Resale
When talking to some professionals about what I want to do with the house a couple of them have mentioned resale stuff. For some odd reason this is one of those little things that nearly set me off. I can't explain it but the mention of resale touches a nerve. Calmly, I say that I intend to stay in this house until offered a dream job (I like my current job and employer) or marriage.Since I intend to stay in the house for a number of years I don't want to invest in something for somebody else. When I was posting on the Washington Post Real Estate discussion board I would write that I didn't see the logic of doing something for the sake of resale if the people intended to stay longer than 5 years. Mainly because whatever you put in will be 5 years older when you sell. Will granite counter tops be the hot thing 5 years from now? Maybe. Remember Corian? I have Corian, but I only picked it because it is more forgiving with dishes than stone. Maybe future owners may want zinc, concrete, recycled glass, I don't know, and I don't care.
I live in this house with the idea that once I get rid of the crack head features, it will be the best reflection of Me that I can afford. Resale is the furthest thing from my mind. I figure whoever comes after me will move in and tear down or paint over whatever they don't like. What I do for the house will be for me. The color and type of floors, the texture of the ceiling, the light fixtures, the tile in the bathroom, layout of the kitchen, all for me. Me. Me. Me.
What I am trying to do for future residents is strengthen the bones of the structure. There are cracks in the wall. Need to get a professional's opinion of exactly why and what I need to do to remedy them. I would like to be able to sell something that may have 100 or more years in it to go.
posted by Mari @ 23.8.06
5 Comments:
It is refreshing to hear such a stance on home ownership, non-resale, and remodeling just for YOU. Sing it, Sister.
All I tend to hear from the circles I run with is all about flipping and resale. Nobody seems to be interested in simply living somewhere. I want _real_ neighbors, not ephemerals!
good for you! I completley agree & hope to stay in my house indefinitely.
let me guess, plaster? nasty stuff after 100 years. choices are patch & let the walls build character, remove and replace with drywall (really gross job), or drywall right over it. mine are cracking but i'm letting them be for now until painting time.
Absolutely agree! My husband and I constantly struggle with how much we should spend on the renovations but at the end of the day, we have to live there. And while we're fixing "structure" with renovations, lets add in a few nice upgrades we can enjoy. Those designed-to-sell shows make me so sad for the owners who hated the wall paper or avacado colored toilet, but didn't fix it until they sold. So they spend just a few hundred dollars to fix something that bugged them, just to make it pretty and liveable for someone else. I want to enjoy my (bank-owned) house.
The reality in these old homes is that most of the cost of renovation won't result in net return on investment...we'll just get comfort knowing the house isn't going to fall in on us (fingers-crossed!).
Yup, plaster. I hate the "solution" someone put up... textured paint. It is all over. ALL OVER the 2nd floor. And it isn't even uniform. Some parts, so pointy you can scratch your back on them. Some cracks I just got the fiberglass mesh and threw some putty over it. But other cracks are a bit more worrisome.
Finally someone who remembers homes are built to be lived in! Good for you! The flipper crowd is on the verge of a big disappointment.
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