While the idea of home updates might be too much for a lot of homeowners to consider, some upgrades could give you a 70% return on your investment. If you plan on moving in the coming years but want to enjoy the pleasure of an upgraded home, making the right choices could give you the best of both.

By updating your home, you get to live in luxury even while adding value to your house.

Here are four ways to increase value with your updates.

1. Upgrade Your Kitchen

While most home upgrades will cost you money without giving you a lot of returns, one of the places that buyers look for value in is the kitchen. By taking out old countertops or cabinets and upgrading them, you can increase your home’s value for almost as much as you put in.

Even though you might be tempted to rip out everything, just a few thousand dollars can make a massive difference. A solid countertop and a few new appliances that are well coordinated together will give your home a fresh look. Just a coat of paint to your walls or to your cabinets could result in added value for a small investment.

Stainless steel is always a smart way to go when you’re adding to your kitchen. If you’ve got an old ceramic sink, you could update it with a stainless steel basin, even a used one, for a bump in value. When shopping for appliances, look for stainless steel parts with a soft finish that gives your kitchen a welcoming look.

Instead of trying to stretch your budget for a new marble or granite countertop, try investing in quartz instead. Because it’s made from chips, resin, and pigments mixed together, it’s starting to put pressure on granite and marble at the top spot. In high-end kitchens, it’s a great investment as it’s resistant to heat and scratches.

2. Bathroom Upgrades Go a Long Way

Along with updates to your kitchen, changes to your bathroom are an effective way to add value to your home. Because bathrooms are prone to collecting mold, mildew, and grime, a fresh bathroom with materials that clean easily will attract buyers.

If you don’t have tile running up along your walls, you should replace painted drywall with ceramic tiles that can wipe and clean much more easily. For small bathrooms with a sink that’s too close to the toilet that’s crammed next to the bathtub, look into how you could replace these elements. There are sleek, compact, modern fixtures that take up less space and look better than elements that were designed decades ago.

When you rip out some of your bathroom fixtures, you get the opportunity to take a look at your plumbing. If you’ve found that your toilet or your bathtub don’t drain the way they should, now’s your opportunity to replace old, leaky or clogged pipes.

Investments in your bathroom will yield extremely positive results and could give you returns that are nearly equal to what you invest.

3. Improve Your Floor Plan

As an increasing number of millennials prefer to spend time indoors or to entertain friends at home, larger living spaces become more desirable. With some strategic planning and a large enough mallet, you can increase your home’s value with an “open floor plan”. Instead of dictating how much living space someone gets in a house, you can leave it partially open so that they can blur the line between rooms.

If you were planning on building a full wall between a kitchen and a living room, why not make the walls partial or open the space up more? When you give more options, you let the new homeowners decide how they want to divide the space.

As families get smaller, rethink those additional living spaces. Instead of making them a third or fourth bedroom, they could be opened up to provide for an office. Where once many doctors and therapists ran their practice from a converted section of their home, that idea is making a comeback.

Additionally, another apartment, “granny flat”, or “casita” is a perfect way to add value to a home. With many people wanting to provide for their older family members, this can give a private space for an older resident. For millennials who are struggling with ever-tightening budgets, this extra space could be rented out to a student or a young professional.

4. Make it Energy Efficient

If you can make a home more energy efficient, you can attract buyers to the tech that your home has to offer. With climate change becoming an ever-looming issue, home upgrades should take into consideration rising energy costs.

Even in appliance stores, shopowners know the value of offering energy efficient appliances.

While smart homes are sure to take over the wave of future energy concerns, for the time being, self-sufficiency is the name of the game.

Installing solar panels or a wind turbine on your property could be a major benefit to those home buyers looking for an energy efficient home. While installation could cost a bit upfront, you can check online from reliable sources about how you could be saving money over time.

Pair your panels with some LED lighting and you could end up with an energy efficient home that provides comfort without the guilt.

Home Updates Can Be Small

Just a few small upgrades, even just a fresh coat of paint, could attract buyers to your home when it’s time to sell. Home updates don’t have to be a drag on your credit card bill in order to show you useful returns. Tidying up and landscaping your yard just a little bit could bring in that curb appeal that attracts buyers.

If you need a few ideas for staging your home before selling it, check out our guide for more info.