Photo Credit: Getty Images. Ullstein Bild / Contributor
Sprucing up the bathroom, renovating the kitchen, expanding the landscape can all add value when your house is on the market. However, there is also some “invisible improvements” that will increase your home’s resale value and add appeal to buyers.
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Switch to natural gas
Saving money and energy is appealing to anybody!
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Spend a bit of extra money on a zoned HVAC system
Adding temperature-control through the house helps avoid wasting energy overheating/overcooling in rooms that don’t need it.
Tip: Don’t go to 2 systems if the house is less than 2,000 square feet.
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Add water softener bypass valves
Avoiding possible future headaches is always a bonus. Bypass valves will let homeowners turn off the water softener for maintenance while still having water in the house pipes.
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Add stops/shut offs on all fixtures (or a manifold PEX system)
Again save money, time and energy in the long run. This allows you to work on a repair without shutting down the whole plumbing system.
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Pre-wire House
Use cat 5 cable/coax or cat 6 cable/coax/fiber optic wiring. Especially in this day in age, people want easy access to get their home network going.
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Pour a skim coat of concrete across crawlspace
Adding an inch to inch and a half of concrete in the crawlspace will make it much easier for any homeowner that needs to go down there.
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Backer boards to beef up the subfloor
Place these under title flooring to help strength the underlay of the floor.
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Humidity
If you’re worried about central humidity control in the winter months, a standard humidifier attached to the plenum above the furnace does the trick.
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Put in some extra insulation
Use Tyvek wrap, its great for preventing rot or mold inside the walls.
Tip: Avoid mechanical ventilation for attics, try ridge vent.
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Install a tank less gas water heater
They take up less space and energy.
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Install a whole-house back up generator
Never be a victim of a power outage again!
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Make certain there is a back up pump (i.e. 2 pumps) with a high water alarm
If you have a sump pump back up pumps will be a lot more beneficial than you think. Anything mechanical will eventually fail, so having a backup pump with an alarm system prevents floods and disasters.
Tune into the Home and Garden Show with Pat Sullivan and Denny Smith Saturday, 9am-1pm on WIBC
