However, you don’t have to wait for the passage of time to positively affect your home’s value. A maintained, updated, and larger home will always fetch more money from buyers.

How to Track What Your Home is Worth

The best way to value your home is by checking the sold prices of similar homes in your area. However, your home’s location won’t tell the whole story. You also need to track factors like property type, size, age and condition, upgrades, renovations, interest rates, and local market.

To get a rough estimate of your property’s value, look for “For Sale” signs on your street and compare that price to your home’s initial purchase amount. But if you want something more in-depth and accurate, use an online real estate investment tracker, like the one on this page.

8 Critical Factors That Influence a Home’s Value

The value of your home is based on what the market and buyers are willing to pay for it. While some buyers will weigh certain factors more than others, most buyers care about the following.

1. Neighborhood Comps

Homes will typically sell for a similar price as other properties in your neighborhood. These comparable homes are called “comps.” Home appraisers and real estate agents will rely on comps to determine your home’s estimated market value before adjusting for key differences.

2. Neighborhood Location

If your neighborhood is close to schools, great employment opportunities, and a shopping district, then your home will be worth more. However, a bad real estate location will have high tax fees, excessive noise, a high crime rate, property deterioration, and a poor drainage system. 

3. Home Size and Space

While a big home with multiple bedrooms can positively impact valuation, it’s advisable not to get a home that’s too large. If your home is too big, it will be harder to sell due to its price and size. On the other hand, most 2 to 3-bedroom homes don’t stay on the market for long.

4. Age and Home Upgrades

Depending on the condition of your house, an old home can sell for more. However, you’ll need to spend money on upgrades if you want to appeal to modern families. To get the most bang for your buck, renovate your kitchen, upscale your bathroom, and replace the windows.

5. Your Home’s Foundation

Your home may not appeal to everyone’s tastes, but most repairs are universally loved. Repairs to your foundation can instantly raise the value of your home because you protect the structure from mold, floods, pests, and air drafts. Plus, a sealed foundation prevents more costly repairs.

6. The Real Estate Market

Even if your home is in a prime location and decked out with all the latest updates, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll sell your home for more than it’s worth. In a seller’s market, you’ll be able to sell at a high price. But in a buyer’s market, you won’t have room to negotiate your home’s price.

7. Prime Interest Rates

Interest rates affect a person’s ability to buy a home. High-interest rates may cause people to forgo buying a house or purchase a high-valued home, but low-interest rates increase the number of buyers. You’ll want to sell when rates are low to improve your home’s value.

8. Economic Indicators

In slower economic conditions, fewer people will be willing to buy homes or sell their homes and relocate for another job opportunity. When more people are employed, and the economy is fine, you’ll see more homes on the market. Keep up with appreciation to sell at the right time.

Photos By: Unsplash

If you’ve already worked through the home improvement projects you planned for your home and created your ideal space, you may want to think about finding more ways to do what you love and have it pay off in the long run. If you enjoy renovating and remodeling homes, you may have already considered investing in real estate. Selling houses and maintaining rental properties may seem like a lot of work, but they could provide outlets for your creative vision and make you money at the same time. Keep reading for some ways that real estate investments could fulfill your passion for home improvement and benefit you in the long run.

Give an Old House a New Life

Flipping houses is one of the most common forms of real estate investment. For someone who loves making homes more attractive and functional, it can be a really rewarding way to spend your time and your money. Developing a smart strategy for your property purchase, remodels and renovations, and marketing efforts should come easily for someone who is already interested in home improvement. To ensure the best return on your investment, you’ll need to buy the right house to flip. Check out notable or up-and-coming neighborhoods and buy a nearby home that needs some love. You can bring the property up to speed with the neighborhood’s growing appeal through renovations and remodels, adding value to the home that will be reflected in your profit when you go to resell. 

Marketing the home for resale will be another opportunity to highlight your skills. Staging the home for listing photos will require a keen eye for interior design and you’ll get to reap the benefits of your hard work when offers start flowing in.

Rent Out Your Dream Home

Alternatively, you can purchase a vacation home in a desirable spot and rent it out. You likely have a dream location in mind already, but uprooting your life and family to live there full-time isn’t really an option. Instead, you can purchase a property, fix it up to suit your tastes, and list it on a short-term rental platform like Airbnb or VRBO. Vacation rentals offer you the opportunity to enjoy your property at your leisure and allow it to work for you in the downtime. Airbnb allows you to unlist your property at any time for personal use, ensuring that you still get to feel like you’re gaining a second home. Further, short-term rentals allow you to interact with your guests and help them get the most out of their stay. In addition to the work you put into furnishing the home for maximum appeal and functionality, you can also talk up your home’s location and give suggestions on local attractions and sights for your guests to enjoy.

Create a Neighborhood Atmosphere

In all real estate and home improvement projects, location is essential. If you already have experience with the two previous options and you’re seeking to expand to commercial property investments, you can focus on ways to build the kind of neighborhoods that people love to live in. Many of the most desirable new neighborhoods are filled out by mixed-use properties that blend residential, retail, and office units to improve the quality of life for locals and make day-to-day errands more convenient. Making shopping centers, workspaces, and recreational areas more accessible to residents adds to the value of any living space. 

If you have extensive experience with smaller-scale home improvement and real estate projects, it may be time for you to branch out and invest in the surrounding areas as well. Check out financing options for mixed-use properties and see if this could be your next big venture.

Whether you’re starting small by flipping a house or you’re ready to build better neighborhoods on a larger scale, these investment opportunities are great ways for home improvement lovers to exercise their interests and make more money doing it.