A smart homeowner should always be considering ways to improve their investment portfolio. Assets that don’t mature and grow in value lose money over time due to the corrosive nature of inflation on your bottom line. If you own your own home you may have considered turning the property into an investment vehicle. The truth is, there has never been a better time to look into your options in this realm than now.
If you’ve been thinking of moving, or just want a change of pace with your investments, making your home earn money for you is a great place to start. It’s not difficult to turn your home into an investment, however, you will likely need to make some modifications in order to maximize your return.
Shore up the foundation.
Starting from the bottom up is a great way to improve the property and look for any defects that will need addressing before you can rent out the space to new tenants. Ensuring that you are providing a safe home is essential and will increase the value of the property in the process. Checking for expansive soils and bowed walls is needed at the foundation of any home to ensure a stable and long lasting structure. As the weather changes throughout the years and seasons, the soil that sits in direct contact with and below the concrete foundation of your home can cause incredible damage to the lowest portion of the wall if you are not careful. Keeping a solid eye on the seasonal changes that can ruin a home from the ground up is an important part of any homeowner’s routine maintenance duties, but it’s especially important if you are considering profiting off the property by renting it out to paying tenants.
Repair or replace flooring.
Flooring is one of the first things a prospective tenant will look for. Hardwood is a preferred floor covering for most renters or buyers. It feels luxurious and matches just about any decorative style you can come up with. Installing hardwood flooring can also be cost effective and lasts for years if you maintain it. Carpeting and tile are both harder to keep clean and deteriorate far more quickly than a wooden floor covering. If you are considering renting out your property, changing to a hardwood surface is a no brainer, as it lasts a long time. You can even probably increase the rent you charge tenants if you have a hardwood floor covering.
Another floor space that’s important is garage, pool deck, and other exposed areas of concrete foundation that often go uncared for. Applying the best garage floor coating to these concrete floors will ensure that the space holds up under the additional stressors that often accompany these types of grounds. The weight of a car, dripping water, and the humidity of a dryer or the exposure to outside air all can deteriorate these surfaces in a hurry, potentially causing structural damage to the entire property in the process. Make sure that you cover these concrete surfaces with epoxy paint or another type of garage floor paint. Epoxy paint can provide excellent protection to all kinds of concrete surfaces. Not to mention that a finished basement tends to be very popular with prospective tenants, which makes a coating your concrete floor even more of a good idea.
Replace windows with new glass.
Replacing older windows is another great way to show off your home and fetch a higher rate for the property. Old windows leak heat and cause tenants to pay loads more in energy bills over the course of the year. Replacing older panes or the entire windows is a great way to attract more interest to your property and increase the value of the home.
New installations like these often draw in far more prospective renters or tenants and can even create a bit of a bidding war for the property if you are lucky. Not only will strategic upgrades increase the price, spending some time to care for your home will make the high quality last longer, taking less out of your pocket and bottom line in the long run.
