If you are thinking about adding a high-end amenity to your home, think twice. Consider how the amenity will affect your home’s eventual selling price before plunking down your hard-earned cash. Your focus is understandably centered on adding something nice to your living space and enjoying the moment. However, adding several high-end amenities has the potential to backfire as they can make it challenging to sell your home.
Consider the Impact of Costly Home Amenities Before the Time Comes to Sell
It is awfully tempting to add an enormous master closet, a hot tub, heated bathroom flooring, fancy audio-video systems and other niceties to your living space. Add such niceties and everything will likely be fine and dandy until the time comes to sell. There is a good chance these costly amenities will make it difficult to sell your home at the price you expect.
Millennial home-seekers are especially hesitant to fork over their savings for a home laden with fancy features. Today’s home-seekers are more interested in making the most of their money rather than living large with elaborate home features. Some home amenities dramatically decrease in value after installation. Depending on the nuances of your local real estate market, you might find it challenging to recoup a substantial portion of the money you spent for these home amenities.
Choose Your Home Amenities Wisely
Certain home amenities provide a significant return on investment while others provide minimal return. The question begs: what types of features are solid investments? Most homeowners find spending for a large master closet or a hot tub provides an excellent return on investment. Alternatively, adding a fancy water feature to your yard or paying for a themed entryway to your property could actually decrease your home’s selling price. People are more concerned with comfort and space than unique aesthetics.
If you dislike the idea of investing in your bathroom, consider adding a massive walk-in closet to your master bedroom. People spend an abundance of time in bed so investing in this space will make your home that much more attractive to prospective buyers. This is precisely why homes with a hot tub, spacious bathroom and/or heated floors tend to sell quickly. More importantly, homes with these amenities have the potential to spark a bidding war that elevates your home’s selling price higher and higher.
What About Amenities Beyond Hot Tubs, Heated Floors and Master Closets?
Spend for high-end audio-video systems and you will certainly be thoroughly entertained. Unfortunately, this type of home amenity does not hold its value like other niceties. A/V technology is dynamic, meaning it is constantly changing. In other words, the entertainment technology you add to your home today will have minimal value across posterity.
Plenty of homeowners question whether adding an inground swimming pool is worth the money. Pools are an attractive home amenity, especially in areas with abundant sunshine. However, pools have the potential to become money pits. Pools are expensive to maintain, sometimes require costly repairs and even pose a danger to youngsters. So don’t assume adding an inground swimming pool to your property will add that much more to the property’s selling price. The little-known truth is plenty of home-seekers have no interest in a pool. Some consider taking care of this amenity to be a significant burden. Do your research, choose your amenities wisely and you will get fair value when selling your home.