The 4 Top Money-Losing Home Upgrades

If you're planning upgrades to your Central Florida home for your own pleasure and long-term use, then you should do exactly as you please.  If you're making changes with an eye toward selling in just a few years, here are 4 upgrades you should avoid:

1. Adding a pool - It's an expensive addition, and expensive additions are the most difficult to recoup when selling a home. But even more important to a future sale is the fact that while some might love it, a pool will definitely shrink the number of potential buyers for your home. Why? For several reasons: Pools are expensive to maintain. Installation is just the beginning. After that there's cleaning and upkeep. Not everyone wants to or can afford to pay that extra cost of home maintenance. Pools are a safety hazard when there are young children in the family. Pools are considered an attractive nuisance – opening you up to liability should a neighbor's child drown.
2. Room conversions - Most people are looking for a basic home – one with 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and perhaps a garage.  So if you're planning to sell your home in Orlando, don't convert that 3^rd or 4^th bedroom into a specialized space that will be expensive to turn back into a bedroom. If you need an office, an exercise room, or a place to do crafts, move in the necessary furnishings and equipment, but leave the closet in place. Also - don't permanently reduce the number of bedrooms. I've seen people lower their home's value considerably by tearing out a wall to enlarge one bedroom while eliminating another.  It may be true that people love a roomy bedroom, but buyers with children want more bedrooms, regardless of their size.
3. Customization - When remodeling, stick with traditional styles, materials, and colors. Hand carved crown moldings, interior "barn doors," or pebble-glass backsplashes might thrill you – but send a potential buyer right back out the door.  Buyers who are interested based on your Orlando home's other features may offer less because they'll factor in the cost of removing the design details they dislike.
4. Over improving - It may make you feel good to own the nicest house in the neighborhood, but it will reduce your chances of a sale – at least at the price you want – for two reasons: 1) Those who want to live in the neighborhood won't be able to afford it. 2) Those who can afford it won't want to live in the neighborhood.

For best success, keep your house in the approximate value range of other homes nearby.   

If you live in an average neighborhood, but really want a spectacular kitchen range priced at $7,800, combined with granite counter tops and a refrigerator that retails for $12,000, do it for you – not with any thought of recouping the investment when it's time to sell. (Of course, if your home is already valued in the multi-millions, that's a different story. In that case, you'd better go high end)

If you'd like tips on what improvements WILL add value to your home, give me a call. I'll be glad to come by and share what I've learned through viewing homes with dozens of buyers over the years.