Cheryl Bourland's blog

In today's housing market, where strong price growth has become the norm, many potential sellers are having the same thought: "I don't want to lose out on profit by selling my home too early". These home owners believe that, by holding out for a few extra months, they will be able to add thousands of extra dollars to their bank account. While this may seem like a tempting proposition, Realtor.com recently pointed out three flaws in this thinking. In reality, there is little reason to be overly concerned with the timing of your sale within the current market as long as it fits your personal timeline.

As a lack of inventory drives home prices higher and higher, builders are continuing to ramp up the number of new homes under construction in the U.S. In fact, January saw housing starts jump by 9.7% compared to December and building permits increase by 7.4% compared to December! While these numbers are encouraging, there is still plenty of progress to be made before inventory return to normal levels.

Renovating your home is its own reward if you plan on staying put for the foreseeable future; after all, it's important to love where you live! However, if selling is anywhere on the horizon, you shouldn't invest any significant sum of money without first considering ROI (Return On Investment), or how much of the project's cost you will recoup upon resale. Many homeowners wrongly assume that the cost of a major improvement will yield a corresponding increase in sale price, but this is rarely the case! Keep reading to learn which popular home renovation projects are worth the investment and which are money pits waiting to happen!