It’s usually good to stand out in real estate – but not for odd reasons. Here are some of the fun things I’ve seen during the business day on appraisal inspections. These are probably things to avoid doing to your house.
NFL Driveway: I am a huge sports fan and diehard sports talk radio listener, but spray painting a dozen stencils of your favorite team’s logo on your concrete driveway doesn’t make the neighborhood look good.
Blue Cabinets: Most buyers aren’t looking for blue cabinetry, so if you’re going to do some painting, stick with a color that works well for the resale market. Right now I see most owners painting their cabinets a shade of white or sometimes a darker cherry wood color.
Battle in the Front Yard: This lawn gets points for creativity, but most neighbors probably aren’t hoping to find a battle scene next door.
Car on the Lawn: I understand if there is no room on the street to park a vehicle. However, it does not foster a positive image for the community to park on the lawn in a typical suburban neighborhood. That’s just how it is. If you’re interested in improving a neighborhood experiencing signs of decay, make sure to check out my “Blight Week” series. There is always hope to see neighborhoods improve.
Religious Messages: This one might feel a bit personal and I hope to not cross a professional line, but keep in mind I’m a practicing Christian. Let your actions and words show God’s love – not your garage door. This doesn’t really help a house sell and it doesn’t promote the principle of conformity in real estate either. It’s fine to decorate with religious symbols and slogans during holidays and seasons because that shows pride and helps a neighborhood feel festive, but a permanent message is maybe a bit much.
Custom Air Vent: If you plan to convert the garage, it would be a better idea to not run the vent through the Living Room to get to the garage.
Door to Nowhere: This is a door on the second story of a building with a decent drop to the parking lot below. Maybe the interior has drywall, so the door truly cannot be opened, but generally speaking it’s a good idea to have doorways lead to stairs or balconies. I took this picture on J & 20th in Midtown Sacramento.
I hope you enjoyed the images of some of the fun things I see while doing my job. Make sure to check out Stuff You Shouldn’t Do to Your House Part II. What do you think? What would you add to the list above?
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Love the photos, Ryan! LOL!
Today, my “Subject du jour” used to be a cool mid-century post-modern Eichler home but they moved the kitchen into the converted garage. What a shame.
And, if you happen to have any 900sqft 3/1 homes turned into 2,100+sqft 6/3 duplexes…I’m gonna need some of those :/
Glad you enjoyed the photos. Wow, that sounds like a complicated property and a sincerely fun BPO. 🙂 If I run across any comps, I’ll let you know. It’s not easy to find those ones sometimes.
The wheels on that Cadillac may be worth more than the house it’s parked in front of. Great stuff Ryan.
Expensive wheels indeed, Marty. Thanks for the kudos and comment.
The sad part is that the wheels may have held their value better than the house over the past few years.
Oh, the pain of the housing market. Patrick, maybe wheels could be a new metric for home value. This house is realistically probably worth about 55K unless it’s updated. The cosmetic fixer across the street just sold at 54K. Assuming a cost of $1,500 for the rims, they are 2.7% of the value of the house. 🙂
The rims are worth more than the cars.
The use of stones in the forntyard, and the interior materials are very attractive and usefull to increase a value of the property.