Now may be the time for home improvement, experts say

With the slow improvement of the supply chain issues that were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and last week’s announcement of a federal half-percent cut in interest rates, local contractors and bankers are urging homeowners to move ahead with any home improvement projects they may be considering this fall — or to at least get the ball rolling in anticipation of being placed on a long client waitlist.

Though it has always been advisable to think well ahead of a project’s desired end date, Adam Gosser, sales manager for Crown Construction in Dryden, said that projects still take longer now than they did pre-pandemic.

“People who are thinking about doing something need to reach out to their contractor sooner than later,” Gosser said, adding that the customers looking to put new siding on their home, for example, should account for the time it will take to make a thoughtful selection of materials with the contractor, followed by the time it takes to get those materials ordered, possibly obtain a permit and wait for the contractor to be available to get the work done, as local companies like Crown are usually backlogged.

“There could be eight jobs ahead of you, and that could be several months out,” Gosser said. “If you want to start remodeling, you should be talking to a contractor as quickly as possible.”

Gosser acknowledged that homeowners could encounter some unforeseen issues but said homeowners should not let those potential challenges stand between them and a happily completed project.

“The new thing that is facing homeowners, and even anyone that’s in construction, is the inflation of the cost of material,” he said.  

While the price of lumber did skyrocket, it has largely stabilized, Gosser said. What continues to increase in cost are certain fixtures. “Anything metal, really, and that goes to plumbing and electrical, even,” he said. “That includes metal fasteners. All these things that are necessary to put everything together continue to go up in price.” Simple items like the faucet for a kitchen sink have tripled in price.

Gosser, who has worked in the construction field since 1989 and has been with Crown for 20 years, said he gets a sense that some potential clients are waiting for a turn in the financial tide before going forward with their projects. Sometimes homeowners do take the first step toward moving forward with a renovation and encounter sticker shock when they find out the projected price tag.

“Definitely right now, with inflation, things often cost more than they anticipate, so they say, ‘Well, we’re going to wait until inflation drops,’” Gosser said. “But nothing really gets cheaper. Materials get more expensive, labor gets more expensive, and insurance goes up. Rarely do they drop, and when they do, they drop minimally. Rarely do costs go lower than they were, and if you’re waiting, hoping that things will be less expensive next year, that’s probably not going to happen.”

National chain retailers are feeling the hesitation, too. Just last month, Home Depot reported that in the United States consumers have been putting off major upgrades to their homes, awaiting lower interest rates while feeling uneasy about the American economy.

The retailer’s reported sales for the second quarter of this fiscal year declined 3.3% compared to this time last fiscal year. Its net earnings also shrunk by $100 million, according to the company.

But with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to cut rates by half a percentage point, home-related companies should soon see the beginnings of fundamental recovery by the end of this year, Mizuho analyst David Bellinger told Business Insider last week.

As a result, it is expected that home improvement retailers will be among the first to see a lift from the rate cut. Share prices for Home Depot and Lowe’s are up, and experts predict that spending on projects will follow.

Particularly in Tompkins County, a sharp overall increase in property values has made home buying especially difficult in recent years.

“With the housing market being as challenging as it’s been, we have seen people focusing more on making modifications and improvements to their existing homes,” said Abby Peterson, vice president and marketing and communications manager for Tompkins Financial.

Peterson advised that home equity lines of credit are typically a great option for non-urgent home improvements.

“Talk to your local banker,” she recommended. “They can help identify the right product for your situation and needs.”

In terms of increasing the value of your home, Gosser said that time and time again he has read that the most potential lies in the master bedroom.

“The best asset to increase value on a home is a master bathroom suite addition,” Gosser said. “You will get the most equity out of that, and second is a kitchen addition.”

At FLX Kitchen and Bath in Ithaca, store manager Phylis Vrooman said the FLX staff have been working on a lot of bathrooms, oftentimes taking out tubs and putting in showers in a new color. Instead of a door, many of them have a panel that doesn’t need to be moved at all.

“It gives some architecture to the space, and an easy-in/easy-out kind of thing,” Vrooman said.

Projects increasing the sustainability of the home could also yield a positive return. In March, the National Association of Realtors surveyed its members, and 40% of respondents said that they found their clients to be “somewhat interested” in sustainability, while 5% said they perceive their clients to be “very interested” in it when considering the purchase of a home. More than half of the respondents said they find energy efficiency promotion in listings to be “very” or “somewhat” valuable when selling a home.

For those looking to take on a smaller project, Susan Cummings, design consultant at All Stone & Tile in Ithaca, said that putting natural stone in your home is considered a capital investment. “Any natural stone,” she said, “whether it’s on your flooring, or bath counters, kitchen counters — people are doing slabs on the walls in showers — all kinds of cool stuff.”

A recent National Association of Realtors report found that the highest cost recovery on interior projects was for refinishing hardwood flooring, followed by installing new hardwood flooring, for a return of investment of 147% and 118%, respectively.

The same study found that for interior projects, new roofing and new garage doors gave homeowners the most for their dollar, both with a cost recovery of 100%.

The right lighting is a crucial element to any good home design, Isabel Boggs, owner of Ithaca Lights, said, and it can be a challenge for homeowners to select the right fixtures without expert advice.  

“We want to make sure people choose the right fixture scale,” Boggs said. “That is something that is hard for people to grasp – they struggle with scale in a space, and lighting requirements. They think they have enough, but they don’t … people make these mistakes all the time.”

The staff at Ithaca Lights can help customers avoid those common renovation missteps by talking them through the selection process, and they will even come take a look at your home for free to ensure they are recommending the right lights. 

Once a homeowner has decided to tackle a project, it is important to choose the right contractor, Gosser said.

“Doing background checks and making sure the company has a good reputation is extremely important,” Gosser said. “You should feel comfortable with the people you’re working with. If you’re not comfortable, you have the right to say, ‘No, thank you,’ and in the same way, if we feel the customer is not a good fit, we’re going to be fine saying, ‘No, thank you.’ We don’t want a customer who’s going to give us ulcers; we don’t want to go to work anxious.”

Abby Anderson, head of operations at Upscale Remodeling, also stressed the importance of finding a reputable renovation company. 

“I think our longevity is unique,” Anderson said of Upscale Remodeling’s 30 years serving the area. “We are in a really good position to know everyone in the industry and work with the good ones, including electrician and specialty areas as well. Every client and remodeling project is going to be slightly different. If someone specifies they want something that is unique to their space, we’re going to know the person who can get that unique thing done.”

One of the biggest challenges continues to be completing projects with the quick turnaround that most customers are hoping for. “Our biggest difficulty during COVID and after is supply chain, and that is still something we are dealing with to some degree,” Gosser said. “There are still items we’re not able to get in a timely fashion, which goes all the way back to COVID, but the effects of that are not terrible.”

The larger issue at hand currently, he said, is a lack of labor.

Many employees in the construction field struggled to return to work after the pandemic, and many of the older ones retired. “Finding new workers — additional workers — continues to be a struggle for us,” Gosser said. “Many young people that would be entering the workforce for construction in their early to mid-20s are just popping from job to job and not really taking root.”

Cummings said she has seen the impact of this on her clients. “The biggest issue is finding a contractor, and contractors are having trouble finding help,” she said. “And the good ones are busy, so they’re booking a year out.”

“The good news,” Gosser said, “is that we at Crown Construction have continued to find amazing new people. We have those who have stayed with us, and new faces eager to learn and willing to learn the trade in a wonderful way.”