Today we want to talk to you about being a proactive homeowner. Now, biggest thing is catching what could be an issue at your house before it becomes a real problem, the proactive homeowner is going to save a ton of money over the reactive homeowner.

Urgency

So, the first thing we want to talk about is urgency and things that you should be looking for in your home. Big things like these are any sort of leaks. Now, obviously, I’m sure most of you watching this, if you see a leak, it’s time to call someone and get that taken care of. But other things that you may not notice are things like chipping or peeling paint, rotting or damaged wood anywhere on your house, also is termite damage, any sort of other insect damage. Now, maybe you don’t know what these things look for, but that’s the whole point of this series.

The other big thing is drafts. Now that could be in a window or a door. One of the things we always like to say is what’s the most energy efficient door in your house? It’s the refrigerator, right? And that’s ’cause of that weather seal it has. So, you want to check all your doors, maybe feel around, see if you feel any cold air coming through or any moisture getting through, these are all problems that you guys want to get taken care of.

Another plus about taking care of these projects at your house is the ROI. And for anyone who doesn’t know, that’s return on investment. So, there’s things that you can go by where as soon as you buy, it depreciates like crazy. The great thing about home renovations is a lot of them, you can get 70% ROI or even greater. A lot of the big things are going to be garage doors just ’cause it really kind of makes the house pop a lot more. That’s a big draw for people. Other thing, new windows, it’s going to make the home a lot more energy efficient. Great thing is windows, expensive, but it’s buy once, cry once. After that, it’s going to make the home more energy efficient. You’re going to save money in the long run.

Some products depending on your house and what neighborhood you’re in, if your house is kind of in that lower tier in your neighborhood, you can get 70, 80, 90. Some people see over a hundred percent ROI on some of these install products. So if you put brand new siding on your old house and you spend $50,000 in your siding, it could potentially increase your home value up to 60, $70,000.

Return on Investment

Another one of these huge draws for ROI is adding a deck to your house or replacing a failing deck. Now, I don’t know if you guys know, but 6,000 deck a year fail in this country. So having that deck inspected annually is huge. You want to make sure not only does it look nice, but that it’s safe for you and your family. So adding a brand new deck or improving the deck that you have is going to give you a huge amount of ROI. Now, you could go with a nice pressure treated and that’s going to increase that ROI, but that’s something that you have to maintain and take care of every year. If you go with a maintenance-free, headache-free composite like a timber tech product, that’s going to give you an even higher ROI. So the great thing about home renovation projects is not only are they going to improve your quality of life, but they’re going to increase the value of your home.

External Factors

So sometimes these home renovation projects don’t start with an urgent need like there’s a leak or there’s rot damage. Sometimes, they’re due to a change in your family. Maybe unfortunately, someone had an accident and you need wheelchair accessibility or maybe you guys are having a new baby and you need more space in the house and you want to stay in the house you’re at. Now, some of the things and projects that you can do here is say, you did have that unfortunate incident and you need wheelchair accessibility, you can build a new deck or add it on to a deck or an entry way, giving them that accessibility.

If you do need that more space, you’re having a baby, maybe you want to build an addition, get an extra bedroom, an extra bathroom or maybe like a lot of us, you’re working from home now and you want to finish a basement to give you and your husband, you and your wife, you and your partner, some more office space ’cause you guys are tired of cramming your work together at the dining room table.

At Southers Construction we’re going to have a bunch of awesome content, some DIY tricks, tips to look for when hiring a contractor. We want to help you guys help your home, whether it’s the DIY who you’re going to renovate your own bathroom or you’re taking on a bigger project and you need some help looking for a contractor. We really want to educate homeowners and help you guys become proactive to take care of your homes properly.