21 Projects That Could Hurt Your Home’s Resale Value | Inventory And Supply Charts

 



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21 Projects That Could Hurt Your Home’s Resale Value

  

Introduction: Do Home Projects Affect Resale Value?

Have you ever wondered if a project that you want to do around your home is actually going to help or hurt the resale value or appraised value of your home? Here's 21 projects that could hurt the sale of your home. Let's take a look. 

Luxury Bathrooms: Worth the Investment?

Luxury bathrooms. It really depends on the style of your house.

if it's just a regular track home, like where I live, putting in a hundred thousand dollars in a luxury bathroom, doesn't make financial sense. If I did it for myself and I want a copper bathtub it might be a worthwhile thing. Contract housing, which is 95 99 percent of the houses that are out there right now.

I wouldn't really do it if your house is worth 30 million dollars Absolutely. So think about that. 

Bold Colors: A Risky Trend

All right the next one bold or dark pink colors That's a trend that happened about three years ago. And yeah, it was cool. You know, like retro back in the nineties, you put a red wall, just the accent wall of some sort.

Now they're going darker I did sell a house a couple of years back and it was the Raiders living room. Black walls and silver ceiling. And I thought it was the tackiest thing, but people liked it. Again, we always say in the market, if your house is on the market, make your house look bright, and airy, that means light, bright, airy walls, The recent long tiles that go up on your backsplash, your kitchen, that's actually getting a little bit outmoded You got to look out if you're going to do a remodel of your bathroom, do it right, right? Find out what's long-lasting, not a very trendy tile because stuff like this only lasts you like 5 or 10 years and then you have to dig it up and get rid of it.

So think about that I don't really care. They're always out there trying to sell, Oh, you need this, the higher-end stuff. Yeah, I get it. It lasts longer. It doesn't ship as quick, but I gotta tell you that the higher stuff, higher expense, the more expensive stuff, it's not that much better.

So look for what the finishes, if it's a mat or a gloss or a semi-gloss. You want something that's a little more neutral, something that you can easily wipe dirt off of so that when your kids smudge peanut butter all over it, you can wash it down pretty quick. 

Wallpaper and Overdone Kitchens

Too much wallpaper. Wallpaper is not a thing anymore. I know it's trending back, but that again is more high end I wouldn't put just, The tacky stuff, up on my walls because taking it down, Oh, it's actually faster to take the entire wall, the drywall down and put new drywall on because it's such a pain to take care of all that stuff.

And people don't typically like your style of wallpaper. So just take that into consideration. If you want it for yourself, by all means, do it. Overdone kitchen. Yeah. Depends on the house, right? If it's a really luxury home, like we have a bunch of them here in Santa Clara County, you might want to go a little bit over the top, but anything that looks like it's been just crammed in there, that's not something people are going to look for 

Carpet vs. Hardwood Floors

See, I follow the carpet repair guy. I've used them many times. I have dogs and they tend to tear the hell out of everything that I own. And when you have carpet, it will absorb dirt and smells and hair and grime. So just be aware.

Hardwood offers more bang for your buck, even though it's more expensive. Hardwood floors last longer. You can have them sanded down and refinished. Carpet is, once you get a stain on it, even if it's protected or scotch guarded you're still going to get that stain, period.

Just like upholstery, your car seat, if it's upholstery instead of leather. If you get a stain in there, it'll come back. I don't care how much money you spend on spot removal, People want huge bedrooms.

Now, if you have a bedroom and a sitting area and a makeup area and a big, huge walking closet and a grand bathroom that better be set up for a luxury house, right? So my house, my master is. Big enough and I think it's just the right size for this house. It's a 2,300-square-foot house, with textured ceilings and walls.

The newest trend is flat walls. I don't know why people are doing that because it shows every imperfection. The great thing about textured walls is that it.

Blends in and hides imperfections and seams The tough part is if you do get a crack in the wall, you have to send it all out fix the crack, and then retexture it. But at least you can hide a little bit better for lower-skilled labor or laborers like myself. 

Three-Season Porches and Home Theaters

When it comes to drywall and walls, I like having texture just because it's nice to have three-season porch sunrooms.

Yeah, they're expensive I did a pergola a few years back and did it all myself. I think it cost me 2, 500 in materials. I Did the electrical the whole nine yards you could be paying upwards of seventy-five thousand dollars But the ROI just isn't there. So be careful what you spend at home theaters.

If you have a 5, 000 square foot house, should be expected to have a movie theater. However, that trend's starting to go away because it's nice to have, but you tend not to use it over time because you want to be around your family. 

Garage Conversions and Bathtub Removal

Garage conversions. They're expensive, they're overpriced and anything you do here, especially here in the Silicon Valley is going to cost you three times more than what you could do yourself by materials and having a professional company So be careful of that as well. Removing a bathtub. I've had a few people ask if should I get rid of my bathtub? What I tell them is Buyers expect a bathtub. 

Sometimes you just want to have it there. I've known people who have torn out the bathtub and put a shower in because their child didn't want to have a bathtub there anymore. We sell wise, probably not going to help you much. 

Roof Replacement and Solar Panels

A new roof on my house, my roof is old.

It has leaks. Should I replace it? Here in Silicon Valley, you're looking at 20 to 30, 000 to replace a roof, and you're not going to get the value out of it because your brain doesn't look at the roof when you're looking at a house. And I always say, let's get it fixed up.

Let's get it sealed up. Let's get it guaranteed for the next two, three, or four years and disclose that it's an older roof and it might be the end of life, right? Let the buyer pay for it. You're not going to get the ROI on it. And it just doesn't make sense. To spend 30, 000 and not get any return on that unless the roof blew off in a windstorm that happened to me, our second year here, it's just part of life, right?

Solar panels. Now there are two different ways to buy a solar panel. You can lease it or you can buy it. If you lease it, it's a liability and actually costs you money every month. So an appraiser won't give you value to that. If you buy it and you paid for it or you're financing it, then it's an asset.

Actual attached property to your roof or to your house and it adds value to it and it's upwards of 20, 000, 30, 000 will somebody pay extra for it? Not really like a pool. You either want a pool or you don't want a pool. There's a very small Venn diagram. Of people who don't care if you get a pool or not.

Pools are expensive maintenance, luxury items as far as they're concerned. So if you want a cool, you're absolutely going to want to have a pool. Some people come in and buy it with the pool and then they bury it. Or they take it out and put dirt in there. Same thing with solar panels. You're not going to see an ROI on that because you're like, yeah, that's great.

You can say you spent 20, 000, 30, 000 on solar panels and you're saving money, but You don't see it sight unseen. It's not part of the mindset of how it is. If you can show that you're saving 300 bucks a month on electricity, then that might be worthwhile. So you got to really do the numbers.

Landscaping and Backyard Pools
Over-the-top landscaping. We put in flagstone and then grass around the flagstone and I just don't like it. I just feel like we put in cement in the side yard. I have pavers by the pergola and a little grassy area by my fire pit. And I think It's just a little bit too much. If your house is small and you have a small backyard, don't put a Koi pond in, just think about it and anything you do today, any kind of projects you do, it's going to be really expensive and people aren't going to pay extra for that. They don't want to see a dirt lot because that's a key indicator of a flip, but they definitely don't want to pay extra for massively.

Designed landscaping, and backyard pool. Here you go. I have three houses coming up with pools and each one of them asked me how much more do I get for my house? Because I have a pool in it. And I said you don't really get a whole lot out of it. You get value-added as the appraisal, but as far as a buyer is concerned if they absolutely want a pool.

It better be sparkling. It better be completely maintenance-free and not maintenance-free, with no cracks, no issues, and no missing tiles. The pumps are working perfectly because pools are their own little organisms. They're. And they cost a lot to run every month. So you either absolutely want it or you don't actually have four houses with pools in it.
The fourth one is coming up later this year. And it has a pool heater, the solar pool heaters like this on top here. This actually pulls water from the pool up through here and it drains down. It goes back into the pool and heats the house heats the pool up for you. It's a nice thing. And they have financed solar too.

Closet Removal and Home Offices

18 closet removal. Be careful. Yeah. Don't take out your closets.

People want storage. Myy pantry was two feet by two feet, but it was right behind the stairwell in my house. I broke out the wall and put in extra shelving underneath the stairwell. There's a big angle there.

Buyers want extra storage. You take out your closet to make your bedroom bigger and then you have a little wardrobe somewhere that's great, but you're not improving anything closet removals are a horrible idea. Home office. I have two home offices cause my son moved out.

He's at. Chico states, he's going to school up there and she's upstairs in that old room working And I've been in this office for 22 years and it's a value, it's absolutely a value because more and more people are working at home. But I think what we're going to see is a trend of multi-usee rooms for bedrooms and desks.

So you can work in your house unless it's something like this where it just doesn't make sense to make this into a bedroom because. This is a very small room. 

Aquariums and Hot Tubs

Aquariums, don't get aquariums or built-in. This is for a built-in aquarium. This is a big trend for a while. There was a reality show.

I can't remember what it's called. Not really big into aquariums. I've had fish. I've had toads. I've had all sorts of different amphibious creatures They're a pain to deal with and if you have one that's built-in like this, that's a commitment It's a commitment because you have little lives that are depending on you to feed them Keep them clean keep them healthy and that is another organism Sold a house a few years back and it had a hot tub in it the buyer didn't want it. I thought, I'll take it. So I grabbed it, threw it in my truck, and brought it home. And there it sat and never plugged it in, never hardwired it, never had water. The rain actually filled it up with water. I finally, at one point was like, I'm getting rid of this thing.

Cause I'm just never going to use it. And I put it on Craigslist free hot tub. The guy came over, picked it up, and put it on some dollies. He had a couple of kids help him put it on the truck, and took care of it. If it's something you want, don't consider it a value to the buyer. You might have to remove it. I don't know how many hot tubs I've had removed over the last 22 years of selling houses.

So just keep that in mind.

Mortgage Rates and Market Update

All right. Mortgage rates, 7. 35. It continues to go up and up. Not where it was on October 9th, 2023 at 7. 64, but still it's pretty far up there. You can buy it down. Talk to a home lender. If you need somebody, let me know. I'll put you in touch with my people and they're amazing.

We'll get to this next week because I think I spent too much time on the 21 projects. This episode is brought to you by the home buyers checklist. If you're going to go home shopping this weekend, download this checklist. It'll allow you to compare and contrast all the houses you go to. And believe me, when you're looking at four or five, six houses, even 10 houses, it gets blurry as to which house has dual pane windows and which ones have air conditioning and don't.

So download this checklist and you'll be happy. All right. 



Real Estate Listings and Final Thoughts

What'd you get for 2 million in Santa Clara County? Rudy court. Four bedroom, two bath, 1, 744 square feet built in 1977. And it is right here in the nook of Almaden Valley in Cambrian. Let's take a quick look at it. This house has the guise of being flipped.

It's high-end stuff though. Remember what I said about kitchens? You're not going to get your ROI on kitchens. So just be careful in bathrooms.

There's a nice pool back there. So if you want a pool, there you go. 


And what you get for 1, 000, 000, Hannah Street, This is 1, 050, 000, two bedroom, one bath, 789 square feet. Talk about tiny houses, This is right by the freeway. I have a feeling this one's going to be on the market for quite a while.

Talk about freeway noise. Freeway noise and pollution, 101 days on the market. It started off at 1, 000, 099. Now it's 1, 000, 050. And let's take a look at it. The inside.

Inventory And Supply Charts
How old is this thing? 1900. It's over a hundred years old. How many families have this thing housed?

Talk about landscape, right? That's all driveway. I don't see a garage. Nice garage, and a nice kitchen, but it's very small because everything in this house is small. Not even a floor plan. 12 Bay Area county months of inventory. Nothing's changed because we're at the end of January next week.

We'll have an Updated chart, but inventory is still very low. I think we had 37 sales last week and we're up to 63 sales this week. So there's not enough inventory for buyers But we're also in the winter thaw. We're starting to get into semi warmer, even though this last week was freezing. Just be careful of knowing what you're looking for. Buyers are being very picky right now. My listing down at Hollister, we're getting into contract now, and they're coming back and trying to shoot bullets at us, and we're just deflecting them.

And We'll get into contract. It just takes a little bit of time. And this one, because it's Hollister, it takes a lot longer to sell than in Santa Clara County. We're being patient with it, but we're definitely playing this fish on the hook. Just be careful out there. If you're putting it on today, it's going to take a little bit more coaxing with the buyer.

Buyers are being very persnickety and that's just the way it is during January. February is going to be a little bit of the same thing. March, April, and May will be in full thaw. Spring's coming out. Weather's getting warmer. Buyers come out and that's really a great time to sell. All right.

I'm Vito with Abitano. Have a great weekend. We'll see you out there.





Vito Scarnecchia

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