Top 10 Home Improvement Projects | realtor.com

If you're thinking of selling your home in 2014 or just want to ramp up your home value, it's important to educate yourself on which improvement projects will bring you the most return on your investment.


A great resource for your research is the 2013 Cost vs. Value Report, an annual collaboration between Remodeling magazine and REALTOR? Magazine, which breaks out the estimated cost of various projects and the estimated return on investment for those projects by region and by city, as well as by midrange and upscale projects. In general, this year's report shows that exterior replacement projects are the most cost-effective. If you plan to sell your home later this year, remember that the first impression your home makes on buyers is their first glimpse of the outside.


Here are 10 home improvement projects you should consider:


1. Replace Your Front Door


You may not even notice your front door anymore, especially if you regularly use another entrance, but a new door makes a great impression on buyers and yields an 86 percent return on your investment. If your front door doesn't need replacing or you'd rather spend less money, you can paint it and replace the hardware for a similar impact. Replacing your garage door recoups 75 percent of your investment.


2. Add a Deck or Patio


No matter where you live, buyers are looking for outdoor living space. You can recoup 77 percent of your investment on a new wood deck. I really like performing research for something. For this weblog, I like researching about property appliance and house improvement. I found these articles from several diverse news internet site and I want to share them with my blog readers. I hope you uncover these articles as valuable as I did.If you already have outdoor space, consider enhancing it with a water feature, an outdoor fireplace or new landscaping.


3. Add Space


Depending on your budget and your goals for your home, an addition of extra bedrooms and bathrooms, a finished attic or an expanded casual living space can rapidly increase the value of your home. You can recoup 73 percent of your investment in an attic bedroom.


4. Remodel Your Kitchen


Buyers look most carefully at kitchens and bathrooms, so you should, too. You can recoup 75 percent of a minor kitchen remodel and 60-68 percent of a major kitchen remodel. If you're selling soon, be careful not to overspend on your kitchen. You may be able to do one or two things, such as replacing the appliances and painting the cabinets, or just replacing the counters with granite to garner a good offer.


5. Replace Your Windows


Buyers are interested in how your windows look and their energy efficiency. Whether you're replacing vinyl- or wood-frame windows, you can get a 72 percent return on your investment. When you're ready to market your home, be sure to highlight the new windows as a selling point.


6. Work on Your Lighting


Today's buyers like bright, light rooms, so look around your home and see if you need to upgrade your lighting fixtures or add more. You can hire a professional to add a few recessed lights to your kitchen and living areas and replace outdated overhead lighting fixtures to match contemporary tastes.


7. Replace Your Window Treatments


Make sure you're letting as much natural light as possible into your home and that your window treatments don't hide any oversized windows.


8. Update Your Bathroom


While a full, upscale bathroom remodeling project can cost as much as $50,000 and add only about $29,000 to your home's resale value, you can make cost-effective minor upgrades. Replace your fixtures and your mirror, repaint the space and jazz it up with some crown molding (depending on your home's style) and you'll have a space that looks new. While you're there, redo the caulk around your tub and shower and replace the grout on your tile flooring. If your tub is in bad shape, you may be able to have it resurfaced rather than replace it.


9. Replace Your Siding


If your home's exterior needs a major makeover, you can typically recoup 72 percent of your investment by replacing the siding.


10. Organize Your Closets


High on the list of priorities for today's buyers is adequate storage. If your home lacks big closets or has too few storage spaces, you can increase their efficiency with closet organizers.


No matter which project you choose, be careful not to over-improve your home for the neighborhood. A REALTOR? can offer advice about how to spend your money so that your home sells faster and for the best possible price.

Plumbing Tips That Will Greatly Help You Out

Sometimes, it takes a good bit of advice to get you to the right solution, luckily these tips are a good start.

Noisy pipes are an easy problem to fix. You will need to anchor any exposed pipe.

To prevent pipes from freezing, don't let temperatures drop under freezing in your home, and be certain to adequately insulate those pipes that are out in the weather. Your plumbing can freeze if temperatures around it is below freezing. It takes time for the pipes to thaw out so that you can have water again. However, they might burst, causing damage to your home and a hefty repair bill.

Have a professional flush your septic tank cleaned every five years to keep it in prime condition. While you may find it costly to get your septic tank cleaned out, it will cost you much more to clean up any sewage backup or to repair or replace your septic tank.

Use filters on all drains to prevent debris from getting through. The ones in the bathroom can be cleaned out on a regular basis.

Schedule all the plumbing work simultaneously.You might be tempted to have a plumber come out for every little thing that happens, but saving your plumbing issues for one time can let you put that money back into repairs. Most plumbers charge an hourly rate and a flat rate for the trip: asking a plumber to fix multiple problems in one visit to your home.

Installing shower heads could save you a lot of money when it comes to your energy bill. Most households use a lot of our hot water in the shower. By installing shower heads that are energy-efficient, you could save at least $100 a year per person who showers in your house.

Do not expect to clean grout from your plumbing.You can try dislodging some of the blockage which will open up all the grout to send it down further. This is more successful in plastic plumbing as opposed to metal.

Don't bother running water when the garbage disposal is used. In fact, water can actually cause garbage to become lodged in awkward places, which can create more damage.

There are two ways to get a stubborn clean-out plug. The first approach to use a hammer and chisel to see if you can get the fitting. The only other option is chiseling through the plug.

While you may not always have your choice of plumbers, you can still look the person up online. If your insurance company has just scheduled someone for you, doing a background check on him can put you on guard should he have a bad reputation.

You have to always be aware of where the primary water shut off valve is located on your home. The water meter for your property should be located in its vicinity.Fixtures, such as toilets and sinks, may also be equipped with individual cut-off valves.Show every family member where the valves are, and make sure they know how to switch them off in the case of a crisis.

This article can help you know when to call a professional, and when you can tackle the problem on your own. You want to take care of plumbing issues the right way in order to protect yourself financially. Give these tips some consideration.

Check out this website for more information. 

So, How Come They're All Turning Internet Marketing Into Profits? Learn How You Can Join Them

Have made the decision to get into Internet marketing? Do not worry, there are plenty of tips here. The following article contains some great information you can use in getting started to have success with Internet marketing venture.

You must take advantage of all the software advancements that happen to be a successful in Internet marketer. If your company happens to fall behind the technology curb, they will wonder why you haven't upgraded. If you stay on the front lines of technology and always have the next best thing available to your customers, you will present a better image to your customers.

You can then decide which website version will be more successful by checking the number of new subscribers.

Make sure to keep very detailed records of all aspects of your detailed statistics. This information should encompass traffic, conversions, sales, referrals and anything else you can think of. Detailed reports can help you when deciding on how to use Internet marketing to your benefit.

Search engines will be more likely to overlook your site when it has a million or two indexed pages, more so than one that has between ten or twenty thousand.

Read up on marketing studies that discuss how customers interact with websites. Psychological aspects can immensely effect how someone views your brand, based on the color, outlay and color of your website. This information is useful when you can use to maximize profit.

Getting Google is essential for your internet marketing success. Google is utilized by millions of people daily, and it pays to know the search terms that people are using to look for your products or services. Your website will be easier for web crawler to index if you are listed by Google.

If you utilize a successful web marketing plan, you know what products are your biggest money-makers. Use your other items. These products are virtually guaranteed to be profitable, and won't require you to advertise as much as you do for unrelated products.

Many people look at the coupons with gratitude and as an added incentive to go back to a coupon to buy something they needed or wanted anyway.

Emphasize speed, whether it is speed of order placement, or how quickly they can expect to see results from the use of your product or service.

You can join online business communities, read blogs, go to seminars, or read eBooks.

Try using ad banners where they don't actually look like banners. Try to make them appear like clickable links by which visitors can access additional content. Banners sometimes can turn away customers, and this type of appearance will prompt customers to click through.

Since you have read these tips, you should feel more confident in developing your own Internet marketing strategies. Although it may seem like there is a large amount of information, you can use what you learned to develop your marketing plan. Furthermore, at any time you can refer back to this list of pointers in case you forget something.