Cheap Home Renovations That Pay Off

by Katie Adams

While housing values haven't rebounded to their pre-collapse peak, home remodeling has showed some modest gains according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI). While most of the increase in demand for remodeling is for major home additions and alterations (jobs worth $25,000 or more), there is still growing demand for minor changes.

Remodeling magazine's "2008-2009 Cost vs. Value Report" confirms that the home renovation projects that will add the most value to your home (meaning that you are most likely to recoup the highest percentage of the project cost when you go to sell your home) are pricey big-ticket items such as replacing siding with fiber-cement ($13,177 with 87% cost recouped) or vinyl ($12,528 with 80% cost recouped) and adding a wood deck ($10,601 with 82% cost recouped).
But if those home renovations are beyond your price point and you're looking at a budget of just $1,000 what should you invest in to get the most bang for your buck?

Priority #1 - The Kitchen

According to the National Association of Realtors, the kitchen is the single most important room for most prospective home buyers. If you don't have the funds to do a complete kitchen overhaul, don't despair. For just $1,000 you can make some significant changes that will have home buyers doing a double-take, such as:

Refacing or refinishing your cabinets. Refacing involves replacing your cabinet doors but leaving the actual cabinets (boxes) intact. Depending on the size of your kitchen you can get it done for about $1,000 professionally or if you're willing to undertake a little "DIY" work you can do it for less. It's a quick and much less expensive way of getting "new" cabinets without the big demolition work (and big pricetag) of brand new cabinets.

If you have wood cabinets you could refinish them instead by simply stripping the old paint or varnish and applying new. For just a couple hundred dollars (plus some elbow grease to sand and paint or stain) you'll get a whole new look.