Are you investing too much into home improvements? You bet you are if your projects "over-improve" your house for your neighborhood.

As your personal real estate professionals, we can tell you exactly when a remodeling project is an "improvement" and when it doesn't pay. We see the bottom line at resale. (Especially when a huge equity loan drains dollars from our clients' net proceeds needlessly!)

The FIRST secret to evaluating whether a remodel pays is to do an analysis of the property in comparison to the houses nearby. Will the cost (and aggravation) of the project be returned at resale? After all, an investment that returns 90% is still a loss of 10%.

The SECOND secret is to see if there is an easier way to achieve the same goal. Sometimes getting the features you want is less costly and easier if you sell and move into an entirely new house.