IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Spring 2019 | Page 30

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
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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.