August 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Small changes can make a big impact and we share some ideas on what you can do with $100, $500 or $1000 to spend on home improvements.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Remax Real Estate Insight Show,
where you get real talk by real agents. Walk to
you by Remacs of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to the Remax
Real Estate Insight Podcast. When I say home improvement, you
might think of a really big project or projects that
come with a hefty price tag, things like a new roof,
(00:21):
a new furnace, or maybe a whole room renovation. But
there are plenty of cost effective upgrades that can make
a significant impact on the look and potential value of
your home that are budget friendly. Hi, I'm Janet Schneider.
I am your host, and today we're tackling what you
could do if you had one hundred dollars, five hundred dollars,
(00:41):
or one thousand dollars to spend on home improvements, what
would give you the most bang for your buck. Now
you've probably heard the saying small changes can make a
big impact. You know, a lot of times we're going
to hear this. You know, maybe around the beginning of
the year. If you've got a health you know, a
health goal, going to the gym or eating more healthy,
you know, just little things that you start to incorporate
(01:02):
that can make a big impact overall. Well, that's certainly
true as well when it comes to your home. You
can make your home a little more fabulous without emptying
your bank account. So, whether you're sprucing things up to
sell or making your home more enjoyable, let's take a
look at what you can get for your money. So
let's start on the one hundred dollars price point. Now,
(01:22):
one hundred dollars doesn't sound like much, but it really
can work some magic if you spend it right. And
here are some tried and true suggestions. The first is
going to be doing some paint touch ups or perhaps
finding a room or two where you can do an
accent wall. And the reason being is nothing changes the
feel of a space faster than fresh paint. Even if
(01:46):
you just paint your front door, you know, a bold color.
Let's say you have an exterior you know, house color
that you know, maybe it's white, and you can do
something creative on the front door. A bold modern color
can really give a wow fact and great curb appeal.
And if it's on the inside of the home, fresh
paint to cover up you know, everyday life, Hey, as
(02:07):
careful as we are, little smudges, little things you know,
do get on the walls in a fresh coat of paint.
Relatively inexpensive and can give a room a very fresh look.
So that's one item. Another item that you can do
is swap out hardware. A lot of us don't think
about the knobs or the polls you know on doors
and handles or you know, doors and cabinet openings in
(02:30):
either the kitchen or the bathroom or other rooms. And
new cabinet knobs, new drawer polls you know that can
take your kitchen and bathroom kind of that eh look
to like, oh, you know that really looks nice in
you know what an hour. You know, you go to
the store, you buy them. They have one or two
screws to put them on, takes very little time, very inexpensive,
but can definitely modernize or give a room, you know,
(02:53):
a different facelift. Another thing you can do for the
one hundred dollars price range is smart home features. You know,
think smart plug, something like a basic video door bell,
a thermost staff that maybe is on sale. You know,
buyers today are looking for smart home features and perhaps
(03:13):
your home doesn't really offer many of those. There are
some things that you can do relatively inexpensive, you know
that are going to make your home more smart friendly
if you will. Another area where you can spend a
one hundred dollars and you know see an immediate impact
is maybe you can swamp out some dated lighting fixtures.
Any of the big box home improvement stores you know
(03:36):
certainly offer you know, lighting options, and many of them
are not incredibly expensive, and just swapping out some dated
light fixtures can really transform the look and again make
the home appear much more updated and maybe you know,
modern than what it currently looks like. Another item that
you can do is, you know, just swap out your
(03:56):
bulbs for LED bobs, especially the warm led bulbs. You
can give your home a clean, bright look, and especially
if you're getting ready to put your home on the
market clean all is always great for buyers to see
your home in a very clean light. And I hate
to say it, but you know we're already starting to
see the days get shorter, right, the sun's rising a
(04:16):
little later, it sets a little earlier. If you're going
to be showing your home where you know, lights are
going to need to be on. Having a consistent kind
of look and feel with your light bulb so that
one room doesn't have you know, traditional bulbs. Another room
has led bulbs. It kind of gives a different light
and a different look. Just swapping that out of for
a consistent look can also do wonders. When we take
(04:38):
a look at the bathroom and we know this is
one of the rooms that that buyers, you know, tend
to focus on. There are some things that you can
do for one hundred dollars, you know, in a bathroom
to give it a new look. If you have a
shower curtain, you know, changing that out, you're putting something
fresh in you maybe a new bath mat or a
new mirror or even new towel set. Uh. These are
(05:00):
gonna you know, easily make this room look like you've
checked into a boutique hotel. Just doing a couple of
updates like that. And then finally, for one hundred dollars,
let's maybe go outside where you can do some planters.
Maybe you do some fresh house numbers, or you add
you know, some little landscaping solar lights to your path.
(05:20):
First impressions matter, especially if you're going to be selling
your house. When we were getting ready to move, one
of the things that we did is we did do
new numbers on the house, and we did a new
mailbox and those two things alone really freshened up the look.
And you know, little things like that can make a
big difference. And a lot of these you can do
for under one hundred dollars. Quick tip if you're prepping
(05:43):
your home for sale, think about what's gonna pop in
the listing photos. And I'm going to go back to,
you know, maybe flowers on the front porch, you know,
numbers that are easy to read, a fresh coat of
paint on the front door, you know, a nice you
know set of are a fresh looking mirror in the bathroom.
Kind of think through and maybe talk to your agent.
(06:05):
If I were to spend you know, one hundred dollars
in a couple of different rooms, where do they recommend
you spend it. And keep in mind, you know, how
it's going to make photos pop. That's where everybody looks first,
is online, So you want to make sure you're taking
that into consideration. All right. Next, let's assume that we
have maybe a little more money to play with. Let's
(06:25):
say that maybe you're in the five hundred dollars price point,
and you can, you know, step into some different upgrades
to make buyers or maybe maybe you're not moving, maybe
you're staying in the house and you just want to
do this for your own enjoyment and you want to follow,
you know, kind of back in love with your house.
So one of the things that you can do at
that five hundred dollars price point is hire a professional,
(06:46):
you know, deep clean of the carpet or a carpet
cleaning crew to come in. Because nothing beats that smells
like new feeling. So if you don't have carpet in
the house, and maybe you don't need to worry about that,
but if you do deep cleaning your carpet, always great
thing to do. Maybe you just hire a crew to
come in, if you do your own cleaning, or you
just have somebody do lighthouse cleaning on a regular basis,
(07:09):
you hire someone to come in and do like a
thorough top to bottom, get the things that don't you know,
address the items that maybe don't get addressed on a
regular basis. Nothing feels better than walking into an uber
clean home. So that's always a great idea something else
that you can do. And we talked a little about
lighting upgrades, but we talked about a more on an
economic scale at the one hundred dollars price point. In
(07:31):
your kitchen, and we're going to focus on kitchen first,
is you could potentially swap out faucets, you know, your
fawcet in the kitchen and lighting, and those two things
can really make a difference in your kitchen even if
you do nothing, if you do nothing else, just swapping
out those two items can give it a whole different feel.
Maybe something maybe you've already done that. Another item that
(07:53):
you can consider is installing a backsplash or updating a backsplash.
There are a lot of peel and stick options if
you want something that's really budget friendly, you know, or
if you do have a little bit more money to
spend and you're a bit of a do it yourself
or you know, maybe do a classic tile, you know,
to make a a bigger statement, something that you can
(08:14):
do again if you have a little bit more money,
and depending on the size of your yard, because one
hundred dollars may not be enough to do everything I'm
about to mention, but you can update your landscaping, freshening
up your mulch, maybe getting rid of some plants that
have seen better days. Maybe you have some plants and
shrubs that are kind of half healthy, half not so healthy,
get rid of those and put something fresh in. A
(08:35):
Lot of times, landscaping companies, you know, and do it
yourselfers will use that kind of black edging looks great
when you first put it in, but with our freeze
and frost cycles, that tends to move over time and
it starts to kind of, you know, come up. It
starts to take on a different shape than you put in.
Replacing that either like just repositioning what you already have
(08:55):
and you know, kind of making it fresh again, or
maybe using some type of a different edging item, a
good tree trim if you have, you know, bigger trees
in your yard. It may not be something that you
think about doing all the time. But if you hire
a company to come in and you know, they often
call it daylighting the tree, or doing some different things
like that, just freshening it up, shaping it. Those are
(09:16):
some things you can probably do a few of those
things if you've got a five hundred dollars to spend. Again,
depending on the size of your of your yard. A
closet makeover. Now, this may not be something that you
think about and certainly you can spend far, far, far
more than five hundred dollars, but you certainly can do
some of this on your own. Uh and of course
(09:38):
any of the social media channels if you follow you know,
experts that do this. You know. As far as organ
a home organization, you can do a lot on your
own with just bins that you buy, you know, at
a store, perhaps getting you know, hangers that all have
the same you know, look and color. But you can
do a closet makeover and do some storage systems to
better utilize the space, make everything nice and organ and
(10:01):
put away again for your own purposes. And if you
are getting ready to sell, that's certainly going to help
with the photos that they take of your closet and
how your buyers are going to view the spaciousness of
your closet if everything is put in its place and
it's very clean, neat, and organized. Again, I'm going to
go back to a smart home bundle smart features for
(10:21):
one hundred dollars. There's limited items that you're going to
be able to get at that price point, and you're
probably going to have to do some shopping to find
things on sale to come into that price point. If
you've got a little bit more money to spend, you
can start to look at things like smart locks, you know,
more enhanced security cameras, you know, things of that nature.
But again, take a look at what your options are,
(10:42):
and you know, out of all of these issues, you
know what are going to be most important to you
if you're staying there, living there, you know what what
things are you going to enjoy If you're going to
be the one living there and you don't live and
die by smart features. That may not be where you
spend the money. It might be on the landscaping, It
might be on the kitchen. You know something that every
time you drive up to your house and pull into
(11:03):
your driveway, you get that pride of ownership. So think
through if you're staying there, what matters most to you.
And of course, if you're selling, you want to kind
of keep things neutral and clean, whereas if you're if
you're staying in your house, you can make it a
little bit more personal and fun. But I always recommend,
especially if you're going to be selling, talk to an
agent about what's trending in your neighborhood, what's trending in
(11:26):
your market, and if you were going to spend money,
what they might recommend could get you the biggest bang
for the buck right now with buyers. All right, So
now we've talked a little bit about one hundred dollars
and five hundred dollars, let's go to one thousand dollars.
This is where you know, you really can make a
noticeable impact when you're starting to spend, you know, at
this price point, and at this price point, you know,
(11:48):
maybe instead of doing a few things yourself, like we
talked about, you know, painting the front door or just
you know, you know, buying a couple of gallons of
paint and doing it yourself, you know kind of painting.
You know, in your house, maybe you can have higher
a per professional to come in and paint an entire room,
or maybe they can, you know, or you can do
it yourself. Maybe you can do the whole house at
that price point and do a whole home refresh. But
(12:09):
at that point you can really tackle a significant amount
of painting in your home to update the color you
potentially to potentially just give it a great refresh. If
you've got a home that has more of the higher
cathedral ceilings or the very high like family room ceilings
that maybe span a full two stories. It's hard to
(12:29):
do that yourself. You don't likely have this scaffolding or
the latter systems to do that. At one thousand dollars,
you know, perhaps you can bring somebody in to do
that room for you at one thousand dollars. And again,
some of this depends on the style of your home
in the front door that you currently have. But you
can potentially replace your front door if it's getting a
(12:50):
little old, if maybe you've you know, kind of weather
stripped it a few different times, and you just notice
that there's, you know, there continues to be drafts that
come in, maybe the door is starting to show its
age a little bit. Getting a new front door is
something that you can you can do and it's amazing,
you know, how much that gets noticed by buyers. It
gives it a whole different feel because again, think about it,
(13:12):
if you are selling, everybody that comes to view your
home is going to enter through the front door. If
the lock's a little tricky, if it squeaks when it opens,
if it looks as though it's a little dated or worn,
or maybe it's got some dings and things like that,
on there. Buyers are going to notice that. So a
brand new door is you know, kind of signals a
(13:33):
well maintained home and it makes a great first impression.
Something else in the one thousand dollars price point. And
again it's going to depend on kind of what you're
looking for, but certainly you could potentially upgrade, you know,
an appliance in your in your kitchen, you know, maybe
the dishwasher if that's a little older. It takes that
off the table as far as being an appliance that
(13:55):
somebody has to worry about, you know, or you know,
perhaps you can do a combo washer dry higher, you know,
things of that nature. I mean, if you've got a
smaller space to upgrade that you can replace. If you're
going to the bathroom, maybe you can replace toilets if
they're getting a little bit older. You you know, you can
replace that something that we've done every time we've moved
(14:16):
into a new houses replaced like the lid system on
the toilets. Keep the actual toilet, but replace all the lids.
So if you have the lids that are kind of
that quiet shot, you know that in theory you just
kind of lightly tap and then they very slowly close.
The longer you have a meta house, it seems, the
less that functionality stays true, they start, you know, maybe
somebody's accidentally kind of slammed it down and kind of
(14:39):
forced it to age a little bit. But you know,
new lids on everything, certainly can you know they're clean,
they're neat, they work as intended. Maybe you can replace
the bathroom vanity. Now, if you've got a big primary bathroom,
probably not in that room, but maybe if you have
like the half bath downstairs with just the one sink
and a relatively small cabinet, you know that you may
(15:00):
be able to replace. And it is something that you know,
you can do it yourself in a in a weekend,
and there's lots of videos out there that will help
you do that. Something else that you could do is
you could potentially again on the outside of the house.
Uh maybe you could strength some lights or add a
fire pit or some type of a gas fire, you know,
fire pit out there. These are always great for you know,
(15:24):
you to enjoy while you're living there, but it also
sets the stage for outdoor entertaining and if you are
going to be selling your house anytime in the near future,
outdoor living space is one of the things that buyers
are really interested in seeing. What you can do for
a thousand bucks is going to vary depending on the
size and scope of your home. But you know, potentially
you update some cushions on the furniture to give it
(15:46):
a fresh clean look. Maybe you add you know, a
string of the Edison bulb or some other type of
lights out there. Just little things like that, are adding
the fire pit, little things that you can do to
set the stage of Oh, from a buyer perspective, I
can see myself entertaining out here, and of course if
you're not moving, you know, you get to enjoy that.
Revamping your entryway now, this could be both interior or exterior,
(16:10):
depending again on how big your porches, you know, or
how big your entwayway is into your home. But adding
something just like a stylish bench, you know, maybe you
add a new thing of you know, coat hooks for
people to you know, hang the coats, or he has
the little cubbies to put shoes or mittens and things
like that. If you don't have a mirror, you have
a mirror that's a little dated. When somebody enters the home,
(16:31):
you know, refreshing that again, depending on your home is
going to kind of dictate you know, what you can
do for the thousand dollars price point a new rug
both a man on the outside of the door or
you know, a rug once you get inside, you know,
to freshen up that space, because whether you're staying or going,
everybody pretty much enters your home through the front door.
(16:52):
So whether you're welcoming guests and you know, knock on wood.
Before you know it, it's going to be the holiday
season or the time of the year where we have
a little bit opportunity for guests to come over to
you know, watch football games with you. You've got Trick or
Trey coming, We've got Thanksgiving and other holidays coming, and
you know, even inviting guests into your own home, you know,
a new bench, a new rug, a new mirror, you know,
(17:13):
some new potential things you know, as they're ending or
entering your home certainly can make it look warm and inviting,
and even more so if you're going to be looking
to sell. The pro tip is, you know you want
to kind of choose upgrades that blend function with visual appeal.
And so like when we're talking the front entry way.
You know, if this is an entryway where you've got
(17:34):
people coming and going and you know you'd like them
to remove their shoes when you're come to the house,
having a bench there is functional. It gives them a
place to sit so they're not holding their hand up
against the wall and putting fingerprints on your freshly painted wall.
So that's you know, kind of blending you know, function
with visual appeal. And you can do that in a variety,
you know, of different ways. And I think it's always
(17:54):
fun to kind of walk around your house and you know,
kind of envision it through. What would I do if
I were trying to change the look of this appeal
to buyer? What would be some things that I would do?
Because I can almost guarantee you the things that you
would do to appeal to buyers you're going to enjoy
if you're staying there, living living there as well. So
all right, one last thing and kind of we've talked
(18:16):
about this a little bit on the way through. If
you're selling, you want to stick with updates that have
broad appeal. This is where you're thinking things like anything
that makes the home show clean and fresh, fresh paint,
you know, all the kind of same light, light bulbs
throughout the whole house, clean line, strong curb appeal. So
front porch, you know, is clean and swept, and maybe
(18:37):
some new plants or you you know, if you've got
a plant that's you know, kind of half dying and
unfortunately I'm going to have what I'm taking back to
a nursery this year, bought a new one by our
front porch. They had that kind of two green arbor vities.
One was healthy, one did not make it well through
the winter. We replaced it, and now it's not doing
so well. You know, something like that good curb appeal.
(18:58):
Take a look at that if you or if you're
going to be selling in the near future, and kind
of focus your time, money and effort there. If you're staying,
this is I think where you can have more fun
and you can bring your personality in, you know, if
you like to play with color, if you like you know,
maybe bolder patterns. If there's a feature or something you've
always wanted to have in a house, you know, enjoy it,
(19:19):
do it and make the house your own. Now. The
other thing that it's always a caveat here is you
want to keep your neighborhood, in your overall home value
in mind, because what you don't necessarily want to do
is save, save, save, and save it. I'm going to
use an over exaggeration here. You don't want to spend
let's say fifty thousand dollars to do a whole bathroom
(19:41):
renovation if the homes in your neighborhood and your home
you know it roughly has a two hundred thousand dollars
you know price point, you're not going to get the
return on that, and you know investment, So you do
want to keep in mind, you know the value of
your home, the value of homes in your neighborhood. Where
does it make sense to spend and how much does
it make sense to spend? And again, especially if you're
(20:03):
looking to sell in the near future, talk to a
local agent. They will be able to give you good
advice on where and how your money is best spent.
All right, so you've got it there. I think we've
talked about home improvements that can make a difference at
one hundred dollars, at five hundred dollars, or at one
thousand dollars, And hopefully this got you thinking that even
(20:25):
with a small budget, you know, there are things that
you can do to make your home look fresh, you know,
look clean, look neat, and give it a different feel.
Whether you're going to be the one to enjoy it
for years to come or you're preparing you know, it
to sell, there are things that you can do, and
if you kind of you know, space out your saving
a little bit, you know, maybe you can start to do,
(20:47):
whether it's one hundred dollars or five hundred dollars a
quarter or a couple of times a year, kind of
put your wish list together, walk around your house, make
some mental notes of things that you'd like to upgrade.
And then as you have money in that rainy day fund,
if you will, you can start to pull the trigger
on little things to make your home, you know, get
a little bit of a refresh. And you know, I
(21:07):
think anybody who's owned a home knows you start with
one project and it's almost a guarantee that you're going
to catch the bug. And one thing tends to always
lead to another, so hopefully you can enjoy that. Thanks
to all of our listeners for joining me today. We
certainly look forward to chatting with you again, and until then,
I hope you have a great time upgrading your home.
(21:29):
We look forward to chatting with you again soon. We
hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe, write
a review, or rate the show, as it helps us
reach more people. You can also follow us on Facebook
and Instagram.
You are listening to the Remax Real Estate Insight Show,
where you get real talk by real agents. Walk to
you by Remacs of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to the Remax
Real Estate Insight Podcast. When I say home improvement, you
might think of a really big project or projects that
come with a hefty price tag, things like a new roof,
(00:21):
a new furnace, or maybe a whole room renovation. But
there are plenty of cost effective upgrades that can make
a significant impact on the look and potential value of
your home that are budget friendly. Hi, I'm Janet Schneider.
I am your host, and today we're tackling what you
could do if you had one hundred dollars, five hundred dollars,
(00:41):
or one thousand dollars to spend on home improvements, what
would give you the most bang for your buck. Now
you've probably heard the saying small changes can make a
big impact. You know, a lot of times we're going
to hear this. You know, maybe around the beginning of
the year. If you've got a health you know, a
health goal, going to the gym or eating more healthy,
you know, just little things that you start to incorporate
(01:02):
that can make a big impact overall. Well, that's certainly
true as well when it comes to your home. You
can make your home a little more fabulous without emptying
your bank account. So, whether you're sprucing things up to
sell or making your home more enjoyable, let's take a
look at what you can get for your money. So
let's start on the one hundred dollars price point. Now,
(01:22):
one hundred dollars doesn't sound like much, but it really
can work some magic if you spend it right. And
here are some tried and true suggestions. The first is
going to be doing some paint touch ups or perhaps
finding a room or two where you can do an
accent wall. And the reason being is nothing changes the
feel of a space faster than fresh paint. Even if
(01:46):
you just paint your front door, you know, a bold color.
Let's say you have an exterior you know, house color
that you know, maybe it's white, and you can do
something creative on the front door. A bold modern color
can really give a wow fact and great curb appeal.
And if it's on the inside of the home, fresh
paint to cover up you know, everyday life, Hey, as
(02:07):
careful as we are, little smudges, little things you know,
do get on the walls in a fresh coat of paint.
Relatively inexpensive and can give a room a very fresh look.
So that's one item. Another item that you can do
is swap out hardware. A lot of us don't think
about the knobs or the polls you know on doors
and handles or you know, doors and cabinet openings in
(02:30):
either the kitchen or the bathroom or other rooms. And
new cabinet knobs, new drawer polls you know that can
take your kitchen and bathroom kind of that eh look
to like, oh, you know that really looks nice in
you know what an hour. You know, you go to
the store, you buy them. They have one or two
screws to put them on, takes very little time, very inexpensive,
but can definitely modernize or give a room, you know,
(02:53):
a different facelift. Another thing you can do for the
one hundred dollars price range is smart home features. You know,
think smart plug, something like a basic video door bell,
a thermost staff that maybe is on sale. You know,
buyers today are looking for smart home features and perhaps
(03:13):
your home doesn't really offer many of those. There are
some things that you can do relatively inexpensive, you know
that are going to make your home more smart friendly
if you will. Another area where you can spend a
one hundred dollars and you know see an immediate impact
is maybe you can swamp out some dated lighting fixtures.
Any of the big box home improvement stores you know
(03:36):
certainly offer you know, lighting options, and many of them
are not incredibly expensive, and just swapping out some dated
light fixtures can really transform the look and again make
the home appear much more updated and maybe you know,
modern than what it currently looks like. Another item that
you can do is, you know, just swap out your
(03:56):
bulbs for LED bobs, especially the warm led bulbs. You
can give your home a clean, bright look, and especially
if you're getting ready to put your home on the
market clean all is always great for buyers to see
your home in a very clean light. And I hate
to say it, but you know we're already starting to
see the days get shorter, right, the sun's rising a
(04:16):
little later, it sets a little earlier. If you're going
to be showing your home where you know, lights are
going to need to be on. Having a consistent kind
of look and feel with your light bulb so that
one room doesn't have you know, traditional bulbs. Another room
has led bulbs. It kind of gives a different light
and a different look. Just swapping that out of for
a consistent look can also do wonders. When we take
(04:38):
a look at the bathroom and we know this is
one of the rooms that that buyers, you know, tend
to focus on. There are some things that you can
do for one hundred dollars, you know, in a bathroom
to give it a new look. If you have a
shower curtain, you know, changing that out, you're putting something
fresh in you maybe a new bath mat or a
new mirror or even new towel set. Uh. These are
(05:00):
gonna you know, easily make this room look like you've
checked into a boutique hotel. Just doing a couple of
updates like that. And then finally, for one hundred dollars,
let's maybe go outside where you can do some planters.
Maybe you do some fresh house numbers, or you add
you know, some little landscaping solar lights to your path.
(05:20):
First impressions matter, especially if you're going to be selling
your house. When we were getting ready to move, one
of the things that we did is we did do
new numbers on the house, and we did a new
mailbox and those two things alone really freshened up the look.
And you know, little things like that can make a
big difference. And a lot of these you can do
for under one hundred dollars. Quick tip if you're prepping
(05:43):
your home for sale, think about what's gonna pop in
the listing photos. And I'm going to go back to,
you know, maybe flowers on the front porch, you know,
numbers that are easy to read, a fresh coat of
paint on the front door, you know, a nice you
know set of are a fresh looking mirror in the bathroom.
Kind of think through and maybe talk to your agent.
(06:05):
If I were to spend you know, one hundred dollars
in a couple of different rooms, where do they recommend
you spend it. And keep in mind, you know, how
it's going to make photos pop. That's where everybody looks first,
is online, So you want to make sure you're taking
that into consideration. All right. Next, let's assume that we
have maybe a little more money to play with. Let's
(06:25):
say that maybe you're in the five hundred dollars price point,
and you can, you know, step into some different upgrades
to make buyers or maybe maybe you're not moving, maybe
you're staying in the house and you just want to
do this for your own enjoyment and you want to follow,
you know, kind of back in love with your house.
So one of the things that you can do at
that five hundred dollars price point is hire a professional,
(06:46):
you know, deep clean of the carpet or a carpet
cleaning crew to come in. Because nothing beats that smells
like new feeling. So if you don't have carpet in
the house, and maybe you don't need to worry about that,
but if you do deep cleaning your carpet, always great
thing to do. Maybe you just hire a crew to
come in, if you do your own cleaning, or you
just have somebody do lighthouse cleaning on a regular basis,
(07:09):
you hire someone to come in and do like a
thorough top to bottom, get the things that don't you know,
address the items that maybe don't get addressed on a
regular basis. Nothing feels better than walking into an uber
clean home. So that's always a great idea something else
that you can do. And we talked a little about
lighting upgrades, but we talked about a more on an
economic scale at the one hundred dollars price point. In
(07:31):
your kitchen, and we're going to focus on kitchen first,
is you could potentially swap out faucets, you know, your
fawcet in the kitchen and lighting, and those two things
can really make a difference in your kitchen even if
you do nothing, if you do nothing else, just swapping
out those two items can give it a whole different feel.
Maybe something maybe you've already done that. Another item that
(07:53):
you can consider is installing a backsplash or updating a backsplash.
There are a lot of peel and stick options if
you want something that's really budget friendly, you know, or
if you do have a little bit more money to
spend and you're a bit of a do it yourself
or you know, maybe do a classic tile, you know,
to make a a bigger statement, something that you can
(08:14):
do again if you have a little bit more money,
and depending on the size of your yard, because one
hundred dollars may not be enough to do everything I'm
about to mention, but you can update your landscaping, freshening
up your mulch, maybe getting rid of some plants that
have seen better days. Maybe you have some plants and
shrubs that are kind of half healthy, half not so healthy,
get rid of those and put something fresh in. A
(08:35):
Lot of times, landscaping companies, you know, and do it
yourselfers will use that kind of black edging looks great
when you first put it in, but with our freeze
and frost cycles, that tends to move over time and
it starts to kind of, you know, come up. It
starts to take on a different shape than you put in.
Replacing that either like just repositioning what you already have
(08:55):
and you know, kind of making it fresh again, or
maybe using some type of a different edging item, a
good tree trim if you have, you know, bigger trees
in your yard. It may not be something that you
think about doing all the time. But if you hire
a company to come in and you know, they often
call it daylighting the tree, or doing some different things
like that, just freshening it up, shaping it. Those are
(09:16):
some things you can probably do a few of those
things if you've got a five hundred dollars to spend. Again,
depending on the size of your of your yard. A
closet makeover. Now, this may not be something that you
think about and certainly you can spend far, far, far
more than five hundred dollars, but you certainly can do
some of this on your own. Uh and of course
(09:38):
any of the social media channels if you follow you know,
experts that do this. You know. As far as organ
a home organization, you can do a lot on your
own with just bins that you buy, you know, at
a store, perhaps getting you know, hangers that all have
the same you know, look and color. But you can
do a closet makeover and do some storage systems to
better utilize the space, make everything nice and organ and
(10:01):
put away again for your own purposes. And if you
are getting ready to sell, that's certainly going to help
with the photos that they take of your closet and
how your buyers are going to view the spaciousness of
your closet if everything is put in its place and
it's very clean, neat, and organized. Again, I'm going to
go back to a smart home bundle smart features for
(10:21):
one hundred dollars. There's limited items that you're going to
be able to get at that price point, and you're
probably going to have to do some shopping to find
things on sale to come into that price point. If
you've got a little bit more money to spend, you
can start to look at things like smart locks, you know,
more enhanced security cameras, you know, things of that nature.
But again, take a look at what your options are,
(10:42):
and you know, out of all of these issues, you
know what are going to be most important to you
if you're staying there, living there, you know what what
things are you going to enjoy If you're going to
be the one living there and you don't live and
die by smart features. That may not be where you
spend the money. It might be on the landscaping, It
might be on the kitchen. You know something that every
time you drive up to your house and pull into
(11:03):
your driveway, you get that pride of ownership. So think
through if you're staying there, what matters most to you.
And of course, if you're selling, you want to kind
of keep things neutral and clean, whereas if you're if
you're staying in your house, you can make it a
little bit more personal and fun. But I always recommend,
especially if you're going to be selling, talk to an
agent about what's trending in your neighborhood, what's trending in
(11:26):
your market, and if you were going to spend money,
what they might recommend could get you the biggest bang
for the buck right now with buyers. All right, So
now we've talked a little bit about one hundred dollars
and five hundred dollars, let's go to one thousand dollars.
This is where you know, you really can make a
noticeable impact when you're starting to spend, you know, at
this price point, and at this price point, you know,
(11:48):
maybe instead of doing a few things yourself, like we
talked about, you know, painting the front door or just
you know, you know, buying a couple of gallons of
paint and doing it yourself, you know kind of painting.
You know, in your house, maybe you can have higher
a per professional to come in and paint an entire room,
or maybe they can, you know, or you can do
it yourself. Maybe you can do the whole house at
that price point and do a whole home refresh. But
(12:09):
at that point you can really tackle a significant amount
of painting in your home to update the color you
potentially to potentially just give it a great refresh. If
you've got a home that has more of the higher
cathedral ceilings or the very high like family room ceilings
that maybe span a full two stories. It's hard to
(12:29):
do that yourself. You don't likely have this scaffolding or
the latter systems to do that. At one thousand dollars,
you know, perhaps you can bring somebody in to do
that room for you at one thousand dollars. And again,
some of this depends on the style of your home
in the front door that you currently have. But you
can potentially replace your front door if it's getting a
(12:50):
little old, if maybe you've you know, kind of weather
stripped it a few different times, and you just notice
that there's, you know, there continues to be drafts that
come in, maybe the door is starting to show its
age a little bit. Getting a new front door is
something that you can you can do and it's amazing,
you know, how much that gets noticed by buyers. It
gives it a whole different feel because again, think about it,
(13:12):
if you are selling, everybody that comes to view your
home is going to enter through the front door. If
the lock's a little tricky, if it squeaks when it opens,
if it looks as though it's a little dated or worn,
or maybe it's got some dings and things like that,
on there. Buyers are going to notice that. So a
brand new door is you know, kind of signals a
(13:33):
well maintained home and it makes a great first impression.
Something else in the one thousand dollars price point. And
again it's going to depend on kind of what you're
looking for, but certainly you could potentially upgrade, you know,
an appliance in your in your kitchen, you know, maybe
the dishwasher if that's a little older. It takes that
off the table as far as being an appliance that
(13:55):
somebody has to worry about, you know, or you know,
perhaps you can do a combo washer dry higher, you know,
things of that nature. I mean, if you've got a
smaller space to upgrade that you can replace. If you're
going to the bathroom, maybe you can replace toilets if
they're getting a little bit older. You you know, you can
replace that something that we've done every time we've moved
(14:16):
into a new houses replaced like the lid system on
the toilets. Keep the actual toilet, but replace all the lids.
So if you have the lids that are kind of
that quiet shot, you know that in theory you just
kind of lightly tap and then they very slowly close.
The longer you have a meta house, it seems, the
less that functionality stays true, they start, you know, maybe
somebody's accidentally kind of slammed it down and kind of
(14:39):
forced it to age a little bit. But you know,
new lids on everything, certainly can you know they're clean,
they're neat, they work as intended. Maybe you can replace
the bathroom vanity. Now, if you've got a big primary bathroom,
probably not in that room, but maybe if you have
like the half bath downstairs with just the one sink
and a relatively small cabinet, you know that you may
(15:00):
be able to replace. And it is something that you know,
you can do it yourself in a in a weekend,
and there's lots of videos out there that will help
you do that. Something else that you could do is
you could potentially again on the outside of the house.
Uh maybe you could strength some lights or add a
fire pit or some type of a gas fire, you know,
fire pit out there. These are always great for you know,
(15:24):
you to enjoy while you're living there, but it also
sets the stage for outdoor entertaining and if you are
going to be selling your house anytime in the near future,
outdoor living space is one of the things that buyers
are really interested in seeing. What you can do for
a thousand bucks is going to vary depending on the
size and scope of your home. But you know, potentially
you update some cushions on the furniture to give it
(15:46):
a fresh clean look. Maybe you add you know, a
string of the Edison bulb or some other type of
lights out there. Just little things like that, are adding
the fire pit, little things that you can do to
set the stage of Oh, from a buyer perspective, I
can see myself entertaining out here, and of course if
you're not moving, you know, you get to enjoy that.
Revamping your entryway now, this could be both interior or exterior,
(16:10):
depending again on how big your porches, you know, or
how big your entwayway is into your home. But adding
something just like a stylish bench, you know, maybe you
add a new thing of you know, coat hooks for
people to you know, hang the coats, or he has
the little cubbies to put shoes or mittens and things
like that. If you don't have a mirror, you have
a mirror that's a little dated. When somebody enters the home,
(16:31):
you know, refreshing that again, depending on your home is
going to kind of dictate you know, what you can
do for the thousand dollars price point a new rug
both a man on the outside of the door or
you know, a rug once you get inside, you know,
to freshen up that space, because whether you're staying or going,
everybody pretty much enters your home through the front door.
(16:52):
So whether you're welcoming guests and you know, knock on wood.
Before you know it, it's going to be the holiday
season or the time of the year where we have
a little bit opportunity for guests to come over to
you know, watch football games with you. You've got Trick or
Trey coming, We've got Thanksgiving and other holidays coming, and
you know, even inviting guests into your own home, you know,
a new bench, a new rug, a new mirror, you know,
(17:13):
some new potential things you know, as they're ending or
entering your home certainly can make it look warm and inviting,
and even more so if you're going to be looking
to sell. The pro tip is, you know you want
to kind of choose upgrades that blend function with visual appeal.
And so like when we're talking the front entry way.
You know, if this is an entryway where you've got
(17:34):
people coming and going and you know you'd like them
to remove their shoes when you're come to the house,
having a bench there is functional. It gives them a
place to sit so they're not holding their hand up
against the wall and putting fingerprints on your freshly painted wall.
So that's you know, kind of blending you know, function
with visual appeal. And you can do that in a variety,
you know, of different ways. And I think it's always
(17:54):
fun to kind of walk around your house and you know,
kind of envision it through. What would I do if
I were trying to change the look of this appeal
to buyer? What would be some things that I would do?
Because I can almost guarantee you the things that you
would do to appeal to buyers you're going to enjoy
if you're staying there, living living there as well. So
all right, one last thing and kind of we've talked
(18:16):
about this a little bit on the way through. If
you're selling, you want to stick with updates that have
broad appeal. This is where you're thinking things like anything
that makes the home show clean and fresh, fresh paint,
you know, all the kind of same light, light bulbs
throughout the whole house, clean line, strong curb appeal. So
front porch, you know, is clean and swept, and maybe
(18:37):
some new plants or you you know, if you've got
a plant that's you know, kind of half dying and
unfortunately I'm going to have what I'm taking back to
a nursery this year, bought a new one by our
front porch. They had that kind of two green arbor vities.
One was healthy, one did not make it well through
the winter. We replaced it, and now it's not doing
so well. You know, something like that good curb appeal.
(18:58):
Take a look at that if you or if you're
going to be selling in the near future, and kind
of focus your time, money and effort there. If you're staying,
this is I think where you can have more fun
and you can bring your personality in, you know, if
you like to play with color, if you like you know,
maybe bolder patterns. If there's a feature or something you've
always wanted to have in a house, you know, enjoy it,
(19:19):
do it and make the house your own. Now. The
other thing that it's always a caveat here is you
want to keep your neighborhood, in your overall home value
in mind, because what you don't necessarily want to do
is save, save, save, and save it. I'm going to
use an over exaggeration here. You don't want to spend
let's say fifty thousand dollars to do a whole bathroom
(19:41):
renovation if the homes in your neighborhood and your home
you know it roughly has a two hundred thousand dollars
you know price point, you're not going to get the
return on that, and you know investment, So you do
want to keep in mind, you know the value of
your home, the value of homes in your neighborhood. Where
does it make sense to spend and how much does
it make sense to spend? And again, especially if you're
(20:03):
looking to sell in the near future, talk to a
local agent. They will be able to give you good
advice on where and how your money is best spent.
All right, so you've got it there. I think we've
talked about home improvements that can make a difference at
one hundred dollars, at five hundred dollars, or at one
thousand dollars, And hopefully this got you thinking that even
(20:25):
with a small budget, you know, there are things that
you can do to make your home look fresh, you know,
look clean, look neat, and give it a different feel.
Whether you're going to be the one to enjoy it
for years to come or you're preparing you know, it
to sell, there are things that you can do, and
if you kind of you know, space out your saving
a little bit, you know, maybe you can start to do,
(20:47):
whether it's one hundred dollars or five hundred dollars a
quarter or a couple of times a year, kind of
put your wish list together, walk around your house, make
some mental notes of things that you'd like to upgrade.
And then as you have money in that rainy day fund,
if you will, you can start to pull the trigger
on little things to make your home, you know, get
a little bit of a refresh. And you know, I
(21:07):
think anybody who's owned a home knows you start with
one project and it's almost a guarantee that you're going
to catch the bug. And one thing tends to always
lead to another, so hopefully you can enjoy that. Thanks
to all of our listeners for joining me today. We
certainly look forward to chatting with you again, and until then,
I hope you have a great time upgrading your home.
(21:29):
We look forward to chatting with you again soon. We
hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe, write
a review, or rate the show, as it helps us
reach more people. You can also follow us on Facebook
and Instagram.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.