My Grandma never considered the internet when buying her first house, but these days it’s on all of our minds. Think about it this way. Would you buy a house if internet access was going to be impossible for some reason? Assuming we’re not talking about a secluded cabin somewhere, it’s safe to say most buyers would have a huge problem with that (not just Millennials either). Yes, there would probably be a value impact to not have internet, but the really intriguing part begins when we consider that what happens online or digitally at or around an address can also potentially impact value. This wasn’t even a part of the conversation just a handful of years ago, yet here we are.
Digital World Meets Real Estate: A few months back I heard of a house in Kansas that had 600 million IP addresses pointed toward it. If you don’t know, every computer has what is called an IP address, which is basically a string of numbers to identify that individual computer. Well, in this case due to a company’s digital mapping error it looked like 600 million computers were being used from this one location in Kansas, which led to a whole host of problems for the occupants. As the article states, the owners and tenants have “been accused of being identity thieves, spammers, scammers and fraudsters. They’ve gotten visited by FBI agents, federal marshals, IRS collectors, ambulances searching for suicidal veterans, and police officers searching for runaway children. They’ve found people scrounging around in their barn. The renters have been doxxed, their names and addresses posted on the internet by vigilantes. Once, someone left a broken toilet in the driveway as a strange, indefinite threat.”
Yikes. Assuming buyers knew about the IP address problem and unwanted visitors and threats, couldn’t a mistake in the digital world cause buyers to pay less? Or maybe renters would pay less? Appraisers, would this be considered external obsolescence?
BIG POINT: What happens online or digitally around an address just might impact value. Think of the advent of Pokemon Go and how a digital game has the power to bring customers to commercial properties or maybe even help increase use of neighborhood parks. Remember, if you’re tired of hearing about Pokemon Go, don’t worry because there will be many more games just like it in the near future. Again, the digital world and real estate are colliding, and we can expect more of that in coming years.
Questions: Would you buy a house without internet capabilities? What other types of activity online might impact a home’s value?
If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.