The “10 Best Home Improvements” is an oft-cited list in newspapers and shelter magazines. But what about the worst improvements? Since the bad ones rarely rate a mention, here’s a look — realizing, of course, that we’re not talking about personal taste, need or comfort. This list, rather, comes from a strictly return-on-investment point of view.
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Swimming pools. Pools top everyone’s list of don’t-do-its, if only because not everyone wants one. So if you put a pool in your backyard, you are eliminating better than half your potential market, and you haven’t even put up a “For Sale” sign yet. You want to appeal to the largest buyer pool possible, no pun intended.
Beyond that, there’s the cost. The experts maintain that unless you are in a neighborhood where pools are an anticipated amenity, not an unexpected one, you’ll be lucky to recoup half the cost. Ditto for basketball and tennis courts.
Doug Rogers of Century 21 Millennium in Pineville, La., recently went on a listing appointment in a subdivision of $200,000 houses. Once he got there, the owners “couldn’t wait to show me” their new $45,000 pool. And, of course, they wanted to ask $260,000 for their otherwise ordinary house.
At closing, though, the pool netted them just $7,000, which means they took a loss of $38,000.
Better to join a country club or perhaps the YMCA. In Virginia, where pools are good only three months out of the year, John Statton of Re/Max Action Real Estate in Mechanicsville, Va., says you can join a local pool for $300 a year — without the increase in homeowners’ insurance that owning a pool brings.
Read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/home/sc-cons-0411-bad-home-improvements-20130412,0,2176117.story
Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only
Green Real Estate Appraiser 