Working Smarter, Not Harder

Your home is an investment. If you don’t respect that reality, you’re not going to see it mature as it could. There are a number of things to consider in this regard. You want to consider where and when you buy, and the neighborhood you buy into. From there you want to consider the history of the property, and its level of integrity.

Sometimes a fixer-upper is an opportunity to do a turn-around and see a profit; sometimes not. Additionally considerable is the duration of your stay at a given property. Will it be your home perpetually, or will it be a means to an end?

Regardless, following are three strategies to help you ensure your home remains in a state of improvement both internally and externally.

Interior Maintenance

Water will be a sneaky enemy, eroding tile and wood beneath the kitchen sink with wanton abandon. You’re going to get infestations occasionally, you’ll have to change the rugs or switch them out for hardwood flooring,you will need to replace light bulbs, to fix or upgrade appliances, and apply paint/wallpaper as necessary.

Sometimes there will be rooms unfinished—basements are notorious for this. Your first job will be to figure out what needs fixed, and get everything up-to-muster, as it was. From there, establish regular cleaning routines at intervals.

It’s good to clean up after yourself every day, but if you’ve got kids, that’s not going to be enough. Establish a weekend chore day perhaps, and line out duties for household members. Have everybody complete chores till noon, or something.

Once you have ongoing interior maintenance lined out, establish a once, twice, or thrice annual professional deep clean. You can do this yourself, but outsourcing may produce better results. A professional janitorial company can be ideal at intervals.

Exterior Maintenance And Refurbishment

The exterior may need a lick of paint every now and again, you’re going to have to replace tiles as well as windows, electric garages will go on the fritz, sometimes you’re going to have to replace the driveway due to pavement cracking from root systems of neighboring trees—the list goes on.

As integral as interior maintenance is external maintenance; but perhaps not at such regular intervals. Still, you want to fix things up, and add little things all the time. Beatify the premises with permanent aesthetic upgrades, and value will increase. Some simple outdoor gas lanterns can be stylish and give your property a higher listing price—plus you might just enjoy the aura they bring.

Upgrading With The Times

Homes are getting “smart” now. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is coming to make many functions—some of them even maintenance related—controllable with the swipe of your finger on your smartphone.

Doors can be locked, security cameras monitored and manipulated, refrigerators consulted and augmented in terms of coldness, HVAC monitored and manipulated, lights turned on and off—basically, anything with an electric component can be optimized for IoT integration.

Upgrade sequentially as you can afford it, and your home will remain on the cutting edge, and accordingly valuable. It might also make sense to take some green steps, like adding solar panels or something similar.

Value-Rich Premises

If you’re careful to maintain your home from the inside and out, and upgrade with the times, it’s likely to retain value. You may even incrementally increase it as you incorporate manageable additions.

Trees, landscaping, solar panels, aesthetic exterior accoutrements, IoT optimization, and more are all worth considering. Remember: your property is an investment of one kind or another. Respect that, and you can make that investment grow.