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.
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*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.