What home improvment will gainyou the most resale value for your money?

They say redo your kitchen and your bathroom and you get the most return. We are currently planning the renovation of our basement. What ticks me off is, we are going at it in a very basic way - painting ceiling rafters and floor, putting beadboard up over wooden Xes on the wall - but if you want to go about it properly, insurance wise, you start owing the city immediately for a permit, and of course, taxes will go up. This is in Canada. But the flip side is - basement renovations add living space, which is only a good thing.

AS a potential homebuyer I would strongly suggest finishing the basement. I would gladly pay extra to NOT have to finish a basement! I am not sure how much more your houses' value would go up or what area you are in. Ask your realtor. I can't tell you the sh!tty houses I have been to. They either have mold or smell like a dogs a** or the people who are trying to sell it have so much crap I can't see the house! Having a clean home with no odors really does go a long way!

I sold real estate once and the two improvements that got the best return for the sellers were adding an extra bathroom and putting in central air. Don't know if that holds true in all areas but that was the way it worked in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Finishing your basement would increase living space, as would the addition. Putting up a fence would potentially increase the "curb appeal" and make the yard more private. Of the three choices, I'd be tempted to say finish the basement. It would seem to be sensible to work with what is in the existing structure, prior to adding on. We renovated our whole basement a year ago, which added 5 rooms to the house in place of the big ol' dark, dank basement that was there when we moved in. We really doubled our living area. We also had a new PVC fence put up in place of the old wood thing that was there before. It looks really nice and I'm thrilled to be able to be in the back yard without my nosey neighbor in the back peering over at what I'm doing all the time LOL But I think the basement reno was more "valuable" over all.