Don’t let the dim economic news darken your door. When it comes to remodeling your home, you can pinch pennies and still add value to your property. Choose wisely, and those inexpensive changes you make today won’t affect selling your house tomorrow, say real estate agents based in Portland, OR.

Even if you are not selling your home this year, any project — from paint to countertop — should be tackled with an eye on resale value, says Glenn Matz, principal broker with Re/Max Equity Group. He — and the other realtors we spoke with — recommended hiring a color consultant or interior designer before doing anything else.

“If you’re planning on moving in two or three years, you don’t want to put in purple countertops, even if you like them. You really need to consider the next buyer. If you get a pro to come in and help you pick smart colors, you’ll save yourself time and money later,” Matz says. His advice goes double if you are painting the exterior. “They’ll be able to create color contrasts that work, rather than what you think is right.”

Sound expensive? Not really. Generally a color consultation costs a few hundred dollars compared to the thousands spent on any major remodeling project.

Where to begin?
“Get into the mindset that if you were going to sell your house tomorrow, what would you need to do today?” Matz asks. “Walk around the house and look at it with a fine tooth comb. Ask yourself, ‘What will the buyer see? What are we self-conscious about?’ Even if you are not selling, take out the inspection report that was supplied by your appraiser to remind yourself of the things you needed to take care of, before you started living with them.”

Consider the Basics
Make the home look like a model home, suggests Justin Mewhinney, a broker with Re/Max Equity Group. And he doesn’t mean go for the sterile, un-lived-in look. New curtain hardware, updated light fixtures, and steam-cleaned carpets all go toward having a fresh-looking home that is a pleasure to live in no matter when you sell.

Other ideas: Replace bath flooring, install a new laminate countertop in the kitchen or bath, refinish or replace cabinets, and replace — or at least match — all the doorknobs throughout the house to one style.

Eliminate food and pet odors — those have a way of impregnating the cleanest home. It’s easy to deodorize a house; harder to know if you need it done. Have someone who doesn’t live with you give your house the “sniff test,” Mewhinney says.

Risa Davis, principal broker of Nouveau Realty Group, recommends making changes that are true to the era that the house was built. Visit the Architectural Heritage Center, or take any of the classes they offer. “Do some research first and figure out what you have before you start changing things,” she urges.

Her suggestions: Make sure all the molding matches throughout the home. If you don’t know what the original molding looked like, check the closet. Same goes for the floor: Check under the heat register and you’ll see what lies beneath layers of carpet, pad, or vinyl. If possible, replace hollow core doors with solid wood paneled ones.

Curb Charm
People might not judge a book by its cover — but they certainly choose a house based on its exterior, Mewhinney says. Recent study claims 71% of homes are bought on curb appeal alone, making exterior maintenance a necessity. Even if you’re not selling your home today, regular upkeep keeps the house primed for a quick sale when (and if) the time comes. “Trim the hedge. Keep the grass green as long as possible — fertilize during fall months. Pull the weeds, put fresh bark chips in the flowerbed. Fix the fence and re-stain the deck. People want to see themselves relaxing on the front porch, not having a lot of work to do,” he says.

Matz offers similar advice: “In older homes, you want to paint the windows, the areas that get the most weather.” Check and repaint the siding, especially at the base of the house. Repainting the porch and patio are common projects, so is repainting the concrete porch floor or foundation if you own an older home.

And, despite the current economic conditions, it doesn’t hurt to think ahead. Planning home improvement projects on a quarterly basis keeps your home a top priority, Matz explains. Those incremental steps are what ultimately add value. “Even if it’s just painting the front door, or whole rooms, or just the trim. If you paint something every quarter, that freshens the house up and [keeps you] focused on the pride of ownership.”

For those have-to-do projects that are big-ticket items, start planning now. Think about those projects in terms of this summer, he adds, so you can start saving money now.

Contributors:
Risa Davis, Principal Broker
Nouveau Realty Group
www.nouveaurealtygroup.com

Glenn Matz, PC
RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc.
www.GlennMatz.com

Justin Mewhinney, Broker
RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc.
www.justin-homes.com