Change can be daunting, especially to those who are currently in their golden years. A recent national survey reports that 90 percent of American seniors wish to spend their retirement years in the comfort of their own homes and not in retirement facilities or senior living communities. However, those who are approaching their retirement years should start preparing their homes for their future selves. In this post, we outline some key considerations that you should keep in mind if you’re remodeling your home for retirement.
Make sure your home remains accessible
As we get older, we’ll eventually see developing changes in our mobility, flexibility, and endurance. The daily activities that we used to do with ease, such as reaching the top cupboards, climbing stairs, and even walking will eventually be more difficult for our aging selves. Because of this, a large part of your remodeling project should be focused on making your home more accessible for you as you age in place. This may entail overhauling your kitchen so your cupboards are at a more reachable level, installing wheelchair ramps, investing in a stairlift, placing grab bars in bathrooms, and switching to non-slip flooring.
Choose smart home appliances
Remodeling projects that involve smart home technology and appliances can make daily life easier for retirees. Some examples of smart home appliances are smart thermostats, lights, refrigerators, cameras, locks, TVs, and voice assistant speakers. With smart home technology, you can control home functions through a smart home hub. To illustrate, you can change the temperature in a specific part of your house with a few simple taps on your home rather than getting up to physically change the setting. With smart home appliances, you are guaranteed convenience, enhanced security, and energy efficiency. As you get older and less mobile a smart home will make living much easier.
Invest in extra space
Now that you will be spending more time at home, it will be a good investment to add extra space to your home. A popular retirement remodel is to create a home office or hobby room that will act as your private space. You can also add to your home by increasing the area of your dining room or living room if you like to host people. While a costly investment, up to $48,000, you will not only have more space to live in while at home, but the value of the property will increase as well. A room that can be converted into a spare bedroom could add up to $50,000 to the selling price.
Consult a Retirement Advisor
In order to make these changes it is best to consult with retirement advisors to ensure that you can afford the changes and that they will add value in the long term. When hiring an advisor look for one with the right financial and accounting qualifications. There are different types of advisors including Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist (CRPS), Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP), or Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC). They will all have an educational background in accounting, and will have likely taken the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examination (a certification to look out for). They will help you with tax planning, data analytics, financial statement analysis, and financial reporting. By working with the aforementioned professionals, you can better choose remodeling projects that will enhance your comfort and boost the market value of your home.
Before you remodel your home for retirement, do consider the advice that we’ve discussed above.
Article written by Remi Jo for the exclusive use of castlebri.com
