Courtesy of guest blogger Jamie Woodend

"I love home renovation and home flipping shows. It's fun to watch 'Joe and Mary Homeowner' with limited skills transform their homes into works of art that should grace the pages of Home & Garden magazine. The home flipping shows where they turn a dump into a vast fortune pocketing 10's of thousand of dollars on a simple flip.

Unfortunately in the real world these shows sometimes do more harm than good. The general public gets the impression that if they spend $10,000 on a renovation their house is now worth $20,000 more. In fact very few renovations return a dollar for a dollar on your investment. Some return nothing.

I'll give you two examples. A new roof and a new kitchen. You spend $5,000 on a new roof does your home value increase by the same amount? Not likely as people expect a home to have a good roof. A poor roof certainly removes value but a good roof doesn't give you a monetary return, but it does make your house more competitives on the market.

A new kitchen on the other hand, will usually return close to 100% with a couple conditions. The workman ship must be good using quality products. Going to the lumber yard and picking out a cheap pressboard kitchen cabinets may not return your investment, but a nice mid-grade likely will. Buyers aren't fooled by cheap shaudy work.

As for flipping, it is not for the faint of heart. It is tremdous amount of hard work. It is far easier to lose money than to make money. Remember the shows you see on TV have a special feature you don't have - the delete button.

Jamie Woodend
Sales Representative
Remax a-b Realty Ltd Brokerage
88 Wellington Street
Stratford, Ontario, N5A 2L2
519-273-2821 ext 229 Office
519-949-0345 Cell"