Do your appliances impact your property value? Now obviously the answer is yes, but the bigger question is how much do they impact it. To what degree?
I'll tell you a quick story to get this over for you. Oftentimes when we're helping someone sell a house, they ask us what we do to increase their property value. We always do that presale assessment. What will help, what will hurt and what will drive value? They really wanted to drive value up. The interesting thing is that they had clean, well-maintained appliances.
They had a really nice house and they had redone the kitchen, but they had not updated the appliances. Our only suggestion was to finish the job and update the appliances. We told them we felt like if they went to higher-end appliances, it would communicate a much higher value home and kitchen.
The kitchen truly is the heart of the home. This is where HGTV gets it right: that kitchen, the master bedroom, and bathroom are the primary drivers of how a residential property is valued probably nine times out of 10. So this kitchen looked great, and the appliances were fine, but they didn't look as great as everything else. So we actually had them take out adequate appliances and call our buddy Eddie over at Elite Appliance right here in Dallas who does amazing work.
Eddie helped them to design the right appliances to fit the space they had in their kitchen. They were able to get a double oven and where they previously had a single. They were able to do a drawer microwave, which is one of my favorite things. In a space where they had a useless cabinet, they were able to recapture some counter space and then put in a beautiful range that was definitely not the cheapest one they could find.
They communicated a totally different lifestyle in this home and they were blown away by the increased from what we had previously valued the home at and how we were able to sell it even above that. And it wasn't entirely because of the appliances. We utilized a number of effective marketing strategies, but we are certain that the change in the appliance has added well over $10,000 to the sale price of this home.
So they obviously spent some money on those appliances They spent a couple thousand dollars and came out ahead four or five times what they had spent on it in equity gains and profit from the sale of their home. They weren't “investors.” They were just homeowners getting ready to sell a home that they had enjoyed and lived in for a long time. So hopefully that illustrates the point. Appliances do impact your property value.
Now don't do the opposite. Don't go get super nice appliances to put in a cruddy house. If you've got a nice house, nicer appliances can really dress up the kitchen. Think about these things. Think about the nuances that may feel like small items for you but could put huge check in your pocket when it comes to selling a home.
If you have questions about this or anything else, give us a call. Give us a call anytime we can help you buy, sell, invest or improve your property value.
