Ways to add value to your home

[Thomas Key]

I am currently house hacking and renting by the room and I am looking for ways to add value to the home. I've done things like upgrade electrical amp but was wondering does small ticket items like adding ceiling fans help for when I want to refinance on the property for the future? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

[Ben Rhodin]

Hey @Thomas Key! Great idea to look for ways to improve the value of your property. I've got extensive experience with this coming from flips, and assisting flip and BRRRR clients. In the end, Appraisers are mostly concerned with cosmetic items, and mechanicals will not give you the ROI that you may think. As they are simply comparing it to neighboring comps. Mechanicals can help provide context if you have receipts and records of what you completed. But doing a $5000 new electrical panel won't get you $5000 in value. The biggest value adds for properties are either adding livable square footage, or renovating the cosmetics in the kitchen, and bathrooms.

But what I would do first, is reach out to either your real estate agent or another one and ask them to run a CMA. Then you can get an idea of what different quality homes are selling for and what you can expect from yours. Then find the top 3 or so that sold for the highest and were the nicest and try and copy them as much as you can.