I live in a wonderful neighborhood that has many beautiful older homes…. and we actually call it the estate area of New Rochelle. When my husband and I first purchased our house, I remember how USAA would not insure the house as it WAS too old for them.. not realizing that these are beautiful homes that if taken care of, are splendid…Many of the homes were built in the early 1900’s with simply grand architectural details, stained glass windows, molding, beautiful hardwood floors…… but the one area that does not improve with age is the basement!
I have entered 2 Million dollar houses and you not only need a flashlight (exaggeration but you get the dungeon feeling) when you enter the basement…. piled high with memorabilia that will have to be thrown out before the closing, 2 older refrigerators, asbestos, and maybe some mold…. a friend told he that he has a flow-thru basement… when it rains, the water flows thru!….If only home-owners would think to tidy up their basement in addition to the living areas… it would really improve the sales price of the home especially since so many people today like everything new with seemingly no issues.
An associate asked me to help price a home in New Rochelle… a magnificent Tudor with pool, 7 bedrooms and located on over 0.60 of an acre. I loved the house.. but I mentioned that I would be giving her two prices, one with the basement emptied and painted and one without that being accomplished… Since she had been asking the owner to empty out the house, she felt she could only ask for so much…. but she did mention the other day that the basement held them back…
I have to mention that I am always leery of a newly painted basement as you don’t know if they are covering up water issues, mold issues….but at the same time, to just clean out the basement, having it smell nice goes a long way to help sell it! Plus, you can always take some photos before and after showing that the basement was in good condition – just needed the cleaning and painting.
Another suggestion is to take photos of a house before it is spruced up to sell…. and what it looks like afterwards, and you can use those photos when you go on a listing presentation… ask the home-owner- which home would you rather buy?
Have a good one! Gay