how much should you spend improving your home
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Budget for a Remodel Follow this four-step plan to arrive at the answer. 1. Ballpark the costs. First, get a handle on how much your remodeling dreams will cost. In general, major upgrades, such as a bathroom remodel or a family-room addition, run $100 to $200 and more per square foot. If you’ll be using a design pro or remodeling contractor, discuss your project with them to get a rough idea of costs. 2. Figure out how much you have to spend.
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- This rule holds that the entire remodel should cost no less than 5% of the current value of the home -- and no more than 15%. This is because spending less than 5% may result in a lesser home value, while a homeowner is unlikely to recoup an investment of more than 15% in a resale.
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10 Easy Ways to Save Money & Energy in Your Home Light your home using the same amount of light for less money. An average household dedicates about 5% of its energy budget to lighting. Switching to energy-efficient lighting is one of the fastest ways to cut your energy bills. By replacing your home's five most frequently used light fixtures or bulbs with models that have earned the ENERGY STAR, you can save $75 each year.
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Price Check: Are cloth diapers worth it? The national average is 8%. The basis of the rule is that if you spend less than 5%, there is a good chance you may be devaluing your home. If you spend more than 15%, there is a good chance you are overspending, and will not recoup your investment at a reasonable rate.
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- Upgrade to metal or decorative grates for the drop inlets. A $15,000 budget is fairly common for sprucing up an average size front yard. The rule of thumb is to spend 10% of your home’s value on landscaping the entire property.Most homeowners spend less on the front yard and more on the back, but it is entirely up to you what you spend and how it is allotted.ithin a $3,000 budget you can freshen up your front yard with a few key upgrades that will increase your home’s curb appeal. A new gravel driveway or concrete walkway can make your home look like new.
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Americans spend $2k on home energy costs annually How much do you spend on electricity each year? If you spend around $2,000, then you’re on par with the rest of the nation according to data from the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS).
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Budgeting for Your Bedroom Remodel Costs for different types of projects vary widely, and the features you choose can be as expensive as your budget allows. Remodel costs tend to run about $110 per square foot, but that is like talking about the average cost of a car, says Susan L. Miner, ASID, a Palmer Lake, Colo.-based interior designer.
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How much can you really afford to spend on a house? For example, if you make $60,000 a year and have no debts, you can afford to spend about $1,500 a month on principal, interest, taxes and insurance without breaking the 30% rule. To keep housing costs down to 25% of your income, as Weston recommends, you'll have to spend $1,250 or less.Nearly 37% of homeowners with a mortgage -- 19 million people -- now spend more than 30% of their income on housing.or example, if you make $60,000 a year but you spend $300 a month on car payments, $125 on credit card bills and $200 on student loans, the 36% rule would limit your monthly housing costs to $1,175. It's easy to put these rules to work.
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- Many Americans are looking to raise their house foundations due to new restrictions from FEMA. If you want to improve your home and raise a foundation for this or any other reasons, it's an expensive but worthwhile process. Overall, you can expect to spend anywhere between $30,000 and $100,000 depending on the size of your house, number of floors and the size of your house's footprint.
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7 Home Improvement & Remodeling Ideas that Increase Home Value (And What to Avoid) When it comes to how much you spend on a kitchen remodel, prices can run the gamut, from $5,000 to $75,000, or more. Get the biggest bang for your buck on a kitchen remodel by looking at color. Fresh paint, in modern colors, can go a long way towards updating the look of your kitchen. Plus, paint is relatively cheap.
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- As a would-be homebuyer, you should plan on doing the same, using a percentage of your gross income for determining how much to save. Saving 20% of your income could catapult you into purchasing a home in the next 12 to 16 months, depending on your market.For example, if you’re earning $96,000 per year, that’s $19,200 saved after one year.s a would-be homebuyer, you should plan on doing the same, using a percentage of your gross income for determining how much to save. Saving 20% of your income could catapult you into purchasing a home in the next 12 to 16 months, depending on your market.
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How Much Does it (Really) Cost to Decorate? Surveys such as Remodeling magazine’s “ Cost vs. Value ” report detail how much it costs to complete a variety of major popular home improvement projects each year, including the always popular kitchen and bathroom redos.ow Much: $9,400. Designer: Sarah Hermans, Philadelphia. Challenge: The house had to be “resale ready,” so designers were asked to make the 12-foot-square balcony of this show house look homey at a modest cost with no extreme color choices or remodeling changes.
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Increase Your Home's Value Unless you’re in a very high-end neighborhood, stay away from professional appliances and stone countertops. An average upscale kitchen remodel costs nearly $82,000 nationally and returns only about $70,000 at resale, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
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30 Tips for Increasing Your Home's Value Many realtors will do this as a courtesy, but you will probably have to pay a consultation fee to a designer. Check with several designers in your area; a standard hourly fee is normally less than $100, and in an hour they can give you lots of ideas for needed improvements.
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How Much You Should Spend on a Home 1 In most cases, you should consider buying a home only when you plan to stay somewhere for several years. 2  The cost of your home -- including taxes, maintenance and other costs -- should not exceed 28% of your monthly income. 3  The Basics of Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit.  How to Insure Your Home.
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6 Home Renovation Mistakes That Could Cost You He suggests keeping an extra 10 percent in reserve in case issues pop up along the way and expecting to spend at least $200 to $300 per square foot for a high-end kitchen or master bathroom. Understand that there will be trade-offs, and you may even consider phasing the project to meet your budget needs, he adds. [Read: 13 Ways to Save on Your Bathroom Renovation.]. 4. Overimproving for the neighborhood.
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Look at Maintenance Costs Before Leaping Into Homeownership The mindset is, if it's not leaking or smoking, I have time.. What to expect. On average, homeowners will spend between 1 to 4 percent of a home's value annually on maintenance and repairs, which tend to increase as the house ages, according to several real estate websites and mortgage firm Freddie Mac.Skimping on these costs may lead to depreciation of the home's value.See 50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2012 .]. But the thousands of dollars' worth of home maintenance, repair, and replacement expenses can catch some over-anxious buyers by surprise. Too many have their nose buried in a West Elm catalog and not the dishwasher manual.
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Budget for a Remodel To calculate how much remodel you can afford, follow these four steps: Ballpark the cost, establish a spending limit, get quotes from contractors, and set your priorities. A smart remodeler ballparks the costs and adds a 15% to 20% contingency. When it comes to home improvements, knowing what you want is the easy part.
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How to Budget for Home Maintenance Costs 1 Build a reserve. 2  Set aside 1 percent to 3 percent of your home's purchase price each year in a separate savings account specifically for home maintenance and repairs. 3  For example, if your home cost $300,000, set aside at least $3,000 each year. 4  Make one large deposit or spread the amount out in monthly deposits.
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How much should you spend on a house based on your salary? Best Answer: Your house should be no more than 2.5 to 3 times your salary. So someone making 50k a year should buy a house no more than 150k. To be able to afford a ...
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30 Tips for Increasing Your Home's Value Tip 3: Paint, paint, paint. One of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements of all is paint! Freshly painted rooms look clean and updated — and that spells value. When selecting paint colors, keep in mind that neutrals appeal to the greatest number of people, therefore making your home more desirable.
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- Here’s Why It Costs $1,126 a Month to Maintain the Average American Home. Buying a home is an expensive endeavor. In fact, the average home costs over $350,000, according to the United States Census Bureau. Many homebuyers, however, neglect to consider the cost of maintaining a home.
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- The 1 Percent Rule. One popular rule of thumb says that one percent of the purchase price of your home should be set aside each year for ongoing maintenance. For example, if your home cost $300,000, you should budget $3,000 per year for maintenance.That doesn’t mean you’ll literally spend $3,000 every year.he 1 Percent Rule. One popular rule of thumb says that one percent of the purchase price of your home should be set aside each year for ongoing maintenance. For example, if your home cost $300,000, you should budget $3,000 per year for maintenance.
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4 Questions to Consider Before Adding Onto Your Home How much will you spend? The cost of an addition varies widely depending on the type of room and where you live. But just to give you a sense of how much it might cost, CostHelper.com estimates that adding a bathroom or bedroom could run from $25,000 to $50,000. A bedroom could easily cost just as much. A large room, such as a family room, could run as high as $100,000.
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A Practical Way To Estimate And Budget For Home Maintenance Costs The percentage estimation method will tell us that the well maintained house should have an annual maintenance budget of $4,000 (2% of $200,000), but the run-down house only needs $3,000 per year (2% of $150,000). This is clearly incorrect, since it’s very likely that the cheaper house will need more maintenance.s a home owner, I’ve seen various methods of estimating annual home maintenance costs. These methods involve calculating a percentage of your home value – usually between one to four per cent, and using that value as the annual maintenance estimate.
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How to Price Your Home for Sale To sell in this market, you might need to price your home at $149,900, settling for $145,000. In a seller's market, you might want to add 10% more to the last comparable sale. When there is little inventory and many buyers, you can ask more than the last comparable sale and likely get it.