Design Your Home With Resale in Mind

Resale Value Considerations in Custom Home Buildings

Who thinks about resale value when building a custom home? While it may seem odd for a person who’s building a new home to think about selling it, it’s important to address what you want and what the market wants even in the initial planning stages. If you’re not careful, you may design your dream home and find that no one else will buy it later!

Designing For A  Broader Market

Most people who build custom homes are financially sound. For the most part, they are able to build beautiful, quality homes because they’ve been making good financial decisions for many years. As you go through your design process, be certain you get wise counsel from your builder, architect, designer, and possibly a real estate salesperson to be sure you’re not building a home that only your family will like. Balance your wants and needs for the home of your dreams with potential market appeal for future resale.

You are probably not building your dream home as a spec home (a home without an end buyer before construction begins, generally built with an intended profit), so be careful not to include design features that are not what the broad market is asking for. An experienced builder will guide you through the design process and help protect your investment. Once you have the facts, it’s your responsibility to make your own design decisions. If you proceed to design and build a home that only appeals to a very narrow market, then at least you are aware of that (and the consequences) in the early stages of the design process.

Sometimes homes linger on the market for a long time because a homeowner made design decisions without taking into account the long- term resale effects. 

How Long Are You Going to Live Here?

If you ask someone who is ready to build a new home, they will often tell you that “This is the last home I will ever build. They will have to bury me in the back yard.” Recent surveys show that most people live in their home an average of five years, and you’re probably not much different. You may be thinking, but this really is going to be my last home. And if it is, that’s great. But you may want to consider the reality of averages.

Susan took more than a year to design her new home for her family, only to discover she was way over budget. She also realized that by the time she completed her home construction, all but one of her five children would be away at college, and she had designed bedrooms for each of them! Reality finally dawned on her—within a few short years, she and her husband would be empty-nesters. Designing her home for a family of seven thinking this would be her home for the rest of her life didn’t fit the reality of Susan’s imminent transition to a home for two.

Strike a Balance in Design

When designing your custom home, first design for your immediate needs. Second, take into account what market conditions will allow for your particular home design. Third, give strong consideration to how long you may live in your home. Susan may shift gears and design a home that’s perfect for her family’s needs for the next five to seven years, with a plan to downsize at that time. With this more realistic outlook, she may give additional consideration to the resale value of her choices.

Don’t make the mistake of over-designing a home that may become obsolete for your family within a short period of time. It’s always a good idea to consider designing your home for Aging- In-Place. Good Aging-In-Place considerations will include an elevator (or shaft), curbless showers, wider doorways, lever door handles, and an extra emphasis on lighting to name a few. This will allow you to live in the home as long as you want or provide better resale-ability should you choose to sell your home in the future.

BOTTOM LINE

Find the balance between what you want and what the market wants. Be realistic about your short term and long term needs and how long you will live in your home then design accordingly.

-Sean Sullivan