Buying A Home
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Help! Need advise from buyers!
We are looking to sell our home and we have a predicament. Our basement is not finished but there is a very nice new bathroom down there as well as a room for the washer and drier. So our realtor gave us this option 1. Finish the basement and list the house for $139,000 or 2. Don't finish the basement and list it for $129,000. The basement remodel would cost about $4,000 but my DH (who has a construction background and is up-to-date with building code) would do it so it would take a lot of time. The rest of the house is BRAND NEW. The hardwood floors were just refinished, the kitchen is being installed next week, both bathrooms were just remodeled, the landscaping is spot on, and everything was just painted. Our house looks like a pottery barn magazine. So, as buyers, what do you think about the basement? Deal breaker? I'm just so stuck and our realtor isn't sure the basement would help it sell faster.
Re: Help! Need advise from buyers!
How quickly do you need to sell your home? Since it would only cost you about $4,000 to finish the basement, that might be the way to go so long as your not in a hurry to move out.
On the other hand, finishing the basement may end up costing more than the anticipated amount. Seems like that always happens.
I recommend looking at comps in your area to see what you'd be competing with. If a lot of the homes in your price range have finished basements, that's probably the way to go.
The bold. My H is a carpenter by trade and his dad was a construction boss before he retired and we made an educated guess that we could finish our unfinished basement in 4-6 months and on no more then 20,000 to put a full suite in....
Well almost 40,000 dollars later and 11 months later we just finished it. Costs always seem come out of no where, and honestly, at least in our area, won't sell the house. There are more people who are looking for unfinished basements (we were, and we have talked to lots of realtors in our area) then there are people willing to pay more for a finished one, because people either want to personalize it, save the money buy buying unfinished, don't need the extra space or want to suite it like us.
I wouldn't finish it and honestly, thats not enough of a price difference for me to consider putting more work into a house I am already trying to leave. Theres no garuntee you will get the extra when its all said and done anyways.
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Depends on the size of the home for me. If the basement would add significant living space to a home that has equal or less sqft than the average home in the area, then yes it might make it worth it. But if the home is already bigger than average and there is plenty of room, then I doubt I would care.
Plus. How badly would you need the $4k later on? Is it spare cash you don't need anytime soon or are you saving it for something? What if you went over budget and it cost $7-8k, could you spare that much and not be in a pinch later? Or would you need to borrow to finance the remodel?
If you have plenty of cash laying around and the home is a title low on sqft, then maybe. Otherwise, I wouldn't do the remodel of the basement,
Thanks again! I really appreciate your input!! I think we are going to put flooring down but stop there. We really have to cover the current floor because when we pulled up the old carpet the backer was stuck to the concrete. We got it off, but it left the concrete discolored so it looks horrible! We are just going to put an epoxy floor down so whoever comes along can put carpet, tile, or hardwoods right over it.
The reason we were going to do the ceiling is because then we could put better lighting down there. We really wanted to put in a nice lighting system so that people could see how open and spacious it is, but I think we are just going to deal without it.
The money isn't really an issue because whatever we make on this house will be bonus. It's almost impossible to not make money on it. It was a foreclosure and we have stayed on budget for the whole project.
I wouldn't finish it. At the end of the day it might not make you that much money. Say you go overbudget and spend 6 k on finishing it. Then you list it at 139, you likely aren;'t going to get 139,000. So say you get 134,000 for it ,well then you are only really making the difference for what you would have sold it for without the finished basement.
It's hard to give an answer because we don't know where you live, and obvisously,the area you live in is affordable if buyers can purcahse a fully renovated home at such a low cost. With that said, as a buyer, it wouldn't matter to me if a home had a finished basement or not, unless it added signatifcantly to the value of the home, and I don't think finishing your basement does.
I think you should leave the basement unfinished.
As a seller, it will save you $4000+ because you just never know what will come up cost wise.
As a buyer, an unfinished basement would not be a deal breaker. I would actually prefer unfinished. My husband and I were looking at a house that was all updated as far as appliances, fixtures, paint, etc. Thats all fine and great, but you are kind of limited on what you can do to make it "yours" as so much is already done to it. So that might be something to think about. Maybe your realtor can find a way to touch on the fact that the unfinished basement allows for making the home suitable for all wants and needs?
I would leave it unfinished as well. As a buyer we looked at homes that had possible potential down the road to have a finished basement, but it was never a deal breaker. You could always "show" people the potential they would have if they finished the basement themselves by making it feel cozy with area rugs and maybe even painting the walls and concrete floor. This way you're not investing a lot of money but you're showing potential buyers what potential the basement does have.
That was a lot of potentials lol