Have you ever sat with a client who asked you what their remodeled bathroom is worth? What about their recently renovated kitchen? What about a client who wants to know how much replacing windows or a roof on a house they are looking at purchasing will increase the home's value? Clients want to get the most for their house, and who can blame them? For most homeowners, every penny counts. And as a REALTOR®, you want to provide them with accurate information to make these decisions. REALTORS® need an efficient, yet accurate way to calculate home improvement values.

RPR®'s "Refine the Value Based on Home Improvements" tool allows REALTORS® to take the guesswork out of calculating home renovations. By partnering with Hanley Wood, an aggregator of residential and commercial construction data, as well as publisher of "Remodeling" magazine, RPR has built a tool that calculates home improvements down to the zip code level. Let's look at 3 different examples of how this tool helps REALTORS® impress their clients.

• Homeowners in San Jose, CA are looking to list their house. They want to ensure that while their house is 'priced to sell', the list price reflects their brand new kitchen. You find out by asking the homeowners how much they spent upgrading their kitchen and find that they spent $46,000 last summer. By using RPR's "Refine the Value Based on Home Improvements" tool, you find that their $46,000 mid-range kitchen they remodeled in July of 2013 is worth $33,168 today.

• Homebuyers in Kansas City, KS are looking at buying two different houses. One is 'move-in ready' and the other needs some work. The homebuyers aren't opposed to buying a home and doing some remodeling, but they want to know if it will be worth it. Using using RPR's "Refine the Value Based on Home Improvements" tool, you calculate that by replacing the garage door, upgrading the windows and remodeling both bathrooms, the home's value will increase by over $11,000.

• Past clients are wondering if they should spend their money on remodeling the house they currently live in, or move to something that already has the upgrades they are looking for. Naturally they turn to their trusted REALTOR® for advice. After doing a search for homes that meet their criteria should they want to move, you can use RPR's "Refine the Value Based on Home Improvements" tool to put in all the improvements they want to make to their existing house, create a Comp Analysis that includes both their current property and the 'move-in ready' properties to allow them to decide which option best suits them.

Refine Value

As you can see, there are many uses for the "Refine the Value Based on Home Improvements" tool within RPR. And because the data comes from a trusted source, you can be sure that the information you provide to your clients is accurate. So whether decide to shop for new granite and tile, or moving boxes, you know that you've helped them not only make an educated decision, but once again showed that you are truly the 'local market expert.'

To view the original article, visit the Realtors Property Resource blog.