I Stopped Decorating for Future Buyers and Started Designing for Myself

5 hours ago 2

Want Your Business Featured Here?

Get instant exposure to our readers

It doesn’t matter if you’re in your forever home, looking to sell soon, or somewhere in between, all homeowners hope any changes they make to their home bring some positive return-on-investment. That’s both monetarily and in how much you enjoy living there.

For many new homeowners, myself included, that fear of making the most logical financial decision can lead to serious project paralysis.

That meant safer, more neutral designs instead of what I actually liked or what our family needed. Also, constantly wondering whether every decision would hurt the home’s resale value.

At some point, I finally realized that I wasn’t designing my home for myself or our family but for someone who didn’t even live there yet. If this sounds familiar, here are some reasons to stop designing your home around a hypothetical future buyer.

I’m the One Who Has to Live Here

This is the biggest thing I had to remind myself: I’m the one actually living in this house right now, not an imaginary buyer years from now.

If that means choosing a bold paint color, building something custom or arranging a room in a way that makes more sense for us, I’m much more willing to do it now. Especially if it’s something that can be easily updated come resale time as many of the choices homeowners agonize over are cosmetic.

Paint, wallpaper, light fixtures, and plenty of other finishes can be changed relatively easily. A future owner isn’t permanently stuck with every decision I make. Besides, assuming what a future buyer will want isn’t an exact science, and is mostly a guessing game.

A lot more than just your design choices goes into the value of your home, anyway. The Federal Housing Finance Agency says the actual value of a house depends on factors including the local real estate market, its condition and age, and the improvements made or still needed.

Being in a good school district, near parks, playgrounds, and other family-friendly amenities, I can assume another young family will probably move in here next. But I don’t know their style or what they’ll care about most. Even “safe” choices aren’t guaranteed to stay desirable as trends change.

Think carefully about changes that could permanently reduce a home’s value, like removing a useful feature or that would cost a significant amount of money to undo.

Of course, some home improvements have stronger evidence behind their value than others. Expensive projects like pools, upscale kitchen remodels, and primary suite additions can return significantly less than they cost. While things like garage door replacements, steel entry doors, and minor kitchen remodels can break even on their return or even recoup more than their original cost.

The U.S. Department of Energy says studies have found ENERGY STAR-certified homes selling for premiums in many markets.

Finding Compromise In My Home Projects

Ultimately, I’d rather enjoy my house while I actually own it. Homes are meant to be lived in, and I don’t want mine to feel like it’s permanently staged. So I’ll live with a home that has a little clutter and imperfections. I’d rather that than a home that looks sterile.

I’d rather spend my time in my home surrounded by things that make the house feel like ours, because we can’t buy back the years we spend living there.

When it eventually comes time to sell, maybe a room will need fresh paint, a bold fixture will need replacing or a particularly personal choice will need toning down. Or maybe I’ll leave them up and see if the next buyer fancies them too? Who knows.

Obviously, I still consider future resale with any projects I do. Having lived in four houses in the last seven years, my current home is just the next one in a line of houses I live in before moving on to the next project. But what someone else might think will always just be a small piece of the equation, not the whole thing.