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Is House Exterior A Good Investment?(Home Exterior Investment Questions Answered)

Renovating the exterior of your home can be more than just new paint! It's time to find out the top seven ways that an exterior renovation will return on investment in time to sell.

Gray wood siding and shingled home with white trim and black roof, big green grass front yard with flower plants along front, stone path to front door, bright blue sky, sunny day

As homeowners, this is a question we consistently ask ourselves when observing our home’s exterior. Making an investment in your property with any home improvement will affect the selling cost of the house once it’s on the market, and you’ll want to get as much money out of the sale as possible. So, will remodeling projects focused on the exterior of your home increase the home’s value enough to return on investment?

As a general rule, any home improvement, renovation, or remodeling will affect a home’s resale value and the overall property values. Investing in the exterior of your house will raise the cost of its value on the market to earn you more money when you sell.

With that being said, there are definitely rights and wrongs when it comes to projects like these! This article is going to tell you just what to do to bring potential buyers to your front door so that you can possibly sell your house for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Will Exterior Home Improvement Return on Investment?

Run down property with small dirty white house and unkept yard

The exterior of your home is the first thing buyers will see when arriving at your property, and first impressions are incredibly important – potential homebuyers can make a split second decision based solely on home exteriors.

A well maintained exterior will do wonders for your home’s curb appeal, yes, but it will also increase the overall value of the property. Therefore, you are not only more likely to attract prospective buyers, you are also more likely to achieve a higher return on investment when selling.

Most homeowners typically focus renovations on the interior of the house, particularly kitchen remodels or bathroom remodels since they are the two most sought after rooms in a home, but giving the exterior a little bit of TLC is a surefire way to catch the interest of many more potential buyers!

Here are some of the main areas to focus on: siding, paint colors, lawn, and porch. Improving any of these will definitely raise the cost of your home once it’s time to sell, and these are the things that new homeowners are going to notice as soon as they arrive!

It’s no secret that not everyone can afford to completely revive the exterior or interior of their homes, but not all exterior renovations have to cost an arm and a leg and I’m here to walk you through it!

Are There Cost Effective Ways to Renovate the Exterior of Your Home?

Close up of a gray house with white trim and a brown front door, small red brick pavers on walkway leading to front porch, green grass, planters with bark and small green plants, blue sky

Not all exterior renovations have to take a chunk out of your wallet! There are some excellent ways to improve your curb appeal and increase property values that don’t require you to dig into your savings. Here are the top 7 ways to renovate the exterior of your house from most to least affordable!

Exterior Decor

Close up of the front porch on a yellow with white trim country home, windows framing large brown front door, large ceramic pots with yellow and pink flowers in them on either side of door, brown wooden bench

The simplest and most affordable way to improve curb appeal is through decoration. I don’t mean for the holidays, either – this is a year-round affair! Having a porch or deck is especially helpful for this option, because it gives you more options for furniture, potted plants, and other simple decor like what you see in this picture.
However, there are still plenty of simple, cost effective ways to decorate the exterior of your house! For starters, adding shutters (they don’t have to be functional) or flower boxes to your windows is more than enough to add a complementary color and a bit of homey personality to the property. There are also countless yard decorations to choose from, and you can browse at places like Home Depot or Menards!

Landscaping

2 story blue home with white trim and gray stone accents and light on inside, night sky with tall green trees, green grass, yellow and pink flowers in flowerbeds

Landscaping might sound like a big, pricey project, but it really only means that you’re taking care to make sure your lawn looks nice at the very least. Fill in any dips or even out your yard as much as you can – flat or smooth yards are much more attractive than yards that are uneven. Add some grass seed to the patchy parts of your lawn and keep the grass trimmed back from sidewalks and shrubbery.
Other thoughts would be to plant or tidy up flower beds and other plants, such as the trees you see here, and add decorative fillers like wood chips or stones, which can all be found at any major hardware store or on Amazon.
For more inspiration, check out our other landscaping articles!

New Doors

Close up of a front porch, white front door with small square shaped window at the top, stone walkway, wooden planter boxes with flowers

Although this might seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, having a nice and welcoming front door brings you one step closer to sealing the deal. Think of it this way: a shabby front door will definitely take away from your home’s curb appeal!
Of course, there are more doors than just the front door, too. Garage doors are twice as overlooked as regular doors and that includes the standard garage door and the door that you move your cars through.
One of the easiest ways to solve either of these dilemmas, rather than replacing all the doors (unless you deem it necessary), would be to paint them! Yes, painting garage doors is entirely possible. All you need is the right exterior paint and a sealant to go over it to make the doors look as good as new.

Paint Job

Close up of a woman with brown hair in a plaid shirt and jeans painting the trim of a house, sunny day

Speaking of, a coat of fresh paint is a surefire way to improve your home’s exterior entirely. However, putting a fresh coat on is too broad of an instruction – there is a better way to go about it! Certain colors sell better on the market than others do, and one key to increasing your home’s value is to make sure you aren’t using too many colors – make sure your whole house is the same color or that the paint colors complement each other!
What colors should you choose? Stick to a neutral color. Neutral colors sell the best out of all the rest because there is less of a chance that potential homebuyers will dislike the paint color! So, a fresh coat of light gray, white, off white, or beige is an excellent idea.
And don’t put too much stress on buying high quality paint! So long as you choose exterior paint, you can pull off a long lasting paint job and bring up the home value.

Window Replacements

Man in black pants and a red and gray jacket replacing windows on a home, sunny day

Shabby, worn out windows are a big eyesore and will definitely affect the resale value of your home. If washing them doesn’t work – and I suggest a strong pressure wash! – you might consider the fact that they are simply outdated and in need of replacement windows.
You’ll also want to keep an eye on the window frames. Windows are obviously subject to a lot of weather damage, and since the frames are made primarily of wood they will wear down over time. It’s always a good investment to take care of window frames, sills, and grilles, even if it only means you put a fresh coat of paint on them.

New Siding

Man in white tee shirt and black shorts wearing a tool belt around his waist on scaffolding installing wood siding on a home, sunny day

As with anything else outside, siding and exterior walls are subject to the weather. Rain, hail, wind, and even the sun will wear down your home’s exterior. Rather than paint over it, it might just be time to lay some new siding. There are so many different options to choose from, such as vinyl siding or fiber cement siding, and choosing something like a stone veneer would definitely put you over the top in your neighborhood.

New Roof

The final and most expensive exterior renovation is the roof. Updating and repairing your roof is an amazing selling point and will bring up the estimated value of your home right away. Many homeowners will be attracted to the idea of a new roof, whether it’s shingles or metal – but metal roofs are increasingly more sought after because of the energy efficiency and lower energy bills.
The newer the roof, the longer they can wait for any maintenance or repairs and the higher your home’s value will be!