A home is typically a family’s largest asset, which is important because improvements that increase its value can significantly increase a family’s net worth. Interestingly, many home improvements have high costs but don’t come with a corresponding increase home value (or even home enjoyment.)
Examples of home improvements that have significant cost, but are not accompanied by an increase in home value:
- Roof repairs
- HVAC
- Wallpaper
- Decor
- New Plumbing
- Wall-to-Wall Carpeting
The quickest, time tested, way to increase the value of your home is to add liveable square footage to your home. Doing this automatically increases its value, both in actual price and assessment value.
And, done the right way, it will provide a noticeable enhancement to your family’s lifestyle.
Increasing Livable Square Footage with a Sunroom – An Easy Conversion
Many homeowners have an attached porch. These structures are functional, but they don’t add much value to the home. For one, porches aren’t “livable” (livable square footage, is one of the major factors in a home’s price.) Fortunately, a porch can easily be converted into a sunroom, providing homeowners a low cost, high value yielding improvement.
Five of the most popular sunroom conversions:
1. Create a master suite sunroom: Using a sunroom addition to increase the square footage of your master suite will add more intrinsic value to your home’s worth than any other sunroom purpose. By making it part of a master suite living area, this kind of sunroom addition gives you twice the attractiveness in one fell swoop. Your master suite is enhanced with a room full of sun by day and stars by night, and the home now has a glorious sunroom to call its own.
2. Create a rec room: Sunrooms, solariums, and conservatories all offer views of the natural beauty around them. Dedicating them as recreation rooms is a catch-all way of saying, “This is where we all want to be to relax, play, and hang out together next to nature.” This kind of sunroom becomes a family room that brings the outside in, without weather or bugs.
3. Create a home office: Many different careers lend themselves to a home office, from psychologist to Yoga teacher to masseuse. Surround yourself (and your clients) with light and beauty and they will look forward to coming back.
4. Create a breakfast room: When it’s drizzling outside, you can still enjoy the garden with your morning coffee in a breakfast sunroom full of life and light.
5. Create a fitness room: Sunrooms are ideal spaces for your workout equipment, or yoga room. The innately pleasant atmosphere and freshness will encourage you to enjoy the outdoor landscaping and nature while your body gets stronger and healthier.
Buyers Value Sunrooms – Reap the Benefits
When you place your home on the market after installing a sunroom, you’ll find that your home gets more attention than comparable homes without a sunroom. By increasing the living space of your home, you make its overall value go up proportionally, typically by around 4 – 6%.
Apart from a bigger living space, many want a house that can let a lot of natural light in and this is not solely for aesthetic purposes. The idea is, the more natural light gets in, the more you wouldn’t have to turn on the lights, which saves energy.
Nearly everyone with a sunroom pays for the landscaping outside of it. It only makes sense because, with all that glass, you’re going to want to see something beautiful outside. Perhaps you’re thinking this is another burden on the wallet, but you need to evaluate that a bit. Most properties that come with landscaping (the fancier the plants, the better) can increase its value by around 5 – 11%.
A Benefit: Both Now and Later
The great thing about adding on a sunroom is that not only does it typically pay for itself in increased home value but, done right, it provides a new level of enjoyment for your family to enjoy your home. Few investments pay multiple dividends like that.
