Improving the value of your customer’s home is one of your top priorities, and it’s likely your customer’s top priority. It helps generate a higher return on investment when the owner goes to sell it, and of course, it’s a great gauge of your quality as a service provider.
However, pinpointing exactly where to focus your efforts and what to do can be a bit difficult. There are so many intricate aspects of a home, many of which are costly to change, and some of the most costly changes don’t produce worthwhile ROIs for the customer.
Luckily, we’re here to point you in the right direction with two parts of the home that can add a tremendous amount of value without making major structural changes or investing tons of time and money into the project: Enhancing the doors and windows.
Here’s a guide on how to choose the best doors and windows, and improve your client’s home.
Let’s get started!
Why Improving Your Doors and Windows Improves Home Value
The exterior doors and windows of a home seem like minor features at first. Sure, they play into the overall aesthetic, but most people think of major interior or exterior changes when it comes to improving home value.
However, doors and windows are actually the focal points of the home’s exterior; especially in the front of the home near the entryway, and since that’s where all guests and passersby will get their first impressions, even simple changes can dramatically enhance the value of the home.
Benefits of Choosing the Right Doors and Windows
Before we get into the details about how to choose your client’s doors and windows, we need to go over the benefits of making the right choice. If you follow our guide moving forward, you can expect several factors to contribute to an increase in home value.
Beyond helping you develop a better understanding of just how important these crucial features are, these are also talking points that can help your customer understand your design and building decisions from a practical point of view.
1: Curb Appeal and Entryway Aesthetic
First thing you need to know when choosing the best doors and windows is whether they are appropriate matches for the home in question. These will greatly enhance the home’s curb appeal and entryway aesthetic.
Curb appeal greatly increases the value of a home, because if it looks more inviting and luxurious from the curb, buyers are going to naturally see it as more valuable regardless of many other factors such as space or interior design.
However, this also affects the first impression that the new homeowner and every guest they have will have when they visit the home. It sets the mood for what the visitor should expect.
Of course, whether or not you get this benefit depends on how well the team works together to choose doors that match the rest of the home’s aesthetic and enhance it. If you choose wrong, it can have the opposite effect.
2: Enhanced Security
Security is a major aspect of a home’s value, and that’s for a good reason. Everyone expects to have a home that is reliably safe and deters thieves or malicious criminals. The doors and windows of a home are the core security assets that make that possible.
The locks, advanced features, materials used, and even the way each item is installed has a massive impact on the security benefits offered by the doors and windows you use.
If any of those areas are lacking, the security of the home can be compromised, and the value of the property, both in terms of the customer’s enjoyment and financially, plummets dramatically.
However, when you don’t cut corners, opt for the best options available, and generally ensure that each door and window chosen is installed properly, you can give your customer peace of mind and enhance their property value. Even if it costs slightly more upfront.
3: Quality Reduces Home Maintenance and Replacement Requirements
No homeowner wants to purchase a nice home and then have to make expensive changes shortly after. Not only does your client have to trust that your decisions will last a long time, but the people buying the property from them in the future also need that level of reassurance.
Luckily, when you pick the right doors and quality windows for the project, that’s not a problem. The customer will enjoy less labor-intensive maintenance requirements, and replacing their doors and windows won’t be a requirement nearly as frequently.
This is both a selling point for you as a service provider and for the customer when it comes time to sell the property.
Choosing the Best Doors and Windows for a Project: Key Factors to Consider for Your Customer
You likely knew that your door and window decisions had a big impact on the project’s end value and long-term value, but how do you choose the right doors and windows to ensure that you get those benefits?
Well, you have to consider a few key factors, and the team members in charge of those aspects of the project will need to provide ample input to ensure that any choice made checks off every requirement.
Let’s look at each key factor.
1: How the Door Matches the Home Aesthetically
This is largely a task that designers, and perhaps even architects, will focus on the most. If you want the project to have a coherent visual theme, the details and placement of the doors and windows are highly important.
For example, you wouldn’t want an overly basic door design paired with elaborate and ornate windows, or you wouldn’t want to have either option appear more luxurious and ornate than the rest of the home. That creates a disconnect that impacts the project as a whole.
Designers will typically know what to look for while coming up with their design plans, but it’s still important to get feedback from other project leads while choosing the aesthetic of the doors and windows to keep everything within the parameters of the project’s theme.
2: Security
Doors made from low-quality materials or otherwise designed with critical flaws can impact the project’s long-term security. The same is true for windows. Both features are primary entryways for thieves and intruders, and it’s crucial that you put time and effort into choosing a solution that will mitigate that threat and enhance the value of the home in both terms of comfort and monetary value.
For this, it’s important to look at the materials used and the craftsmanship of the door. Solid, durable, doors are far superior to some of the discounted options that are hollow or made of materials that can easily break around lock systems allowing for easy entry by force.
The grain of the door, the wood or metal it is made of, and its initial locking system are all key parts of the security aspect.
Windows should also come equipped with security features and locks. Of course, glass can always be broken, but there are designs and add-on features that can still deter that method, and depending on local trends around the project, those might be worth looking into.
This is an area where you don’t want to skimp or cut corners. Not only is the value of the home on the line to an extent, but the eventual homeowner’s safety is on the line, too.
3: Materials
This factor plays into many of the other concepts we’ll be talking about. Aesthetics, security, overall quality, value, and everything else will likely have at least something to do with the materials used.
For doors, heavy metals such as steel, and solid hardwood made from a high-end wood species, are ideal. These materials are difficult to damage, can last a lifetime, and if made properly, can be extremely aesthetically pleasing.
Solid wood doors also provide you with numerous options. You can opt for teak which is expensive but likely to add a luxurious flair to any home, white oak which is cost-effective and strong while providing a rustic look, and many other varieties that you can treat in various ways to tweak them to your liking. That is almost impossible with metal.
Your window materials are also important. Frames and ornate sills should be made from hardwood, metal, or a combination of both to create an aesthetically pleasing look while also remaining secure and durable. These features can also lessen the chance of breakage. However, the glass is the most important part.
In recent years, major advances have been made to craft window glass that is more durable, requires less maintenance, and ultimately, helps regulate home temperature easier to reduce energy consumption and create a more comfortable and cost-effective home.
By using windows that incorporate these features, you can quickly and easily boost the home’s value in the long term due to both the inherent energy bill savings and the widespread desire to go green.
4: Value
It’s not all about getting the best of the best, and it’s not all about saving money. If you opt for the most advanced doors and windows possible, the project can easily inflate in cost until profits disappear. If you go for the cheapest option, your project’s value and quality will be subpar.
The key is to balance the price against the quality of the feature while ensuring that the bulk of the cost is going toward key features.
For example, If you have the choice between a $100 bay window with basic locks and single-pane glass, a $300 window that features energy-conserving glass and high-quality security features without looking fancy, and a $1000 window that offers the best of everything, the $300 option would be the best value.
It can be easy to let the project get away from you until you see the price escalate beyond your budget. So, if you keep this in mind with each choice and make balanced decisions, you’ll be in a better spot when it comes time to present the project to your customer.
5: Value-Adding Features
Sometimes, it’s about more than just the actual item you’re buying. Even if you buy the very best door or window possible, if the door manufacturer behind it doesn’t meet a few key requirements, you’ll likely end up regretting the purchase as soon as something goes wrong.
You want to source your doors from a service that hits the following marks.
First, you want a source that stands by its products. Doors and windows aren’t cheap, and they’re supposed to last a long time.
There should be a warranty attached to the items to ensure if anything goes wrong you can get the problem resolved without having to buy it all over again. The better the warranty, and the more social proof of that warranty being honored, the better.
Then, you want to make sure you’re sourcing your doors from a company that is financially stable enough to stand behind its claims in the long term. If the company is brand new with little sign of long-term sustainability, you always risk the chance of not being able to source replacements, take advantage of warranties, and other things.
How to Choose the Best Doors And Windows & Where to Get Them
Now you know how to choose the best doors and windows, but where should you actually source your doors and windows from?
If you find yourself asking that question, check out our offer.
Even if your customer saw a door on Instagram or Pinterest and wants the exact same thing, don’t stress – we can make the exact same thing!
We provide top-shelf luxury services in this niche, you enjoy additional benefits when doing business with us. Here are a few:
- We offer full warranties on all products
- We keep our products stocked to keep you and your project covered in emergencies
- We offer full professional installations of all our products
Contact us, or visit one of our several brick-and-mortar locations. We have the ability to handle all your door and window needs!
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