What is a home if not a roof over your head? Well, it is many other things of course, but the roof is undoubtedly one of the central elements – and in more ways than you might initially expect.
Of course, a functioning roof is essential for a livable home. It keeps the outside out and is an essential part of the home’s insulation. If the roof cannot retain heat properly, then no amount of insulation in the walls or high-tech heating solutions are going to fix the problem.
And it isn’t just for living in a home that having a roof in top condition is important. It is vital for selling one too. Ask any real estate broker, and they will quickly make it clear to you all the ways in which your home’s roof is affecting your home’s value – or its ability to be sold at all.
Property experts CityHome Collective advice that, in the arena of the property market, the roof is perhaps more important that anything you’re going to find inside the house – at least insofar as a shoddy roof has the potential to make a sale downright impossible.
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How a Roof Affects Your Home’s Value
To get an idea of how important a roof is for a home’s value and its performance on the market, we need to go over few distinct areas of home value which the roof has a direct effect on. If the roof is deficient, these elements of the home’s salability will suffer.
It’s Part of the Curb Appeal
You cannot have been navigating the property market for very long if you haven’t heard the term curb appeal. Curb appeal refers to the home’s attractiveness when viewed from the outside – and that includes on listings photographs. In other words, it makes up a part of the first impression that anyone viewing your home will make. Quite a large part in fact, considering how prominent it is.
It Can Add Extra Costs for the Buyer
If a person moves into your old home only to discover there are problems with the roof, they could be in for some very expensive repairs. This is well known among buyers, and so a roof in tip-top shape can avoid the disappointment of having a buyer reject a home they previously were sold on.
It Keeps the Home Warm
Touched on above, a roof keeps a home warm. That means any problems with it will not only mean expensive repairs, but extra heating costs. The overall energy efficiency of a home (and therefore also its eco-cachet) is in a very large part dependent on the roof.
Signs You Should Replace Your Roof
Here follows some top indications that it is time to replace your roof:
It is Old
Sometimes, this can be it. An old roof looks bad on the one hand, and it also implies a load of extra costs for any occupant underneath it. That is the impression anyone seeing an old roof will make.
Leakage Problems
These are pretty easy to ignore when it’s just water running off the gutter, but if the leakage is internal then this is a problem that cannot be ignored. Outside leakage too, however, indicates that repairs are indeed necessary.
It is Sagging
This is a major structural problem and suggests that the roof lacks the strength to support its own weight. In such cases, a repair is not just recommended – it is urgent.
Whether selling a home or living in one, the roof is a vital component to have in good shape. There’s really no better way of putting it.