Location. Location. Location.

We have all heard that in business, location is one of the key ingredients to success. This is the same for homeowners when selling their property.

Having a good location can make a $30,000 or more difference in buying or selling a house. While the location of a house is a key ingredient to the value, there are also other ways to increase the value of a home.

One thing to take into consideration before making some very costly improvements on a house is to make sure that the improvements don’t increase the value of the house beyond the other houses in the neighborhood.

For instance, adding a pool to property in a neighborhood with relatively low-cost housing, might make it virtually impossible to sell.

Another example of what not to do is adding a luxury bathroom that might cost $100,000. While extremely lovely, this bathroom will not help in selling the house when the other homes in the neighborhood are in the $80,000 range.

Basically, the best advice for increasing the value of a home is to start simple.

To begin take a good look at the setting of the property. The property should have ‘curb appeal.’ Curb appeal means the house looks neat, the lawn is mowed and there is no excess clutter on the property.

Here are a few tips to give the home curb appeal:

Keep the lawn edged, cut and watered regularly.

Trim hedges, weed lawns and flower beds and prune trees regularly.

Check the foundation, steps, walkways, walls and patios for cracks and crumbling.

During the spring and summer months consider adding a few showy annuals, perhaps in pots, near your front entrance.

Brian Dolan of Dolan’s Nursery, Landscaping and Spa advice is to definitely plant trees to increase the value of one’s property.

&uot;Trees help save energy. A good shade tree helps cut down on air conditioning use in the summer. A windbreak decreases heating bills during the winter months. A mature tree is worth more than a young one. Having property with mature tree growth will increase the value of the land,&uot; said Dolan.

Along with planting trees it helps to landscape the property. Landscaping helps expand the living area on a site. Adding a patio, water gardens and decks are selling points when upgrading property.

&uot;The return on one’s investment in having creative landscaping and planting trees can be as much as 130 -150 percent over the cost of the materials you put into the property,&uot; said Dolan.

If you are not sure what trees to plant Dolan says to seek advice from a nursery.

&uot;Popular eye-appealing trees are maples like the Rubrin maple tree. It has red leaves. Any maple tree is beautiful in the fall. As far as spring blooms, flowering crab trees and bushes such as rhododendron are gorgeous,&uot; said Dolan.

The old fashioned lilac bush with its perfumed flowers is still popular with homeowners and are hearty and easy to grow. A few other bushes that add value to property are yellow flowering pointentella, purple leaf sand cherry and Diablo wine bark.

&uot;The thing a homeowner needs to do when landscaping is to plan. Planning which plants to grow will go with the design of your property or complement the color of the roof of your house. You need to look at the space you have and how you want to use your space,&uot; said Dolan.

Expanding your outdoor living space can include installing an outdoor spa. Outdoor spas are popular with people who like the outdoors. A spa can be enclosed, but Dolan says many people like them open. The temperature in a spa is usually at 110 degrees and people can sit very comfortably in them even when it is pretty cold outdoors. The only thing about having a spa outdoors is that you want it to be protected from the wind and this goes back to growing a good windbreak.

Besides having nice landscaping, homeowners can also get help up scaling their homes indoors with carpeting and flooring. Earth tone carpets are the most popular according to Doug Murphy of Thoroughbred Carpets.

&uot;Homeowners stay fairly neutral with colors when putting down carpet. Ceramic tile is the most durable for homes. Good flooring should triple the investment of a home. What this means is whatever someone spent on material and installation will increase in value three times,&uot; said Murphy.

Besides ceramic flooring, Congoleum tile is very popular. It is strong flooring made from aluminum oxide and is a clay-based tile. It is lower cost then ceramic tile and there is less waste when laying it down.

&uot;Carpet can by laid in a day. Ceramic tile is done in stages. It takes approximately three days to lay a tile floor,&uot; said Murphy.

The two rooms in a home that cost the most to build and remodel are the bathroom and the kitchen. These are the two rooms in a house that get the most use. Cabinets, sinks, faucets, the bathtub and the flooring for these rooms increase the value. Kitchen appliances like the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher add to the increased value.

Comfort should be the foremost consideration. The homeowner should not be a slave to paying off costly home improvements. Struggling to pay of major remodeling jobs will make a home a prison.

Call Sheila Donnelly at 434-2233 or e-mail her at :mailto:newsroom@austindailyherald.com.