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How a Hot Tub or Spa Affects the Value of Your Home
Sacramento home sellers may be asked to remove the spa by home buyers.
I’ve been meaning to write about how a how a hot tub or spa affects the value of your home but lately I’ve been sidetracked by other inspirations in the morning that divert my attention. Like my newsletter from About.com that asks the question how much have you pooped during your lifetime? You can enter your age, and it will tell you. Do you want to know? You know you do. You might be amazed to discover that when you reach the age of 64, you have pooped 23,000 pounds or about the weight equivalent of 95 baby elephants.
But back to whether a hot tub or spa affects the value of your home. In a nutshell, a hot tub or spa can decrease your value. See, I tried to soften the blow there by talking about baby elephants, but it didn’t help much, did it? Geez, I hope you didn’t just spend thousands of dollars installing a new spa in hopes of adding value to your home because that spa salesman said so.
We have a spa in our back yard in Land Park, Sacramento. Its days are numbered. The spa came with the house when we bought it some 14 years ago, and it was at least 10 years old then. Pieces are falling off; the gazebo is deteriorating, losing its integrity. Somehow, I did not notice the spa when we toured the home. Probably because the sellers were sitting at a picnic table stuck in the middle of our back yard, and we were focused on them. Plus, I was excited about moving from Minneapolis again back to California.
The first 10 years or so, I actually used the spa, but not so lately. For one thing, it’s way too hot in the summer in Sacramento to use a spa. The best times are during the rainy season, like December and January, months that I am generally traveling or in Hawaii for my winter wor-cations. We have replaced the cover, the motors, the jets, just about everything in the spa, but it’s probably 25 years. Time for the spa to go.
Not to mention, many home buyers do not like spas and will discount the value of a home due to a spa, especially an old spa, even if it works. They might insist a seller remove it. Spas are also a danger to small children, especially when the covers do not lock, as required by law. Spas are also not a fixture. Spas can be considered personal property, even though they are attached. It’s one of those odd exceptions.
In its place, we’ll probably build raised garden beds for flowers and vegetables. That’s a better use of the available space. If you’re thinking about installing a spa in your yard, talk to a Sacramento REALTOR and assess your plans for selling in the future. If you have no plans to sell, then by all means, install a spa for your personal enjoyment, but don’t do it if you plan to increase the value of your home. The way a spa affects the value of your home could later disappoint.
Laryngitis for a Sacramento Realtor Puts Mr. Natomas Seller in Perspective
While a Sacramento Realtor recovers from laryngitis, her cellphone is forwarded to a team member.
Coming down with laryngitis for this Sacramento Realtor makes it extremely difficult to call a seller in Natomas to get permission to retrieve my lockboxes on a pending sale that is not mine. I installed two lockboxes on this home, but that was before the seller broke his promise to hire me. Because of my laryngitis, I cannot say thank you, Mr. Natomas Seller, for begging me to accommodate you on my afternoon off to help with your trashed house in Natomas. Thank you for dragging me there. Thank you for listening to all of the wonderful ideas I gave you, not only how to fix up your home but how to file a claim for reimbursement.
Thank you for implementing every last detail and then taking the less confrontational way out at the last minute by emailing to say you changed your mind. That you decided to run after a less experienced agent who quoted you 1% less in commission. Because that $3,150 goes a long way toward your retirement. Or betting at a Reno crap table. Or for new Texas-sized tires on that F150 pickup. Or buying a hooker in Las Vegas. That 1% fee stood between the agent you deserved and the agent you got, which could be the agent you deserved, now that I stop to ponder.
That $3,150 you felt was so all-fired important that you overlooked the fact your cheaper agent listed the home for $10,000 less than I suggested. My idea was to list it $10,000 higher. That price most likely would have risen further during negotiations, and even if the home did not appraise, my strategy induces buyers to pony up. That $3,150 you “saved” resulted in being on the market under 24 hours and grabbing a fast offer, effectively cutting out the opportunity for multiple offers, which tend to result in higher offers. But having that 1% in your pocket is important, I understand. It’s your integrity or money. That $3,150 wins. I get it.
Thank you for installing the hardwood floors in the color choice I recommended. It looks beautiful. You can’t even tell the previous occupants had deposited bodily fluids all over the carpeting and walls. I hope for your sake there aren’t huge losses for you when the buyer either forces you to do repairs or to fork over more money as a credit after the home inspection. How much will you lose overall? It doesn’t matter, because you have that $3,150, right? You did not want to hire an agent with 40 years of experience. That’s OK. It’s your prerogative.
No, instead of calling you, Mr. Natomas seller, I struggled yesterday to answer my phone when it rang. It was a tenant, hoping a Sacramento Realtor would help her to find a rental. I explained, in little bits and pieces of high squeaks / grunts that I could not talk; I have laryngitis, on top of which agents do not help tenants find rentals in Sacramento. I apologized. Sacramento is still a small town. I said I was sorry that she could not hear me very well because my throat was incredibly sore. I could not talk. Words are painful for me.
Instead, the tenant caller pressed on, asked if I could give her recommendations . . .
She reminded me of you, Mr. Natomas Seller.
And now that I have my lockboxes, there is no longer a reason for us to talk, even if I could; it doesn’t matter. Laryngitis clears up in a week or so. Exploitation in a person’s nature is much a more difficult deficiency to cure.
Adding an Extra Bathroom to Your Sacramento Home
Adding an extra bath can cost less than buying a home with two baths in Sacramento.
Adding an extra bathroom to your Sacramento home is the single best value booster you can do if you buy a home with one bath. Now, I realize many people are wary of home improvement projects for a lot of reasons, most of it having to do with lack of knowledge . . . and lack of knowledge can produce fear. Fear produces resistance. And resistance results in no action at all. I have discovered this little scenario first-hand when I bought my very first home, so I speak from experience as well. Fortunately, I got over it. Knowledge is power.
Not knowing anything about construction or how you would go about adding an extra bathroom in Sacramento should not result in passing up a perfectly marvelous home because it features only one bath and you want two baths. Every home buyer in Sacramento wants at least two baths in a house, but some settle due to price restraints, or they fall in love with the neighborhood, ultimately the home, so they buy a one bath house and wonder what to do next.
The thing is once you understand construction, there is nothing scary about it all. I recall when I remodeled a bath many years ago and decided to add a row of block glass as a window at the top of my shower. It involved a supporting wall. That was a little frightening to me. What if the roof fell in? But I hired a contractor who installed windows for a major supplier in town and he framed it for $200. Well, actually he charged me $75, and I gave him a bonus because he underpriced his work. See? Costs are all over the place. You can’t really Google it and get an estimate. You need to talk to contractors.
I began reading home improvement books to understand the scope of the work involved and to get a feel for dealing with contractors. It is not rocket science. Not nearly as complicated as you might imagine. I’ve known people with the intelligence level of plant life who work on plumbing, for example. I’ve built my own garage with my own two hands. Further, when we bought our present home in Land Park, there was no gas line into the kitchen. My contractor charged us $400 to add a gas line from the gas meter, and that was probably too much. Now we have a gas stove. Yet, I’ve seen buyers pass on a home with an electric range.
When I was in the market (yes, even Sacramento Realtors can act just like a buyer and forget about a Realtor hat) and touring homes in Land Park, my husband and I insisted on looking only at two-bath homes, which we eventually bought. But I passed up a perfectly gorgeous Tudor on Markham because it had only one bath. In hindsight, it would have cost about $15,000 to have added an extra bathroom to that home. Yet we paid a lot more for our home, much more than that home on Markham cost, simply because our home had two baths.
So, I urge you not to mirror this mistake. If you love the home you’re looking at but you need to add an extra bathroom, consider adding an extra bathroom. Contrary to popular belief, it is not expensive, even if you have to add the bath to the exterior. The cost of new construction in Sacramento averages around $185 to $200 a square foot. This means a 10×10 bath could cost around $20,000. Why pay $50,000 or $100,000 more for a 2-bath home when you could just add an extra bathroom? If your dream home happens to have only one bath, don’t pass it up.
Do You Struggle When Making Decisions?
Do not be hard on yourself if you struggle with making decisions.
Decisions, decisions. You know how some people really struggle with making decisions? Like, should I buy a home? Should I move into this neighborhood or should I take the offer we just received on our Sacramento home? Those are major decisions that require processing, and everybody works on a different timeframe. Sometimes even minor decisions are a struggle such as what color should I paint my walls? Should I cut my hair? Should I stretch my earlobes to flaunt quarter-sized gauges? Should I shoot up heroin?
I am reaching back into my brain trying to find a time in my life when I seriously had trouble making a decision. I am one of those people who can quickly come to a conclusion and decide. Not a predicament for me. Even though I fully realize that with every decision I make, it means abandoning a ton of other decisions that are no longer an option.
I suspect that’s the part that bothers many other people. It’s not the decision itself, it’s the roads not taken. The regrets that people fear.
A long time ago in another land a wise person once said to me, “Make your decision and then make your decision right.” Most people do that anyway, in a natural way. If you give them enough time.
The reason I can be so patient with my clients in Sacramento real estate is because I understand the reluctance to make a decision, and am emphatic to the anguish that decisions can cause for so many people.
My interaction is to inform, educate and guide. Clients can make their own decisions in their own time. I don’t push anybody. I listen instead. Part of the reason sellers hire this Sacramento Realtor to list a home, for example, is because they don’t want a bumpy escrow. No drama here. They rely on my 40-some years in the business to ensure they don’t make mistakes, to maintain a smooth process, and guard against unsavory tactics that can fluster a less experienced agent.
Sometimes I’m just a sounding board. Should I or shouldn’t I, people ask. I can provide direction but only the decision maker who asked the question can choose.
Can You Get an FHA Loan on That Sacramento Home?
Many homes in Sacramento can meet guidelines for buyers to get an FHA loan.
Whether you can get an FHA loan on that home in Sacramento depends partly on the financing terms offered in the listing. And that depends on whether the listing was completed correctly by the listing agent. Some agents use templates; they don’t always proofread the documents before obtaining signatures and uploading the information into MLS, so they make mistakes. They might say a home is for sale with FHA terms when it is not or they might eliminate that form of financing when they meant to include it.
On top of this, if you ask the Sacramento listing agent if you can get an FHA loan on that home, some of those agents will undoubtedly not know the answer. If you ask if the listing is correct, the listing agent also might not recall whether she listed it with or without FHA terms. So it can be pointless to ask the listing agent these questions, and you also take a chance that the listing agent might tell you no, absolutely no FHA financing, when that could be a false statement as well. See the dilemma?
For example, take a condo complex in which many of the units are not owner occupied. In other words, the rental units exceed the number of owner-occupied units. That percentage alone is often enough to make the complex not a viable situation for an FHA loan, but that is not always the case. There are some complexes in which a buyer can obtain an exemption and still purchase the home with FHA financing.
The person to ask about that is your mortgage lender. I also know a Wells Fargo loan officer who has recently cleared underwriting with an FHA loan on a condo complex that is mostly occupied by tenants. That complex is not on the FHA approved list, either, so you can’t rely on that list.
If it’s a home that is listed without FHA terms, a buyer might consider whether she is willing to bring the home up to FHA standards in order to write an FHA offer that the seller will accept. Perhaps the home was built prior to 1978 and has peeling paint on the eaves. A buyer can offer to paint the eaves to get an FHA loan, relieving the seller of the liability and hassle, and that offer might go through.
But the one thing you don’t do is write an offer with an FHA loan requirement for a home advertised without those terms by assuring the seller you will take care of any issues and then later refuse to comply. Make sure you know what you are getting into when you initially view the home. If your agent can’t explain FHA repair guidelines to you (some cannot), ask your mortgage lender for assistance. Video record the home, note defects, tally the expenses and be fully informed prior to making an offer.
Be ready for a weird thing to pop up in underwriting because it can happen. But if you want the home, that’s what you do. If you need help buying a home in Sacramento, call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759.
