Posted on: 22nd Oct, 2009 07:10 am
hello out there. i have been looking all over for help and thought i would try here. here is my situation..
my husband and i are turning our used-to-be-disgusting unfinished basement into a full sized apartment, with full beautiful bathroom (2 times bigger than the one on the main floor), full sized kitchen, dining space, living space, huge bedroom, and office. we replaced the one crappy entrance with french doors, and added another entrance with french doors out from the bedroom. we are planning on putting a wrap-around porch on the outside, and hardwood flooring throughout (tile in the bathroom). we had to gut the entire basement and put in all new electrical, plumbing, pretty much an entire remodel.
the basement is the entire footprint of the house (i think around 1200 square feet). the house with 1 acre was appraised at $350000 last december 2008 before we started everything, and home values in my town have actually gone up average $24000 since then.
when we are finished, we want to refinance so we can pay off credit card debt. we are also doing all the work ourselves and getting free (expensive) hardwoood floors in exchange for work at another property. therefore, we cannot gauge roi.
anyone have any guesstimate how much i could expect the value to be at afterwards? thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
my husband and i are turning our used-to-be-disgusting unfinished basement into a full sized apartment, with full beautiful bathroom (2 times bigger than the one on the main floor), full sized kitchen, dining space, living space, huge bedroom, and office. we replaced the one crappy entrance with french doors, and added another entrance with french doors out from the bedroom. we are planning on putting a wrap-around porch on the outside, and hardwood flooring throughout (tile in the bathroom). we had to gut the entire basement and put in all new electrical, plumbing, pretty much an entire remodel.
the basement is the entire footprint of the house (i think around 1200 square feet). the house with 1 acre was appraised at $350000 last december 2008 before we started everything, and home values in my town have actually gone up average $24000 since then.
when we are finished, we want to refinance so we can pay off credit card debt. we are also doing all the work ourselves and getting free (expensive) hardwoood floors in exchange for work at another property. therefore, we cannot gauge roi.
anyone have any guesstimate how much i could expect the value to be at afterwards? thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Hi Guest,
It would be difficult to tell as to how much the value of the property would be when you finish the remodeling. You will have to appraise the property with the help of an appraiser. He will be the right person to let you know the value of the property.
It would be difficult to tell as to how much the value of the property would be when you finish the remodeling. You will have to appraise the property with the help of an appraiser. He will be the right person to let you know the value of the property.
So you will no longer have a single family home, you are turning into a two unit apartment building. The first thing you really need to do is call your zoning authority and find out if it is legal to do so. In most areas, you cannot make significant improvements without a permit. If it is illegal to add the basement apartment you may be required to remove the illegal improvements. If they are illegal they will add no value no matter how nice they are and may detract from value, because you may have broken the law.
That being said if it is legal the apartment may or may not add value, it depends on the market and exactly what you are doing. Do yourself a big favor, first check with your zoning authority and then the building department for the community you live in. Then go have an Appraisal done to see if it is worth doing, you may be throwing your money away. Just because you spend money does not mean you will get it back, unfortunately unless you can do the improvement yourself and give sweat equity, you will probably lose money in todays market. Most improvements like this in todays market are a big money pit loser. Be very careful, not all areas are the same, but most improvements done by contractors at normal prices you will lose and lose big.
That being said if it is legal the apartment may or may not add value, it depends on the market and exactly what you are doing. Do yourself a big favor, first check with your zoning authority and then the building department for the community you live in. Then go have an Appraisal done to see if it is worth doing, you may be throwing your money away. Just because you spend money does not mean you will get it back, unfortunately unless you can do the improvement yourself and give sweat equity, you will probably lose money in todays market. Most improvements like this in todays market are a big money pit loser. Be very careful, not all areas are the same, but most improvements done by contractors at normal prices you will lose and lose big.