Let's face it in today's economy every smart homeowner, developer and investor is all about their ROI. But how do we achieve and even increase our return on investment?

Adding value to your property is always a great place to start. Before we are able to add value we must first understand what "value" really means. Value to a potential buyer is perceived and influenced by many factors.

These factors are:

• location to transportation (if living in the city)
• neighborhood
• features / amenities
• existing interior and exterior conditions  

Since there is not much we can do about the location and neighborhood of our properties, we should do our best to create a positive impact on property value by addressing the remaining items on the list, features and conditions.

Here are a few tips I give my clients when the subject of "increasing value" comes up:

• Lets get pretty! Adding a fresh coat of paint on both the exterior and interior of your property , is a great inexpensive way to freshen up while increasing property value.

• Adding hardwood floors is becoming a more favorable solution to carpet, and if it were my home I would chose hardwood floors to carpet any day of the week.

• If you have a garden or backyard, landscaping is always a good idea, the addition of flowering plants and shrubbery makes your home or building more desirable.

• Decks are becoming more and more popular and instantly increase real estate value.

• Just fix it ! Deal with little issues such as a leaky faucet before they become very expensive big problems. (this may not increase value by that much but it definitely prevents loss)

• Remodel your kitchen and master bathroom these are by far the most important spaces within the home and are where people tend to look first during the buying process. These two spaces also add immense value to your home.

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• Do not go there! Do not invest time and money in home projects that are expensive and personalized. Doing this can actually hurt you more than it helps you and in some cases can decrease the value of your home. Do not spend money unless you know you will be able to retrieve that money when you are ready to sell, not everyone may appreciate a roman fountain in their living room :).

I hope you found these tips helpful, to learn more about us please visit: http://www.ashoucairdesign.com/