For most homeowners, outdoor lighting is thought of as a nice-to-have feature. They imagine it as making the property look better, but not necessarily something that fundamentally changes its value.
But if you ask real estate professionals—or for that matter, the IRS—you hear a different story entirely. Professional Camden outdoor lighting, once installed, qualifies as a capital improvement. That means it quite literally makes your home worth more, a fact with a lot of implications that we’ll break down in the paragraphs to follow.
Installed Camden Outdoor Lighting Becomes Part of the Property
Capital improvements are upgrades that add value to your property, prolong its useful life, or adapt it to new uses. That makes it a different animal from repairs or maintenance. Fixing a broken light fixture would count as maintenance. Adding a lighting system changes how your property functions for the better, which is what makes it a capital improvement.
The distinction matters for tax purposes, insurance, and resale value. To give you one example of why this matters, you should know that capital improvements can be added to your home’s cost basis. When it comes time to sell, this can potentially reduce capital gains tax that you owe later on. They also signal to buyers that the property has been upgraded with care rather than just maintained to the minimum extent required.
Hardwire lighting systems typically convey with the home when you sell it. That makes it a lot like an irrigation system, landscape grading, or hardscaping. You’re not exactly going to take any of those things with you to the new home after you move!
This is important, because it creates an expectation. When Camden outdoor lighting companies install systems with buried wiring, professionally mounted fixtures, and integrated transformers, they’re creating infrastructure that becomes part of the real estate itself.
Legally and practically, the permanence matters. This is why solar stake lights, which you could easily pull up and put in the passenger floorboard of your truck as you drive off for the last time after selling, don’t count as capital improvements. But a bespoke system wired into your home’s electrical infrastructure does.
Camden Landscape Lighting Enhances the Home’s Structural & Architectural Features
Camden landscape lighting accentuating architectural elements that you already have, but that you can’t see after dark. Rooflines, columns, stonework, and even elevation changes are all great examples of things that you can see much more clearly with proper illumination.
You’ve already invested in the architecture. You’ve already paid for quality materials and craftsmanship. But if you want the most out of it, you might take advantage of residential outdoor lighting services.
Lighting ensures that those investments remain visible and appreciated even after the sun goes down. It’s similar to how quality paint protects siding while also making it look better. Hence why it’s a capital investment.
Outdoor Lighting is Designed as a Long-Term System, Not a One-Time Purchase
One of the great things about custom lighting systems is that they’re often modular. So you can add lighting to solve your most immediate needs, while leaving the door open to future investment. That means the fixtures, wiring, and transformers can all be sized with future expansion in mind.
This long-term design approach is another consideration that separates capital improvements from disposable purchases. In fact, you can also consider maintenance plans to be part of capital improvement as well.
If you’d like to see how systems can expand over time, check out our complimentary design guide for real-life examples.
Professional Outdoor Lighting Design Is What Makes It a Capital Improvement
If you’ve gone to a hardware store to buy light bulbs, you know it’s harder than it used to be. There are a lot of options, and if you buy the wrong ones, your home will look yellow. Or dim. Or like a football stadium.
This is another reason why professional outdoor lighting matters. Because custom lighting design considers property layout, architecture, landscape growth patterns and technical factors like light temperature and beam spread. And in doing so, you can avoid all the problems of poorly installed lighting, including glare and over-lighting. This level of design work is what transforms Camden lighting from “some fixtures we installed” to a cohesive lighting system engineered for your property in particular.
Understanding this is the key to understanding how outdoor lighting can be a capital improvement. Because when it comes down to it, professional outdoor lighting is not just a one-off expense. It’s an upgrade that adds to the value of your assets and gives you some added home equity as well. And it does while giving you immediate, noticeable, beautiful benefits.
Call Outdoor Lighting Perspectives for outdoor lighting companies near me.
For experts in outdoor lighting design, installation, and maintenance, call one of the most trusted names in the business. Outdoor Lighting Perspectives is eager to speak with you. Call us today at (513) 450-4218.