AIPIS 36 - Improving Your Home with House Smarts TV host Lou Manfredini

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Welcome to the AIPIS show for accredited income property investment specialist and those who desire to be. This is your host, Jason Hartman where we talk about increasing your income, your productivity and just generally having a better life while serving your clients better with America's most historically proven asset class income property. We have a great interview for you today and we will be back with that in less than 60 seconds.

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Hey, it's my pleasure to welcome Lou Manfredini to the show. He is the host of House Smarts TV and Mr. Fix It. Lou, welcome. How are you doing?

Very well. Thank you so much for having me.

Good, good. And I like to always ask my guest, where are you located?

Today I am located in Chicago, Illinois.

Fantastic. Chicago, the Windy City. Well, good. Hey, tell us a little bit about some of the ways that homeowners and investors can make smart improvements to their properties to realize good return on investment.

You know, that is a very common question and it's interesting to me that over the years, there were always these articles and stories about what was the biggest bang for your buck. You know, it was like, you do a kitchen, you do a bath, kitchen and a bath.

Yeah, right.

You're going to get 90% of your investment back. You're going to do this and that. And then when the economy kind of took a dip in 0, 5, 6, 7 and even part of 08, those numbers kind of went down. And I used to get asked this question, well, you know, we heard these numbers went down. And I said, you know what? I think the numbers were always wrong. Because as someone that's built and renovated a lot of homes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And so what you may or may not do to those bathrooms or kitchens or living rooms or family rooms may not have the same value to a potential buyer as you think it does. And so I've always been a proponent of doing what makes sense for you and keeping things as updated as possible with not the eye of like, best bang for your buck. Now, it's true, Jason, that certainly an updated kitchen and an updated bathroom is going to be beneficial to you when you come and sell. And that still is absolutely true. But I don't want anybody to go in there to say, wow, if I spend $10,000 on this bathroom, I'm going to get 90% out of it. That's not how you should look at it. You should say, if I'm going to update this bathroom, the rest of the houses that are in my neighborhood, are those bathrooms updated as well? How does that me against the other houses? And so really, when you're doing and choosing any kind of projects around your home, it should be your divining rod. Should be, am I keeping up with the Joneses? Because that's what you're going to be compared to.

Yeah, yeah, no question about it. So kitchens and bathrooms are the most expensive parts of a home. So again, everybody loves a brand new updated kitchen and bath. But again, it's a question of return on investment, right?

Well, it is, and those are still there. But you know what else returns great on your investment? A new furnace, a new boiler, a new water heater that helps return on your investment. A new roof on top of the house, updated landscaping, a nice looking patio, nice looking deck. All of those things get brought into the equation. And so in other words, if you have a lot, you know, if you have a lousy looking deck, but you have a great looking kitchen, that deck is going to drag you down. And so you really have to look at the overall house and kind of take it, you know, different stops along the way so you can improve it, you know, whatever your budget can afford the right way and kind of make the whole house look good so it's presentable. But then along the way, Jason, it's important to enjoy your house.

Yeah, of course. Well, let's talk about the exterior for a moment if we can. You talk about just selecting the right kind of mulch. Mulch and how that can make a difference. Tell us about that.

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, certainly curb appeal and landscaping is very important, especially this time of year. There's a lot of choices when it comes to mulch. You know, there's a lot of municipalities that offer mulch for free. You know, when they chop down trees or, you know, maybe trees that were sick or whatever, they grind them up and they put them in a corner and they say, residents, come and get it. And then look, if that. If you can afford free, that's great. But that mulch looks terrible to me. It just doesn't look good. And so you want a nice cedar mulch. There's different colors that are available. It's a really good way to kind of update the landscaping. It also serves a function in the fact that it helps to keep the soil moist and helps the plants to retain that moisture to keep them vibrant and healthy. There's even an opportunity now to buy something called rubber mulch, which is recycled tractor tires that has a color that's added to it that goes all the way through the rubber and it won't decay and it won't break down. Now, it's considerably more expensive than cedar mulch, but it looks just like cedar mulch and it lasts so much longer. And it's actually a terrific choice if you have a play set in the backyard for a child to play on, because it's rubber, it has that give to it.

Yeah, fantastic. So what else can people do in terms of curb appeal when a tenant comes up to a home that they're thinking of renting or a buyer comes up and they're thinking of buying it, they pull up, they see the property from the curb. Give us some, just any tips you have there on just simple low cost, high return, curb appeal ideas in addition to what you mentioned?

Yeah, the very first thing you're going to do is clean the front of that house really well. And a pressure washer goes a long way to kind of clean that area up. And then you want to take a good look at that house from across the Street. Is the paint peeling around the door? Is there a place to add some flowers and flower boxes perhaps, or some planters in the front? What's the condition of the walkway? And then that front door is really kind of a critical thing because that's the first thing that people are going to touch when they walk into your home. So what's the door hardware like? Is it solid? Does it feel good? What about the paint on the door? If you're going to try and improve that curb appeal, I'm a big proponent of painting that front door a color, anything but white, Whether it's a green or a blue, it's such an easy project. You get some sanding sponges and you kind of sand sound that door. So you get it nice and smooth, whether it's metal or fiberglass, whatever it may be. Then you get some primer, prime it up, and then you paint it. But keep in mind, especially if this is something you're going to do yourself, I'm a big proponent of keeping people safe. Right. So make sure you're wearing eye protection, like the 3M tech safety glasses and a respirator, a mask, because you don't want to get any of that inside your lungs. And it's real easy, comfortable. They got this cool flow valve on the front so it doesn't fog up your glasses when you're doing this work. A nice coat of colored paint on that front door, some flowers, clean it up, and it's going to just be a much more inviting atmosphere when people walk up to that home.

Yeah, fantastic. And what about paint choices for the entire exterior of the home? You know, you mentioned the front door, and certainly I think that many front doors painted red have sold homes, you know.

Yeah.

Because it just adds some nice character to it.

Yeah, Paint colors. You know, the thing is, with paint, it's a very personal choice. And so the key there is to find colors that blend. A lot of the paint manufacturers now have done a very good job of understanding that most people cannot visualize color look, as many colors as there are available at the paint stores and the hardware stores and home centers. The fact is that 50% of all paint that's sold in the US is still white, and 20% on top of that is a version of white. And so people are still scared of color. But now you can go and look at these color palettes that most of these paint stores, as I said, hardware stores, home centers have, where they put the colors together and they show people that look. You can paint the house siding this Color and the trim this color and the door this color. And it all goes together. And so it's very easy for the homeowner to visualize and say, all right, I'm taking that. And it takes a little bit of the fear out of trying those colors away because it's sort of been put together for it.

Sure, sure. Yeah. Some of the technology that really aids in design and things like that has been fantastic. Well, what other advice or tips would you like to mention to people just to improve the value of their property and get maximum return?

As I mentioned, the number one thing when it comes to maximizing that return is looking to see what your neighbors are doing. Because remember that you're not competing when it comes to the value of your house, whether you're staying in it or you're going to sell it. If you live in Newport News, Virginia, and you live in a certain neighborhood right there, you're competing with that neighborhood. You're not competing with Chicago, Illinois, you're not competing with Orlando, Florida, you're not competing with Denver, Colorado. So what are the people in your neighborhood doing? Do you live in a 3 bedroom home with one bath? Have the rest of your neighbors added another bathroom? So now it's a three bedroom with two baths or two and a half baths. At some point you're going to have to sell that home or use that home and put it against the other houses there. And if they have more amenities and more features, your house is going to be worth less. But what I caution people when it comes to improving their home is don't just do it because you're getting ready to sell. Oh, you know, I've got to update this bathroom because I'm going to put the house on the market. Well, that's crazy talk because remember I said earlier that the value numbers are kind of skewed now. If you spend $15,000 on a bathroom, you are not going to get $15,000 more for your house. You may get the same money out of it. But my argument would be you still got to put up with all the headache and mess that goes into it. If you're putting the house on the market and your bathroom is a mess, then just discount the price and don't deal with it because you're just trading dollars and you have to be mindful of that. Certainly we talked about curb appeal. That's something that you have to do when it comes to selling. You certainly have to declutter the home when you're going to sell. That's very important. Things like carpeting and flooring, those things need to be in good shape. If you've got some ratty old carpeting, well, that has to be replaced. And because when somebody comes into your home and looks at that, the first thing you're going to see is that and they're going to walk right away. And so paint is a great way to add value. Updated flooring, even painting the kitchen cabinets or updating the appliances, these are things that you can do in phases so you don't have to spend all the money at once. That can really make a difference. And again, keeping up with the Joneses is an important factor when it comes to making sure your house is as is worth as much as it possibly can be.

Fantastic. And give out your websites, Lou, and tell people where they can learn more about your shows.

Put together a bunch of tips and information@3m tech.com. so that's the number 3m t e k k.com Fantastic.

Well, Lou, thanks so much for joining us today. And thanks for the tips. And keep teaching people how to fix it up, right?

Absolutely. Take.

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