Increasing Home Value Through Decor

Before selling or renting out your house, try sprucing it up a little with these tips to fetch a higher selling or rental price.

Article taken off ezinearticles.com

Decorating To Increase House Value

When it comes time to sell a home, everyone looks for inexpensive ways they can increase home value before the realtor comes in and does their own appraisal. Did you know that home decor plays a major role in buyer attraction?

The things that will turn a buyer off (unusual, non-neutral paint colours, personal pictures, worn out furniture) can be turned around and used to attract buyers-we want a house we could really picture ourselves in! There are a few decorating tricks that can be done throughout your home that add far more value than the money spent updating. For example, you may know that the kitchen is the most valuable room in the house, and naturally the first room buyers are attracted to; therefore, small updates to the kitchen decor will increase the value of your home overall. This article has a few valuable decorating ideas to increase buyer attention.

Since we mentioned the kitchen first, we will start with kitchen and dining room decor. Kitchens and dining rooms don't have to feature contemporary style to be updated. There is a difference between updated decor and timeless decor. If a feature in your kitchen is "dated" as in it doesn't flow with any theme, modern or classic, because it was bought in a past decade and popular in a past decade, it needs to be changed out.

Unfortunately, kitchen cabinetry falls into this category first. One amazing transformation you can make to cabinetry that appears outdated in anyway is to stain the wood another colour or paint the wood a solid white or black and replace all of the hand pulls.

If you can afford it, new appliances from a microwave, stove/oven, and refrigerator will have a direct affect on all of the kitchen decor. An outdated stove sticks out like a wound in kitchen decorating. Here is a really cool affordable solution: you can actually buy adhesive stainless aluminium sheeting that can be cut and stuck to an outdated fridge or dishwasher to make appliances look like stainless steel. Also, a more affordable change you should consider is adding in a backsplash and new kitchen countertops. These two changes are a couple of the first that interior designers consider for adding value in a kitchen.

For dining room tables and kitchen tables, you won't necessarily have to spring for new furnishings, but instead find some affordable tableware and table linens that make the room feel more formal and useful for entertaining. A table with a stylish tablecloth, placemats, linen napkins, and a table runner with tableware will look dinner ready, and increase tasteful style appeal, which in turn increases value.

Here are few bathroom-decorating tricks that increase value. Repainting the walls is always a plus, and be sure all of the grout between the tiles in the shower or bathtub area looks clean and new. Nobody likes gross grout. Also, replacing old dingy shower curtains with a new contemporary shower curtain is an immediate and smart transformation in bathroom decor. Replace faucet fixtures if they appear outdated, but if they are not outdated, faucet fixtures should "look" new with a good cleaning.

Finally, a custom built cabinet around the sink will immediately increase the value if it looks like an invested update. Bathroom cabinetry is very often a decade faux pa. You can probably build a new designer-looking cabinet between $50-$100 easily. What is easiest bathroom remodeling trick that increases bathroom value? Frame in an unframed mirror with black or white 2" wood trim.

Lighting is also a very affordable fix and sometimes makes a untold huge amount of importance to buyers. New lighting makes a house one step closer to being move-in ready putting your home immediately above consideration of a comparable home that needs a lot of updating in the home decor.

Repainting all walls neutral tones and fixing up any minor decor problems (incomplete wood floor jobs, refinishing floors, patching holes, steam cleaning dirty carpets) will add value to your home. Nurseries once painted very nursery-like colours should be repainted like you would when leaving an apartment. De-cluttering doesn't attract buyers' attention as much as it avoids distracting and upsetting buyers.

Providing a clean welcoming feel in every room is important in bringing in buyers. Add pillows and throws to couches and beds. Replace outdated or worn bedding with new bed linens. Add headboards to beds and seat cushions and toss pillows to trunks to make a seating bench instead of having an awkward item taking up room. Every room and every item needs to serve a valuable purpose when selling a home.

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Refinancing your Home

When it comes to housing loans, many people do not refinance. A significant number are unaware they have the option of switching their loan to another financier; others are simply apathetic. They stick with their very first lender and the “reward” for such loyalty tends to be higher interest rates. Due to the magnitude of housing loans and the tenure that the loan is amortized over, the interest we are talking about here can easily stretch from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Take a look at the following factors to see whether it's time for you to consider refinancing.


Current interest rate
It is definitely a good indication for you to explore refinancing when your current interest rate is higher than available housing loan packages on the market. A first step to take is to go back to your current bank or financial institution and ask them to revise your package, otherwise known as repricing. If your lender comes back with an offer, it will usually be better than your current one. You can then compare this offer with offers from other lenders to see whether you should switch or stay put.

Lock-in and clawback periods
When you take up a housing loan, there may be a lock-in period where your mortgage lender will charge you a penalty fee, usually a percentage of your outstanding loan amount, if you were to fully repay your loan. Almost all housing loans also come with a clawback period where the lender will claim back “freebies”, such as legal subsidies, that they “gave” you when you take up your housing loan (Note: lock-in period is separate from clawback period). It may not be worthwhile for you to refinance due to such costs.

Loan quantum
The larger your loan amount, the greater your savings for the same decrease in interest rates. For example, 1% on a loan of S$100,000 is much less than 1% on a loan of S$500,000. However, fixed cost to refinancing, which comprises mainly of legal fees, do not vary much with loan quantum. The difference between your current and refinancing interest rates, therefore, has to be bigger for a relatively smaller loan as fixed cost eats into a more significant portion of your interest rate savings.

Perceived interest rate movements
Your view on how interest rates is moving can be a factor when considering whether you should refinance. If you are currently on a fixed rate package and believe interest rates are dropping, you may want to refinance to a floating rate package. Conversely, if you are on floating rates and believe interest rates are rocketing, switching to fixed rates may be a good choice.

Personal financial assessment
If there is a change in your financial state, you may want to vary your package details via refinancing. For example, you are starting your own business and do not want volatility in other areas. Give some thought to taking up a fixed rate package. Maybe you want cash to invest in another property. Consider increasing your loan quantum. Or your monthly income has increased and you want to minimise interest payments. Contemplate reducing your loan tenure.


If looking through this article is giving your a headache or you simply want to save yourself the trouble, consult a housing loan advisor (e.g. www.myhousingloan.com.sg). Housing loan advisors not only frees up your time but also do not charge any fees to help you get the best deal. Refinancing does not have to be a tedious process.

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Take Charge of Your Household Finances

A neat home, besides being aesthetically pleasant, allows everyone in the family to easily find what they want, when they want to. Tidying your home also prevents it from turning into a cesspit, especially if you have children, which can only be good for the family's well-being. Similarly, regular ordering of your household finances is essential to the family's financial well-being. Here are some guidelines.

1) File your financial statements
Practically everyone has access to a computer nowadays. We now have the option to either file the physical bills and statements or better yet, input everything into a spreadsheet (for a list of common family expenditure, refer to http://www.myhappyhouse.com.sg/incomeplan.php). You don't even have to fork out cash for a decent spreadsheet. There are a number of free ones on the Internet for you to choose from (e.g. http://www.openoffice.org).

Notes:
* Get soft copies of bills and statements, if possible, to save time from entering data.
* Remember to back-up all your information. On top of your harddisk, you should also save all your files in a secondary storage media such as a CD-R or thumb drive.

2) Delegate book keeping duties to your children
If you have children, consider delegating simple tasks such as data-entry to them. This, not only gives them a sense of responsibility, but also an opportunity to understand basic financial principles. Cultivate good financial habits from young.

3) Utilisation of credit cards
Do use your credit card, if you have one, but remember to repay the entire sum, not the minimum amount, at the end of the month. For the disciplined, prudent use of credit card makes sound economic sense.

4) Make it a habit
The more you procrastinate, the more it piles up. Set aside 30 minutes each week to upkeep your finances.

5) Rule of thumb
Total household expenses should ideally be not more than 33% of household income. If it is higher than 33%, it's time to cut down on expenses.

Tips:
* Clean your air-conditioners regularly
* Do your laundry on full load
* Install thimbles on your taps

6) Financial planning
If your household has only one breadwinner, with no one else able to take on this role, and not much liquid assets (e.g. savings, shares etc), consider an insurance plan for the money spinner. Financial woes is not something your family should cope with in the event the sole breadwinner is incapacitated.

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