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.
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*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.