• Tweet

• Tweet

When it comes to using your nest egg or taking out a home equity line to improve the state of your property, you likely have to prioritize your projects. Most homeowners have a laundry list of upgrades they’d like to undertake, but considering they have only limited resources at their disposal, they must pick and choose the renovations they want to complete within a set budget. The only problem is that some remodeling projects cost more than others, and some show a greater return on investment. For the homeowner that doesn’t want to dump a lot of money into a property with no chance of getting it back upon resale, these are important considerations. If, for example, you shell out a lot of dough for a kitchen remodel, you’re likely to see a high percentage of that money come back to you at the time of your home sale. But if you were to spend the same money on, say, landscaping or an upgraded master bedroom, you probably wouldn’t get the same amount of return. What you might be more interested in, however, is whether or not green upgrades hold good investment potential.

In truth, there’s no concrete evidence readily available to support the value of green home upgrades, but logic dictates that they are a wise investment for several reasons. For one thing, you’d be hard pressed to find a prospective homeowner that’s going to complain about eco-friendly amenities. While some say that solar panels on the roof are unsightly, when properly installed they help to protect the roof. And of course they provide homeowners with a free and abundant source of energy, allowing them to live “off the grid” and save a ton of money on utility bills. That’s a bonus for the majority of homeowners. And while the thought of using gray water to hydrate your landscaping is maybe a little weird, it’s a lot cheaper than drawing fresh water for the task, saving homeowners on yet another monthly expense.

Beyond that, however, there is actually a growing market of buyers on the lookout for eco-friendly accommodations. This demographic of young adults is concerned about the ongoing state of the environment and what eco-friendly changes at the personal level could mean for the future of our planet and our species. They are therefor compelled to purchase goods that do less harm to the environment, and homes are no exception. As a result they may even be willing to spend more than average buyer in order to get the products they seek, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that they’re cutting their carbon footprint with every dollar spent.

So you can see that eco-friendly remodeling is unlikely to be a hindrance to your home sale, and it may even have the power to increase your chances of selling and raise your profits by appealing to a broader demographic of buyers. As an investor, you obviously want to earn as much as you can from the sale of your asset one day, and improvements of any stripe can up the ante. But as a concerned citizen, you can use your home renovations to find common ground with prospective buyers, and this personal connection to a home and to an environmental cause could just net you a bigger return on your investment.