It all depends. If it is a high end home there is an expectation that the home will be unique. But if you are somewhere near the average it is different I think.

We had a similar home for sale - a more contemporary home in a sea of traditional homes. While the home got a lot of interest because of the style and upgrades, we did not really get more for it. We got a decent price, similar per square foot to the other homes in the neighborhood. And it sold fast. At that mid level people are looking more for homes like their friends have and they are not going to pay too much extra. One piece of feedback we got was "too much tile." That was expensive tile lol! I heard from the realtor that the first thing the buyer is going to do is tear out the Italian ceramic tile and put in HD dollar a foot carpeting. Oh well...as long as the check clears...

The appraisal does look at finish level. That is, hardwood floors are going to count for more than carpet. To a certain degree. If it is way over the top for your neighborhood you are not going to get your money back.

Good luck!

Thanks JN! Yes, our home is in starter, cookie cutter neighborhood, although we have lot of pluses and am sure we will sell in no time .. we will have to wait and watch.

Although heard recently from one of our neighbors that your home is great due to the upgrades.. all my appliances and home is falling apart due to it being over 15 years. :-)

We sold a house in a similar situation a couple of years ago. While we did not recoup our investment in higher end upgrades, we did sell much quicker than similar homes for sale at the same time.

Hmm this has been a revelation--All this is making me lean towards renting it out rather than selling it at this point.

What kind of upgrades did you do?

You may have trouble selling it if you try to price it to recoup the upgrades. You never want to own the most expensive house in the neighborhood. If someone had "x" to spend, they will usually try to spend it by buying into the nicest neighborhood they can afford, even if the house needs upgrades, because then when they sell, they won't have a problem. Hopefully you didn't overimprove for the neighborhood.

I have a client now that is in that situation. He owns the largest house in the neighborhood. Most homes are 1200-1800 SF. His home is 2700. The highest priced home in the neighborhood is 157k. He wants to ask 187k for his. The neighborhood isn't great, but that 187k will buy a decent home that is about 2300 sf in a nicer neighborhood. So he is going to have a tough time selling it unless he makes it cheap enough per sf that someone can't resist.

Exactly...

Here is the link to the upgrades that were made to the home, pics from during the construction/renovation. We enjoyed living in it and we got tonnes of compliments-- we love it even now. Although we learnt a lesson for our next home-- the mantra being square footage.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8gidG-zgRRrfkwzd081QkJuNWJNLXpkYkFaaklXY3luZnlSS05WZnNUVWl1bG0tdFBNMWc&usp=sharing

Well it looks like you upgraded it some, but at least not out of the line for the neighborhood with the IKEA kitchen. However depending on how much you spent you probably won't recoup it all. Yours would likely command a higher price than a non-updated home in your neighborhood, but without knowing the area and prices it would be hard to say how much. In my area it might mean a selling price of 10K more than the non-updated starter homes in a cookie cutter neighborhood, but it would mean it would sell faster.

Realize if you want to rent it your house will never look as good as it does now and that may be fine with you as you want to become a long term landlord, but if not as time goes your updates will become out of date, old, and worn and tenants aren't always as careful with things as the owner would like.

No matter what someone wants to pay, they won't get financing unless the appraisal is in line with the selling price - see the thread I started on low appraisal. That's why the upgrades won't give you much more than comparable properties, even if they need more cosmetic updates.

In my area a lot of folks go with FSBO, but the buyers expect to share in the savings from the real estate commission and/or have a buyer's agent, so I don't know that you really net much more. JMHO.

we cleaned it up and are ready for appraisers..

Those appliances are really higher quality than would be expected for a starter home (or even a mid-range house in many areas!). You haven't said where you are moving to, or what you will need at your new place. Have you considered taking the appliances with you? I don't think they will return anywhere near what they cost when you sell the house, and you would likely come out ahead overall purchasing lower grade/used appliance replacements for the sale and not having to repurchase upgraded appliances in the new place.

gyr-- Thanks for noticing them. Yes, my husband is now thinking of taking the stainless steel fridge with us to save us some cost after all this discussion.

Here is the list of kitchen appliances:

Miele Dishwasher

GE Cafe Range

Jenn Air Fridge

Black Galaxy (level 4) Granite counter tops.

I'd say it completely depends on your area. In my area, pretty much identical houses with very similar, if not identical, square footage and layout (all part of a development from the 70s) will range from 760K to 935K (sold price) depending on the inside.

Also, as an aside, IKEA kitchen show up in that price range or higher.

in our neighborhood a house that was never upgraded at all sold for about $40k less than a house with the same floor plan that was upgraded. i do think that upgrades like your kitchen and bathrooms will add value however a buyer won't pay extra for a miele dw or a ge cafe range as they probably won't know they are special. i was told by a kd that people will pay for more for granite/quartz counters but the value will be in line with the lowest level granite so if you go high end, you won't see the $$ returned.

we also have over improved for our neighborhood but it was a conscious decision based on home prices spiking since we built our house. there was nothing as nice as our house/lot in our price range. i know a house is not truly an investment and my husband reminds me frequently "you have to pay to live somewhere"

I think it depends on the price point, location, the space, and finding the right buyer. I DID actually buy our house because of updated appliances, space and location. It was a unique situation, as many home ownership decisions can be.

With the updates, I don't think you can price yourself too far out of your neighborhood. Being updated, you probably have wiggle room of 10 to 30K of comparable homes, depending on your area. In my area, school district rules the resale values. Houses in our school district sell, while those in the next district sell for 10K less and take longer.

People often go with flat listing or FSBO here for family homes because there is a strong demand for this school district. In other cases, I am not sure it is a benefit.