May 30, 2017

When considering a metal roof, homeowners often ask if the investment can increase home value. Building materials are always evolving and improving. There are points where, if you do not upgrade your home, it will become very unattractive to a potential buyer.

As an example, a home with a recently remodeled kitchen that does not have upgraded countertops and fixtures today will not be of much interest to potential home buyers. If someone who is buying a home is looking at two homes and one has a nice kitchen with granite countertops and the other has a new kitchen but Formica countertops, you can well imagine which one will be of more interest to the prospective buyer.

There are other “replacement products” in a home where the situation is similar – think of appliances, bathrooms, windows, siding, and etc.

A Roofing Upgrade to Increase Home Value?

Metal roofing has increased market share considerably in recent years – from about 2% of the residential market 12 years ago to nearly 10% now. With that continued growth, it will increasingly be “expected” by potential buyers that a nice home will have a nice roof.

A new standard grade asphalt shingle roof will restore some “lost value” to a home when it is first installed. However, that is not a lasting increase in home value but rather a restoration of value that was lost because the old roof looked old and in need of replacement. Unfortunately, though, that new asphalt shingle roof will look old and in need of replacement in just a few years and that restored value will once again be lost. This puts a home’s value on a sort of roller coaster of a few years of restored value followed by several years where the aged looking roof is detracting from the home’s value and attractiveness to potential buyers.

A metal roof, on the other hand, not only restores value today but adds value and then retains that value for the long term as the roof maintains a fresh, new look and does not become a detraction from the home’s beauty and value as it ages. It seems that everyone who is ever buying a home suddenly is a roofing expert and, if they can look up at the roof and cite its aged look as something that will be a future replacement expense in order to justify a drop in the home’s price, they will do so. However, if the roof always looks new, they can’t do that.

With the evolution of roofing materials, chances are a metal roof is in their home’s future at some point. It makes sense to invest in it now (the cost will never be lower) and enjoy the metal roof’s beauty, energy efficiency, and freedom from maintenance worries for a longer period of time.

A word of caution: home value is only of real importance when you want to sell your home. If that’s not in your immediate future, a metal roof can make your home more attractive, enjoyable, maintenance-free, and energy efficienct…and there’s great value in that.

In the “buyers market” world of real estate which has been the norm in most areas for many years now, having a roof that really stands out from the roofs on others homes that are for sale will make your home more desirable to potential buyers. At the end of the day, to sell your home, you need a buyer who wants it. Upgrades to a home will dramatically increase the interest in a home.

Home improvement industry researchers estimate that a quality roof will immediately add close to 70% of its cost to the home’s value. 

Read on to learn more about increasing the value of your home, and quality metal roofing systems from MiddleSouth Systems of New Orleans.