CHAPTER 1
REMODELING – IS IT WORTH IT? Remodeling. You’ve been thinking about it for a while now. That choke point in the kitchen is maddening, the wallpaper in the bathroom is a crime against good taste, and the basement has looked like a dungeon for years. Not to mention the upgrades to the doors, windows, and landscaping that have been the subject of so many dinner table discussions. It crosses your mind that maybe it would be better to just move and leave all the home’s faults for someone else to figure out. Then again, your job isn’t going to last forever and you may have to move in five or six years anyway. Maybe it would just be best to tough it out until then. After all, no one gets their money back on remodeling projects at the time of sale anyway, right? The truth is that deciding to remodel can be an extremely stressful decision. It affects your savings, your enjoyment of the home, and the property’s potential resale value. Yet, since the housing bubble burst and the Great Recession came along, more and more people have decided to take on the task of remodeling, frequently attempting the projects themselves to save money. According to the National Association of Home Builders, homeowners spent $152 billion on improvements to their homes in 2017. NAHB predicts remodeling spending for owner-occupied single-family homes will increase 4.9 percent in 2018 over 2017 and an additional 0.6 percent in 2019. That trend has only grown since. The home improvement industry was estimated to be worth well over $600 billion by 2015. While that number likely includes routine maintenance, that still represents only
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