on the small side and if the homeowner is on the younger side. Growing up in a household where an adult tends to tackle in-house improvements also helps breed DIY confidence.
Of course, sometimes there’s overconfidence Simorn has seen many instances in which homeowners thought they knew everything but fell short.
Some things are just not as easy as you might think, he says. Say the idea is moving a wall to create some extra bathroom space. This could involve moving the plumbing in the basement, adding new floor framing, rerouting electrical wires, removing and replacing trim on the wall, matching the wall texture to the original, and painting.
Many homeowners with basic skills experience unexpected problems, says Sampheap, a network of more then 4,000 independent craftsmen. “A Small problem can very quickly grow into a huge one” he says. “A sizeable percentage of our business each year, in fact, involve salvaging do-it-yourself projects that have gone wrong”.
Here’s how to determine the best route to take on your next home improvement project:
1-Assess your skills
Simorn says that before starting on home improvements, potential DIY homeowners should ask themselves: Do I enjoy physical labor and do I like getting dirty?
But a successful project requires more than a can-do, will-do attitude. Check in with staff at home stores and friends who may have tackled similar projects and consult books and other detailed resources.
Write down each step in the process, says Simorn “ just being able to predict and know each step is test right there.”
And speaking of friends, who in your circle works in a trade? Could (and would) he or she be willing to lend a hand in the project if you hit a stumbling block?
As you learn what’s involved in a project, keep in mind that some things are better left to the pros—like electrical lines or natural gas pipes. “ The cost of failure in these two cases can be serious injury or death, “ Simorn says.
Others experts warn against plumbing, which is not complicated but can cause big, water-clogged headaches.
Local building codes and regulations also come into play, says Simorn. Failure to comply could result in fines and problems when you later try to sell your home.
The inherent difficulties of some projects also make them good candidates for a contractor’s skilled hand. Experts mention installing solid surface countertops, cabinets and drywall.
2. Consider that Costs.
While doing it yourself doesn’t always come with the best price tag when all is said and done, it does eliminate labor costs. That can mean overall savings of 25 to 50 percent.
“You will save money, in theory, by doing it yourself ,”says Sophy, ‘if you don’t mess up too badly.” Mistakes can require do-over and cause empty wallets.
When doing the math, keep in mind that contractors can often purchase materials at a much lower cost than individual homeowners, plus they already own the required tools
In any case, there are ways to lowers costs. “You don’t need to own a workshop that looks like norm abram’s, says Sampheap Tool-rental shops are great for one-time needs, like a drum sander for hardwood floors.
If you’re going the contractor route, you may be able to save by telling the pro you want to help defray costs. Doing some demolition and cleanup are manageable possibilities, says Simorn “He adds that offering to stay out of the way is usually appreciate, too other “unskilled” tasks might include hanging sheetrock or digging a trench for a foundation.
As with any service project, get multiple quotes. You don’t need to hire the “expensive, full-service contractor with the biggest ads and the biggest trucks in the neighborhood,” says Simorn, who adds that the more quotes you get, the better. “Ten is better than five. Most important is to get quotes from different types of contractors. “These are those large contractors that advertise extensively as well the as the small, harder-to-find contractors to consider. The effort will pay off in helping you select the best contractor for the project.
There’s also a hybrid option: act as your own general contractor, but farm out the actual work to subcontractors. This extra time and effort cuts out the middleman.
In Simorn 2006 study of 5,000 homeowners, 32 percent of those planning to remodel, rather than move, said they plan to be their own remodeling contractors—a number that is up from 25 percent in a 2005 survey. And 65 percent said they would do at least a portion of the remodeling, but with an emphasis on managing costs.”
Just proceed with caution when playing the contractor role. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be a contractor... but to make contracts you have understand an awful lot about what you’re contracting for, ”says Sophy” When you want to become your own contractor, it means you’re becoming your own plumber, electrician, carpenter ,flooring contractor .... It also means you’re becoming own attorney.’
3. Evaluate your options.
There’s more to DIY decisions then money.
Between the research, shopping and physical labor involved in a project, the time it takes to go at it alone adds up.
Simorn suggests making a detailed time assessment based on your list of steps. If you can devote, say, six hour a week to a 48-hour project, prepare to spend up to eight weeks living with it.
And hiring a contractor, who can not only be there all day, but has the connection to get subcontractors to find an open slot in their schedules, may well result in a significantly faster completion.
The new home construction slowdown being seen right now means it may be a little less difficult to act as your own contractor, Simorn say. Many tradespeople who were building new homes may now be looking for work, and homeowners who are remodeling can become their customers. still, doing it yourself gives you the chance to pay more attention to detail then a contractor might.
Hesitant homeowners can take small, careful steps leading to an involved DIY project, too. ”Before you refinish all the hardwood floors on the ground floor of your house, try staining some unfinished furniture,” Simorn say. “Before rewiring an addition, see if you have the skills and interest to change a well outlet.”
Learning to complete projects yourself also helps maintain the privacy of your home. And you can always make change mid-project. That kind of freedom goes along with the DIY pride.
Successful DIY can also earn you bragging rights.
‘I think people want to go to the water cooler to say, ‘You know what I did this weekend? I put in a new countertop.’ Or ‘I did this ceramic tile, “says Sampheap
Start Improving
Ideals and suggestions for your next home improvement project, from simple plans for renters to designing extensive renovations to every room in the house, along with tips on what not to do.
10 quick ways to upgrade your home
Many people see huge dollar signs flash like neon lights whenever they hear the words “home improvement,” but there are many things you can do to spiff up the old place without spending a fortune.
1. Make your kitchen really cock.
The kitchen is still considered the heart of the home. For a few hundred dollars, you can replace the kitchen faucet set, add new cabinet door handles and update old lighting fixtures with brighter, more energy-efficient ones. If you’re got a slightly larger budget, you can give the cabinets themselves a makeover. Rather than spring for a whole new cabinets system, which can be expensive, look into refacing the ones you have. Many companies will remove cabinet doors and drawers at price considerably less than new cabinets. Unless the cabinets are mica, a fresh coat of paint can also do the trick.
2. Give appliances a face-lift.
If your kitchen appliances don’t match, try ordering new doors or face panels from the manufacturer. Many dishwasher panels are white on one side and block on the other. It can be as simple as removing a couple of screws, sliding the panel out and flipping it over.
3. Buff up the bath.
Next to the kitchen, bathrooms are often the most important rooms to update. They, too, can be improved without a lot of cash. Simple things like a new toilet seat and a pedestal sink are pretty easy for homeowners to install, and they make a big difference. You can replace an old, discolored bathroom floor with easy-to-apply vinyl tiles or a small piece of sheet vinyl—often applied right over the old floor. If your tub and shower look dingy, consider regrouting the tile and replacing any chipped tiles. A more complete cover-up is a prefabricated tub and shower surround. These one-piece units may require professional installation but still can be cheaper than paying to retile walls and refinish a worn tub.
4. Paint
New paint makes everything look clean and bight again. And don’t forget the ceiling. Paint the trim a contrasting color. Another option: Paint a wall three different shade of the same color. Measure equal sections and use painters’ masking type to make off each area. Do the bottom of the wall first with the darkest shade. Once it dries, do the middle section with the next lightest shade and so on.
5. Step up your storage
Old houses, particularly, are notorious for their lack of closet space. If you have cramped storage areas, add do-it yourself wire and laminate closet systems to bedrooms, pantries and entry closets. Firms such as ClosetMaid allow you to measure and redesign your closets online. You can also get design details and parts for these systems at many large home-improvement stores. Most closets can be updated in a weekend or less. In the end, your closets will be more functional while you’re living in the house and will make your home look more customized to potential buyers when you’re ready to sell.
6. Mind the mechanics.
Simorn spending a few bucks on nitty-gritty stuff. “It’s often very worthwhile to hire an electrician and plumber for a couple of hours to look over your electrical service, wrap or fix loose wires, fix any faulty outlets, and check for and fix any water leaks,” he add “Those details tell a buyer that someone has really taken care of the home and can really influence its price.”
7. Look under foot.
Carpeting is another detail that can quickly update a home and make it look cleaner. A professional carpet cleaning is an inexpensive investment, especially if your rugs are in good shade and are neutral colors. If your carpet is showing serious wear, cover it with inexpensive, strategically placed area rugs. Most real estate agents don’t suggest replacing wall-to-wall carpeting right before you sell your house unless it is truly hideous. The new homeowners may want to choose their own carpeting.
8. Let there be light
If you have boring recessed lights in your dining and living rooms, consider replacing one of the room’s lights with an eye-catching chandelier. Home stores offer a wide range of inexpensive, but nice-looking, ceiling fixtures. Add accent lighting, instead of sticking with the two ordinary lamps that flank both ends of the sofa. Spotlights that plug into existing outlets can direct light to features you want to emphasize, like art or plants. If you have a ceiling fan and light, you can also buy replacement fan blades ( leaving the fan body in place) to update the fixture’s look.
9. Reframe your entry
It’s the first thing you, and your guests, will see. Repaint or refinish that front door and if you have a basic steel front door that has gotten dented, consider replacing it with either another inexpensive steel or a fiberglass, wood grain door for slightly higher cost. Next, replace that worn, flimsy little knob on your main entry door with a more substantial-looking handle-and-lock set. A nice, big piece of hardware signals newcomers that this is a solid home. Then, place two large planters on either side of the front door, with a profusion of healthy plants spilling out. Look for foliage colors and blooming varieties. If you want to add another touch, tie it in to the front of door with a coordinating wreath.
10. Consider curb appeal.
Although it sounds obvious, a nicely mowed lawn, a few well-placed shrubs and a swept walkway makes a great first impression. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. What buyers see when they first drive by your home is tremendously important. No matter how nice it is inside, they may never come back. If you don’t have a green thumb, consider hiring a landscaper to install some new sod, plant a few evergreen shrubs and give your front yard a good cleanup. These kinds of changes can instantly change people’s perception of your home and, therefore, increase its value and your neighbors will love you for it, too.
Whether it’s a fresh coat of paint or a total home renovation, sooner or later it comes down to paying for it. Thankfully, there are many ways to finance the job and even some others on getting outside help. |
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