Are you thinking about selling your home down the line? Well, even if you aren’t, it pays to think about how much a potential project would affect the value of your home down the line.
The truth is, not all home improvement projects drive up the value of your home. Even if you might think that a home improvement project is good, potential buyers might not see it the same way. As a result, what you thought was a worthy investment at a time, could end up haunting you come the buyer’s final offer.
With that said, it’s important that you choose your home improvement projects wisely and properly.
Below is a list of all the home improvement projects that are almost never worth it.

1.     Swimming pools

Many folks swear by how swimming pools will somehow drive up the price of their properties, but it doesn’t work like that.
Today’s buyers are smart enough to know that swimming pools are costly to maintain and it’s not unusual for buyers to make offers to properties contingent on sellers filling in the pool first, or completely dismantling it.
Unless you plan on living on your home for the rest of your life, or you’re okay with having to spend money to dismantle or remove the pool once you do end up selling the house, then you should definitely think twice before making that childhood dream of yours of having your own backyard pool come true.

2.     Wall-to-wall carpeting

A couple of decades ago, wall-to-wall carpeting might have been worth it.
These days? You’d be hard pressed to find any takers for someone with homes with wall-to-wall carpeting for a fair price.
There are numerous factors that work against wall-to-wall carpeting not being worth the money. This includes the high costs of buying the carpet and having it installed, as well as the fact that carpeting of choice is almost always personal, so a home very rarely feels neutral with wall-to-wall carpeting installed.
As a good rule of thumb, carpeting should be kept only in bedrooms, living rooms, and if you want, hallways. Stick to hardwood for everything else, save for the bathrooms, which should have tiled flooring.

3.     Over-renovating your home

You should always renovate your home according to your neighborhood.
Nobody is going to want to pay top dollar for a luxurious looking house that’s not located in a prime location. Not only will your house look out of place by making it look too good, but it will also seem overpriced when compared to other properties within the neighborhood.
Unless you’re okay not recouping even half the costs of the renovation by the time you sell your house, you should never out build the neighborhood where your house is.
It’s possible that you’ll never get back the amount of money you spent on renovations once you’ve sold the house, but you can always try to minimize your losses by investing only on home renovation projects that will not devalue your home.
If you’re in dire need of money and want to sell your house without worrying about making any renovations to drive its price up, you can always contact a cash buyer to make an offer for your property.
A cash buyer will buy your house as is with no hidden fees or charges and close the deal in a matter of weeks.