Should you pull a permit for your remodeling job?

Should you pull a permit for your remodeling job? The very short answer is YES! I am by no means an expert in home repair, remodeling projects, codes or anything that resembles that type of work. However, permits are there for a reason, and most homeowners that do not pull them are just trying to save a few bucks, but it will eventually come back to bite them in the handyman trousers.

I was in a great class today on appraisals, valuation and proper pricing, and we started to discuss the home remodeling projects, most specifically how a non-permitted basement finish will not only lose the value of the finished square feet, the new guidelines call for the appraiser to make a note in the appraisal stating "non-permitted" basement finish. This can cause serious repercussions for the seller and for the buyer if they indeed do somehow go through with the purchase and decide to sell later, it is now their problem.

The reason for the permits is simple, to make sure that everything being added is up to the current professional standards, that the work is being done by a licensed professional and that the work is safe. Pulling permits prior to getting the work done is just a cost of the project and a minimal cost at that. Having to pull permits after the fact can be incredibly costly in more ways than one.

Pulling permits after the fact will be costly because the inspector will have to come out, poke holes in the walls to make sure that the work was done properly and then the repair will be an additional expense.

If you are trying to sell your house and you have a couple comps with similar square footage and finished basements, and they pulled permits and you did not, an appraiser will not count the finished square footage in the basement and will make a note of it in the appraisal, it more than likely will not appraise if your sales price is based on comps with finished basements. 

So lets say you put $50K into your basement and a permitted basement would add about $30K in value, you have just lost that $30K, and more importantly the sale and possibly a few thousand more to right the situation and then more time on market.

If you are thinking of selling and have done this, you are by no means alone, it can be remedied. My suggestion would be to call the county assessors and let them know, get an inspector out to the property and start the process, expect to pay at least 2-4 times as much as it would have cost you initially for these inspections, they will take much longer and cause damage to work done, if you have schematics of the work done by the "professional" this could seriously help matters, the more you can offer as a blueprint to the work that was done, the less prodding and poking the inspector will have to do.

In the end you might end up paying a few thousand to correct the project, however you could end up losing several thousand if you do not correct the project, or you could simply list it, let your agent know that the work was not permitted, have them price it accordingly and disclose to the buyers that this work was not permitted.

It's your call, as the old Fram filter commercial used to say "you can pay me now, or pay me later"