Remodeling is predicted to continue at a heavy pace this year.  Why?  The home market is cooling and homeowners want to put a personal stamp on their homes.  They have equity, and lenders will hand over upwards of $200 billion this year to help homeowners personalize their homes.

But how much personalizing is a good idea?  All REALTORS(R) have seen remodeling "botches," the kind of thing that doesn't help a home sell when it's put on the market.

I saw one recently where the homeowners had put an addition onto the back of their house, even though the back yard just couldn't hold that much house and still look inviting.  What was left  was just a strip of grass around the addition.  It took up so much space that it looked massively OUT of place on the small 4620 square foot lot.

That's one example.  Another is a beautifully remodeled attic, but the homeowners didn't upgrade the steep stairs up TO the attic!  I don't know if they thought climbing steeply pitched stairs would appeal to everybody just to have an "up to the minute" attic bedroom.  My aching knees wouldn't have gone upstairs at all if I hadn't had to answer a question my clients had about the remodel.

Another mistake.  Making a kitchen (or any other room) over in a style only the owners could love.  I saw one recently that sported a "tropical" feel.  NOT in a kitchen!  Unless you plan to live there forever.

Homebuyers are looking for NEUTRAL!  Something they can put their own personal stamp on.  Yes, maybe they'll remodel their master to look like a tribute to Elvis, but YOU have to appeal to the "average" homebuyer when comes time for you to sell.  What to you may be a "funky" dining room, to a homebuyer screams "UGLY!" 

Make sure your remodeling project stays within the realm of what most homebuyers could go for, IF you plan to sell your house any time soon.  Paint it tropical flamingo if you will, but plan on painting it a warm neutral color before you put it on the market.  AND replace that lamp made out of melted down LP records!