TOM & CYNDEE
BROWNER - CRS,
ABR, GRIQUAD CITIES REAL ESTATE WITH RE/MAX
SERVING THE ENTIRE IOWA AND ILLINOIS QUAD CITIES ............................................................
DAVENPORT - BETTENDORF - ROCK ISLAND - MOLINE AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES
TOM & CYNDEE
BROWNER - CRS,
ABR, GRI
BROKER OWNERS OF RE/MAX BI-STATE - SERVING IOWA & ILLINOIS
1-563-388-0008 Office - 1-563-388-0083 Fax - 1-866-388-0083 Toll Free - 1-563-570-7629 Cell - 355-1616 Home
Have a question? The answer is just a call or e-mail away. Contact us at tom&cyndee@quadcitiesrealestate.com
We know you want to sell your home for the most money, in the shortest time and with with least inconvenience. If you want serious advertising and effort from your agent, call or contact us for a FREE MARKET ANALYSIS of your present home. We are both Certified Residential Specialist by the Residential Sales Council. No obligation, of course. Call us on our private line at 570-7629 at RE/MAX BI-STATE or Contact us at tom&cyndee@quadcitiesrealestate.com - LOOKING TO BUY? Check out the services an Accredited Buyers Representative can mean to you.
FIX IT - REPLACE IT - ADD ON - SELL
We often get calls from home owners that want to know if they should put on a room addition, replace kitchens, bathrooms, or do other major repairs or sell and move up.
There is not simple answer, but these are the basics. Do you love your home, neighbors and location? If the answer is no, move. If the answer is yes, then move to question two. Are you the least or most expensive home in your neighborhood? If you are the most expensive home or equal in price to the neighborhood, move. If you are a less expensive home in your neighborhood, move on to question three. After the addition is put on, or major update is done will the value of your home and the cost of the improvement be within 5 to 10% of the most valuable homes in your neighborhood. If the answer is no, move. If the answer is that your home will not be more expensive than 5 to 10% above the highest homes in your neighborhood, then if you want to stay, it might make sense to do the improvement. You are going to enjoy the improvement and have no need to move. So enjoy your home. If something happens later and you have to sell, you will be at the upper limits of what your neighborhood brings. You may even lose a little money on the improvement, but you had the enjoyment of the improvement during the time of use. Depending on timing may break even or lose a little money, but the loss should not be much.
A room addition in this market will usually cost the home owner about $30,000. If you add to rooms, extra baths, fireplaces, or other features, this cost will increase. If you are in a solid $70 to $90,000 area and you are in the $70,000 home, you might be able to justify the $30,000 addition, but no more. If you are in an $85,000 home in the same neighborhood, no way. You would then have a $125,000 home in a $70,000 to $90,000 tops area. Why would anyone want to pay $125,000, in today's dollars, ever. Buyers would buy in a $120,000 to $140,000 area, to maximize their investment. We just sold a fantastic 2276 sq/ft home with three fireplaces and a 2 1/2 car garage and a 30 X 16 family room addition for $92,000. Had the owner moved instead of doing the addition he would have sold a similar home with the sq/ft and amenities for $140,000 or above in another neighborhood. Instead the two subsequent buyers received the top quality amenities for nothing in price. The seller had the joy of the addition, but did not receive a third of the cost in realized dollars from the sale due to location.
How do improvements stack up with returns in sale price? These findings are from a report from Hanley-Wood, LLC, the publisher of Remodeling magazine which I found on another web site. Kitchen face lifts will return 82% of their estimated cost, a new bathroom - 72%, a bathroom remodel - 71% of cost, adding a family room - 71% of cost, a major kitchen remodel will return only 70%, and the addition of a master suite will return 68% of it's cost. The addition of a deck will only return about 54% of it's cost and a home office - 51% when the home is sold.
For the average buyer, a roof is a roof, windows are windows, furnace a furnace, etc... If they do not blatantly look like they are on their last legs, most buyers will almost ignore them.
Buyers like newer carpet and paint. They buy with their eyes. Odors, garbage, clutter and other turn offs affect the sale of a property more than windows and the other mechanicals.
So the rule in doing improvements is you can do anything if you and your family are going to live in the home forever. If you can ever foresee selling the property, do not over improve it above the neighborhood in which it is found. Not unless you like losing money.
If you have any questions, or would like a free value opinion of your home, please call us today at 388-0008.