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A FEW KEY UPGRADES THAT CAN REALLY PAY OFF
It’s time to stop thinking of Millennials as totally uninterested in owning anything
just because they were early adopters of Uber. The newly released U.S. home
ownership rate rose in 2018 for the first time in 13 years—it now stands at 64.2
percent—driven mainly by a shift toward owning over renting by the under-35
crowd who’d been wary of committing for both financial and personal reasons.
“This is happening because young households are buying homes,” Ralph
McLaughlin, chief economist at home listings provider Trulia, told the Wall Street
Journal. They’re not the only purchasers, of course. But if you’re looking to sell
your house now or in the not-too-distant future, you might want to check out
this generational roadmap of four upgrades experts say are worth it to help attract
potential buyers.
*Cross-generational: a new steel door. The only thing that beat it on
Remodeling magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value Report was loose-fill attic insulation,
but this project—with a 90.7 percent return on investment—speaks directly to
the report’s main takeaway: “Curb appeal projects, by and large, generated higher
returns on investment than work done inside the home.”
Plus, as far as Millennials go, while their ideal interiors may differ from
older generations—for example, they prefer open floor plans and
hardwood floors—Architectural Digest says they’re still into
“traditional” exteriors.
*Millennials: Smart-home tech. Yes, there are Boomers
and Gen Xers who are super tech-savvy, but Millennials
especially crave homes that allow them to control their
heating, air-conditioning, home security, and lighting
systems from their phones. They want to use their brains for
other things, not for remembering whether they adjusted the
heat or closed the garage door.
*Cross-generational: A new roof. It’s the ultimate curb
appeal enhancer and buyers pay a premium for one already in
place. So if the first thing prospects notice even before exiting
their cars looks like something out of the movie “Twister,” you’ve
got a problem.
*Millennials: All-new appliances. Realtors will tell you that major kitchen
(and bath) upgrades aren’t generally worth their high costs, in terms of return
on investment, since prospective buyers’ tastes can clash with yours. However,
Millennials love, love, love all-new stainless steel appliances. So much so that what
RealtyTimes.com called “an astonishing majority of 75 percent” of respondents in a
recent survey chose to spend their hypothetical home buying budgets on them.