Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
With her genuinely good heart and a wealth of experience behind her, Susannah works to connect local business and non-profit leaders to their neighbors. In a community like ours in which so many have invested their lives, there are fantastic stories all around us that motivate and inspire, often right next door. She hopes to share some of those here, on the Good Neighbor Podcast. Book an interview today at GNPAuburn.com
Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika
Ep#75: Elevating Home Value: The Surprising Impact of Garage Door Upgrades
Brad Hickman, owner of River City Door Company, reveals how garage doors significantly impact curb appeal and home value, consistently ranking as a top ROI home improvement. A new garage door can yield over 100% return on investment when selling your home, outperforming even kitchen remodels.
• Garage doors occupy 130-140 square feet of your home's exterior, making them a major focal point
• Design consultants match door styles to your home's exterior materials like brick, hardy board, or shiplap
• Virtual design tools can show how different doors will look on your actual home
• Modern color options include 13-14 standard colors plus custom color matching
• Contemporary trends include flush doors with side windows, a 1970s style making a comeback
• Budget-friendly options include adding insulation, windows, or financing your purchase
• Indicators it's time to upgrade include excessive noise and waking the neighbors
Visit the River City Door Company showroom at 300 North Dean Road, call 334-521-0630, or go to rivercitydoors.com to request information.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.
Speaker 2:Welcome, and with me is Brad Hickman. He's the owner of River City Door Company. Welcome, Brad. It's a pleasure talking to you today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, susanna, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about garage doors and curb appeal. Now, garage doors are definitely something that people see when they're driving down the street. Whether you have a front-loading one or if your load's in from the side, you can't miss a garage door. What are some of the important aspects of keeping your garage door nice, and when do you decide to do some upgrades?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we think it's. You know it's a big focal point of your home, right? You know 130, 140 square feet of your home that is taken up by that garage door, and so we think it's. You know your eyes get drawn to it whether it's a ugly one or a very pretty one, right? And you want to be on that, that that ladder.
Speaker 3:So so we think it's crucial for curb appeal to have a nice garage door, and you know, we think it's time you know when you know when you can, when you're, when your door's waking up the neighbors because it's so loud and noisy it might be time to upgrade, right, right, yeah, take a look at it.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of styles and materials that are available today. I have loved going into your showroom in Auburn and it's really amazing the choices you have. How do you guys help people to you know, look at what's available and choose the right style for their home?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're going to. The first thing we're going to do our design consultant is she's going to ask some questions about the makeup of your home. You know what your siding, what your materials are, whether it's brick or hardy board, shiplap or board and batten those kinds of things, and we're going to help match up a door that kind of fits the style of your home. We do have some design tools that we can help with. If you have a picture of your home, we can upload it into our design tool and we can place doors on your home to give you an idea of what it's going to look like, what the finished product will look like.
Speaker 2:An idea of what it's going to look like, what the finished product will look like. So, for those people that are looking to sell their home and they're making improvements so that they can put their home on the market, what impact can a garage door upgrade have on their home's market value?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we think you know Remodeler Magazine puts out an article every year and they look at the top 10, 15 home improvements that you can make to add value to your home, and garage door has historically been in the top one or two of that year. You know you can get almost over 100 percent return on investment now by replacing your garage door. So, whereas if you do a kitchen remodel or something like that, you're going to get about 80% of that money back when you go to sell your home. You know their study says that when you go to sell a home, sell a home after you sell, after you put a new garage door in it, you're going to get that money back, and more now when, when you sell, when you go to sell that home and we think it gives you some good carb appeal.
Speaker 2:Well, that's. That's pretty impressive. What are some of the garage door design features that you've noticed that provide that wow factor and and some practical benefits?
Speaker 3:So, hey, you know, we, you know, get a pop of color into it, right, instead of your white door. There's plenty of color options. Now I think our standard colors are up to about 13 or 14. Uh, we can also use uh, what we call color match. We can, we can paint, you know, get your door finished, uh, finished, painted with uh to match your trim or your siding color or whatever you might want to do. Or if you want to go a totally different color and make it stand out, we can do that too.
Speaker 3:So, uh, uh, yeah, I think you know, add some color, add some windows. Um, you know, we have what we call overlay doors, which give the door some dimensionality to it, right, so it doesn't look like a plain flush. Um, you know, there's a big modern push towards uh, uh, uh, flush doors with uh side side windows on it. It used to be a thing back in the 70s, turning around making a comeback these days. So it looks very contemporary. So there's a lot of choices out there that can give you a wow factor when people see that new garage door.
Speaker 2:Well, it is amazing how trends come back around and that's pretty cool with some side windows. Yeah, what about those folks that are on a budget and they want to boost their curb appeal? What advice would you give people regarding, like cost effective upgrades that would make a noticeable difference?
Speaker 3:would make a noticeable difference. Yeah, so you know, we do have all kind of different materials and all kind of different doors and all kind of different budget spots, right, and so we've got, we've got new doors, that you know, if you just go back with a, with a more of your traditional door, maybe make it insulated. You know that we think that that provides a lot of value. And maybe a row of windows doesn't add a whole bunch of money to your pocket. You know you're taking money, a bunch of money, out of your pocket, but adds a little wow factor to the door. And then you know, hey, we, we offer financing too. So if it's a budget thing, we can help with that as well. So but yeah, we have a lot of different styles and a lot of different options at different budgets.
Speaker 2:So how would one get in touch with you if they wanted to learn more about River City Door Company?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can stop by our showroom at 300 North Dean Road. You can give us a call at 334-521-0630, or you can visit rivercitydoorscom and fill out a request form and we'll get in touch with you as soon as possible.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, Brad, for joining me today. It's been a real pleasure learning about garage doors.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Susanna.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburncom. That's gnpauburncom, or call 334-429-7404.