DESIGNPOINT
FIREPLACES
Heart of the Home FIRE UP YOUR FLIP BY UPDATING THIS FOCAL POINT
by Michele Van der Veen
enovating homes for a living is of course a numbers game. Buy low, have a reasonable
R
Fireplace 1 After
renovation budget to work with, and hope to turn a profit in the end. The buying and selling are reasonably simple. It’s the in between part that can get tricky for investors! What, where, and how do we invest in a renovation project often becomes the deciding factor in the outcome of the overall investment. But also, paying attention to WHEN (what season) your renovation will sell can often help you decide what part of the house to invest money in. With winter approaching, fireplaces always make it on my renovation budget list! A great makeover for the fireplace goes a long way with helping to sell a house during those cold winter months! What if the house doesn’t have a fireplace? Then I add one! Taking a house from cold to cozy can easily outweigh the cost and time it takes to add a fireplace to your renovation. I have found that even here in California, buyers during the winter months will not even go see a house if it has no fireplace. Because fireplaces are the focal point of a living room, family room or great room it can often affect a buyer’s first impression of a home. More than likely these rooms are often the first rooms the buyers will step into when
Fireplace 1 Before
they view a home. So, a great looking fireplace will help to immediately give buyers a sense of warmth, comfort, and coziness, which everyone wants to feel in their home. Starting with designing the fireplace first can often help lead you to your overall renovation design for the whole house. Today, the different products available for fireplace makeovers are endless! It may be that we are still using a lot of brick, stone, and wood as in the past. But the selection and the creativity in design that has come
70 | think realty magazine :: november 2021
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter