Recently, an article on the AL.com, a website for Alabama’s major newspapers, stated that “A new front door can bring a 130 percent return on investment,” citing a recent survey completed by Remodeling Magazine that analyzed value returns on home improvement projects.
In today’s tight-budget recession climate, this huge return on an often-overlooked home improvement project can have relatively large implications. Remodelers on a budget tend to gravitate towards the projects that they believe will give them the highest return on investment, such as roof replacement, or repainting siding. Because remodelers are more budget conscious, they may eschew more luxury improvements in favor of their “budget conscious” counterparts, choosing to replace worn cabinet fronts instead of retiling an entire house in slate.
Homeowners do tend to choose projects with more “curb appeal,” says the article from AL.com. Curb appeal, or the first impression of house as it appears from the street, can be a huge influencing factor on getting potential buyers to even tour a property. Danny Lipford, from Lipford Remodeling in Mobile, AL, says that “projects with curb appeal grabbed the highest return in the survey,” and replacing a front door is among the lower cost options for fixing up a home’s curb appeal!
So what are you to do when you have a budget-conscious remodeling prospect? One thing you can do is to present your overall design in phases. That is, make a time line for specific parts of the remodel to be ordered and installed. For example if you get a couple who want to remodel their kitchen and they come to you with a tight budget, encourage them to focus on one upgrade at a time rather than try to skate by with lower quality cabinets and fixtures. That way they can eventually have the kitchen they really want while you get to retain their business – one project at a time.
Have you experienced this trend in remodeling jobs? How has your business changed from the new consumer attitude toward home remodeling? Comment on this post to share your story. Looking for more sales training?
Source article: Al.com
