Build Your Square Footage and Curb Appeal with a New Deck

by Joe Cooper

Outdoor spaces can be just as important as indoor spaces to your home. Building a new deck can increase your home's livable space as well as its appeal to buyers in a slower real estate market.

Making a Noticeable Improvement
Some real estate experts suggest "sprucing up" the outside of your home first, increasing its curb appeal and making your investment noticeable. New exterior paint, landscaping, and adding or remodeling a deck are among these types of improvements.

Building a new deck onto your home can add a great feature to your property and increase your family's square footage. A deck is an outdoor room that can be used for sitting, dining, entertaining, and more. If your lot has the space, a deck can add functionality, enjoyment, and value to your home.

Increasing Your Home's Usable Square Footage
One of the best characteristics about a new deck is more square footage. Remodeling a basement, attic, or garage simply transforms existing square footage into a different use. Building a new deck creates more square footage from scratch, adding to the size, and certainly the functionality, of your home.

Other realtors suggest avoiding all types of remodels altogether unless they perform this task. Increasing your square footage makes your home more marketable from a "specs" point of view, as well as more visually and emotionally appealing to buyers in today's market.

Adding More than Just Value with a New Deck
Most realtors agree that it is difficult to recoup 100 percent of the cost of any home improvement. That's why building a new deck is a safe bet in the current housing market. By increasing your square footage and your curb appeal, your new deck project can be a success even if the return on investment is less than 100 percent.

Don't forget to put that extra square footage to good use, too; patio furniture, planters, and lighting can make your new deck go the extra mile, increasing your family's enjoyment of the new space as well as buyers' responses when they tour your home.

Source:
Community Advocate
Market Watch
SMH.com

About the Author
Joe Cooper writes home services and design articles and manages corporate communications. He holds a bachelor?s in American Literature from UCLA.