Interesting article?

[IGot2P]

Bankrate.com has a somewhat interesting article at

concerning the 7 worse home fixes (the least payback). Their prices for doing the improvement seem somewhat overstated to me but maybe somewhere it would cost that much if totally hired out.

Don

[gfretwell]

I agree. The prices must be for California or New York and totally hands off contracting.

In Florida, I was able to add a 400 sf addition, concrete block with hurricane impact windows and a 6 panel corner slider for $25k. The windows and doors were about half of that. That was me doing all of the permitting, the electrical and subbing out the rest to the trades. (Concrete, masonry, roof framing and roofer)

[EXT]

Payback is often not necessary. If one does something to the house for their own use and enjoys it, why would you expect to get full payback for it. If you did something to a house, and many years pass by, the normal increase in value of the house will cover the cost and may add value over other houses. If the economy tanks, as it has in the past few years, how can anyone expect payback for anything, so why worry about it.

Also how do these people calculate costs and payback where values of houses are all over the place by region, even by locality. I would say these are guesstimates at best and cannot be believed.