Is it time to improve your home?

So you’ve been saving up for a big home improvement project and now it’s time to pull the trigger. Will you renovate your kitchen? Remodel your bathroom? Get that jacuzzi you’ve always wanted? These are all great ideas, but we’d like to present you with an alternative that is equally practical and just as much fun: Home additions.

Home additions offer homeowners a huge array of options for improving their living spaces that are limited only by their imaginations (and building codes). Let’s take a look at our top five reasons to consider a home addition for your next home improvement project.

1. Increase your living space

Home additions are an excellent way to expand the home you already own to match your needs as they come along. Has your work gone remote and your spouse is at their wits’ end with you using the bedroom as a makeshift office? Adding a study is a great way to set better boundaries in your home/work life balance. Has your family recently gained a new member or two? Before you put the house you know and love on the market and tighten your belts for a hefty down payment, an additional bedroom might be exactly the right fit for you!

2. Get more specialized space

We previously mentioned adding a home office, but a home addition can also be inspired by your passions! You can create a more personalized and specialized space within your home for whatever your hobby might be. An additional room built with acoustics in mind can become a recording studio or rehearsal space with some proper soundproofing. Throw in some monitors and comfy couches and chairs and you’ve got a home theater or gaming room. Amateur and professional photographers alike can reclaim their bathrooms and have their very own darkrooms for developing their snapshots. Home additions are a great way to further explore the things that make you happy in life.

3. Add value to your home

When you construct additional rooms to your home you are increasing your home’s value in a couple of interesting ways. First of all, a finished room will increase the overall square footage of your home, which looks great on listings. Based on the prevailing price-per-square-foot in your neighborhood, this square footage equates to solid additional home value. Additional rooms are also attractive to families who need the extra space just like you did when you had it built. Perhaps most compellingly, home additions can increase your home equity which will come in handy for taking out loans and securing credit. In this way, home additions are a solid investment in the property you already own!

4. It’s a cost effective alternative to moving

If you’ve got a growing family, a home addition is an economical alternative to moving homes. Moving is an inherently expensive and disruptive process. Not only do you have to hire a moving and cleaning crew, you also have to deal with listing your house and waiting for it to sell. Additionally, you might be abandoning a neighborhood and school system that you really like. A home addition might take a little bit longer to accomplish than a full move out, but in terms of daily life, it’s a cheaper and less disruptive option than completely pulling up roots and moving somewhere else.

If you are currently locked into a super-low mortgage rate from pre-2022, moving would be especially painful. It would mean starting over with a rate perhaps twice as high. You’re better to add square footage to the home you already have, and keep your low rate.

5. Diversify your income

If you’ve been looking for extra streams of income, adding a fully independent single bedroom apartment to your home is an excellent option to attract renters and will cost you far less than actually purchasing an investment property. If you live in a college town, graduate students are often excellent tenants as they are quiet and keep to themselves. Likewise, young professionals who are temporarily relocating to your area are likely interested in a single bedroom apartment until they find more permanent accommodations elsewhere. It’s a great investment that will pay for the addition itself!

If you’re interested in improving your home through home additions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to bring your vision to life, so feel free to ask us any questions you might have about home additions.