As a contractor I have had the opportunity to look at my share of homes that buyers have considered purchasing. This usually happens when things are whittled down to a choice few and the buyers just want to get a general sense on the condition of the building. The hidden values that I have found for them is usually in the form of an unrequired improvement. For example, an extra strength sink disposal, or the use of construction adhesive that was not required by code but done anyway.
As I sitting here scanning these encounters there were no real “doozies” to speak of but a thought had occurred to me. I have one that I experienced as a buyer myself. Back in the early ‘90’s my wife and I were looking to move to the Cameron Park area and had done our homework and worked with our agent looking for the home in the foothills that we had talked about. The boys were in there early years of grade school and we thought it be best to move before they got older.
We found the perfect home for us and felt good with the price and location. As we left to drive back to Elk Grove, we noticed a large sign on the building. We like the proximity of the schools but did not follow up on the quality of schools. The sign read, California Distinguished School!
Wow! That was the clincher; hidden gem was the added value that we had not expected. We were willing to buy that home not knowing about this award given to the schools that our boys would be attending.
I later moves, we made certain that we checked on the schools in the area. This is true even after our boys no longer attended school, the next buyer may have children that are looking to live in an area were the schools have achieved a level of excellence.
Comments(8)