US Trillions of Dollars In Debt. Is Now The Right Time To Renovate Your home/Re-design Your Kitchen?

Jan. 25, 2011 - PRLog -- If you're looking for a relatively safe place to invest some money these days, how about your home? This is especially a good time to do some renovations.  Of course it may not seem sensible to do so, since the housing market is still not growing. According to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), “Careful planning of your home improvement projects will enable you to update your home, increase the value of your investment and customize your living space ― all for a lot less than the cost of a new home”.

Billy Coen is a Kitchen Designer from New York City and has recently created a new website to help consumers with small kitchen design ideas.  In the coming months he plans to give trade secrets to greatly improve your home.  He has an Associate Degree in Civil Engineering, a City and Guilds Certificate in Construction from London and a Certificate from Queens College New York in Interior Design. He has 25 years experience in the construction field from hands on carpentry where he was a Union carpenter, painter, and estimator and today he is an experienced Kitchen Designer. http://www.designsmallkitchens.com

There are many ideas that will help sell your home in the future and some can be as simple as creating more storage space.  You could renovate a bathroom, kitchen or expand the front entryway to improve the home's flow. In other instances, a problem such as a dark room can be improved by replacing lighting fixtures rather than knocking out walls. Billy enjoys finding inexpensive ways of doing things including surveying a space and knowing how to re-create it.

There are many reasons to re-design or renovate your kitchen or home including low interest rates. If you apply for and take out a line of credit today, you can get rates in the 4 percent to 5 percent range.  Remember back in 2007, rates were around 8.25 percent..  So, compared to that, today's rates are great.  And with banks and money funds paying less than 1 percent, it’s not like you are going to miss out on income from interest.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has loans for home improvements. They are available through many banks and lending institutions. The FHA, however, requires the lender to approve the contractor.  

Contractors Are Discounting Prices

Although the construction industry rebounded in some areas somewhat last year, business is still slow. It is not long ago that when getting a contractor to call you back was a challenge. Often times they never showed up.  Now, the best professionals in town will happily bid on your job.  They'll probably offer you prices that are 10 percent to 20 percent below what you would have paid when real estate was booming.

Materials Prices Are Also Declining

Construction or building has virtually come to a stop.  The demand hasn't been there, meaning materials prices and the cost of building supplies have gone way down.  Construction supplies are bargains right now. Framing wood, plywood, kitchen cabinets and much more have gone down in price.   The Home Centers look like ghost town most days.

Fixing Up Is Less Costly Than Purchasing New

With the average home price down about 20 percent since 2006, you may be thinking to buy a new home since it might be cheaper now.  You can't assume that you'll easily sell your house in this tough market and then find a new home that has the exact features you want. The commissions and fees to sell a $450,000 home could run $20,000. You can get a lot of remodeling done for that kind of money. You have to remember the seller too can also pay up to $5-7,000 in closing costs on a new home.

Doing Small Projects Still Add Value To Your Home

Most real estate people say you should not have the most elaborate house on the block.  Don't just  remodel a 10 year old kitchen because you don't like its color or style, you may not earn back the money. But what will pay is replacing or upgrading a kitchen/bathroom from 1990 and earlier.  Here you will get most of the investment back, enjoy the space yourself and almost always sell the home faster.  This saves you money also usually as you are not paying 2 mortgages while waiting for your house to sell.

The kitchen is the most important area of the home and it is definitely the major selling point of the home.  If the design of the kitchen is poor and outdated it will turn away most buyers.  You see most new buyers want to move in and the thought of having to renovate a kitchen after months of house shopping is overwhelming to them.  If you are considering renovating your kitchen or home and found these ideas helpful you can visit  Billy’s website for more information and kitchen design ideas http://www.designsmallkitchens.com

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Billy Coen lives in NY City and has worked in the Construction/Design industry for 25 years. He has an Associate Degree in Civil Engineering, Interior Design Certificate , a union carpenter, painter and now designs small kitchens in New York.