Upgrades That Can Actually Lower Local Home Values

Renovations and upgrades will increase anybody’s Bainbridge Island home values, right?

Maybe…but not so fast! Believe it or not, some projects can actually diminish a Bainbridge Island property’s home values. In other words, you could potentially lose more than the cost of the project: you could lower your home’s ultimate resale value as well!

One of the most common examples is the overly ambitious landscaping project. Who doesn’t love a well-tailored garden or a perfectly maintained backyard? Yet, as HGTV’s Sabrina Soto, host of “The High/Low Project” points out, overdoing it can be counterproductive. To some potential buyers, too much landscaping could equal increased maintenance (meaning more work and expense). When the balance isn’t right, turned-off prospective buyers can bring lower offers. When it comes to landscaping, the idea is to keep up with the Joneses, not outdo them.

Another potential trouble spot comes when a remodeling effort goes into converting a spare bedroom. Especially because local property records can record a home’s structural description over the course of the years, a change in the number of bedrooms from four to three can mean home values headed in the wrong direction. It’s also the kind of change that can give rise to skeptical queries in prospective buyers’ minds — running the gamut from “why exactly did they convert the bedroom into another room?”” to “what else have they changed that we’d better know about?”

Any creative, off-the-beaten-path design upgrades can create more problems than solutions. You might think that a potential buyer would look at what they view as an unsuitable paint color and think, “Well, that’s just a few hours of work.” But few buyers want to spend their free time painting…especially when it’s on top of custom textures. Soto says that textured walls are difficult to sand and downright nasty to remove. Home values are usually better served by skipping the fancy textures and sticking to neutral colors.

Home values in Bainbridge Island have been on the rise, so before making any moves that could wind up being counter-productive, if you are preparing to sell this fall, why not call me for an up-to-date market assessment?