Advice please ... will an external laundry decrease our house value?
Emily Flores
3 years ago
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rvog
3 years agoEmily Flores
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Value of staging (in general and this home in particular)
Comments (31)WOW... looks like a spread from Better Homes & Gardens! Rather than waste the $$ on a dubious "stager", I'd spend similar dollars for a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER to shoot and compile a great ALBUM, as is often done for premium props. *They* (the photog) will do the staging for "free", as part of the job... a 2-fer. ;') Rather than posting fewer pics, to "lure" buyers to visit, you want a sales "package" that's so complete, out-of-town (and int'l) buyers feel compelled to drop a deposit over the phone, just to "hold" it! I have family in Lilburn, and thought I had some knowledge of Alpharetta... can only surmise that your distance from ATL, smallish lot, and possibly "bad" roads, is the reason your property is not appraised at 7-figures. Your "realtor" and her behavior are pushing my skepticism gauge deep into the red! In addition to the oft-mentioned and obvious kickbacks mentioned above, consider some more sinister scenarios: 1) Realtor (licensed?) and/or Stager are new to biz, or returning to biz after long hiatus, and your home is SO juicy--in the photogenic sense--that one or both of these "service" providers wants to use it in their own sales materials, e.g. brochures, etc... so they REALLY need it to be "picture perfect". Having you pay for their benefit is part of the CON. Under GA law, you may have no rights to prevent this, or charge $$ for this, after house is sold... not sure. 1a) Same as (1), but some cable TV or infomercial angle is involved... behind your back. Red flag if they want you gone "all day" for an "open house". 2) SUPER naughty: Realtor is deliberately low-balling you, so her "straw" buyer (aka sister/brother with different last name) can get a screaming deal, and/or FLIP your house! =:O Your totally NON-distressed situ = hold out for high end of price range. Someone will fall in LOVE with what it offers. The US Dollar is dropping again... make sure listing is available to key INTERNATIONAL markets. As noted above, the Jumbo loan market is more than a little skittish right now, so your buyers are going to be "liquid" folks who can bring ~$150k cash to the deal. THAT is who you need to reach. PS: What is the SIZE of that lake, in acres?...See MoreWould love your valued feedback on kitchen layout please
Comments (14)lisa_a... I am flabbergast! The ideas originating from this forum never cease to amaze me. That folks are able to take layouts and turn it around in a matter of hours, or less, and churn out something completely different simply amazes and delights me. Alright, DH loves your layout. He likes having a dedicated area for our kids near us, and especially one that is directly across and in line of sight of kitchen. We will likely still make our guest bedroom upstairs our office so kids aren't mucking in our stuff (missed bills are not a good thing!). While we'll keep the main floor office for our kids. It just makes sense to give them a space for arts & crafting/reading/playing while we cook. It'll also be easier to help them with homework later on, and yes, definitely easier to keep an eye on them surfing the internet. Concerns... We do entertain and have BBQs often in our backyard during the summer months. The most used path to our backyard is via the kitchen. Will the 42" entryway be sufficient space for people to go in and out of? Also, I'm not sure about putting a down-to-counter dish hutch by that backdoor. Post-BBQ, it's often a steady stream of dishes back into the kitchen for clean up. Would maximizing counter space here be more practical for post-party clean up? Did you perhaps mean an upper cabinetry-only dish hutch? That would afford me both cabinets and counter space. I really like the fridge location in your layout. Makes for an easy path to unload and store groceries when we get home from shopping. Should prep sink be relocated to fridge end of island instead? The current layout has both sinks so close to each other that I wonder if it's worth the extra money to put in two sinks. Also, assuming my dishes are stored in cabinets/drawers near the sink. Is that too far from the dining area? If I store them in buffet counter area, then I'd be carrying them across the kitchen from dishwasher to dining area. No matter what, a trek seems unavoidable. Any tips on how to get around/minimize this? Note, one of my kids' task when they feel up to helping is to put away dishes in dishwasher. So I've spent the past few hours trying to rework the layout to see if I can keep the existing wall between dining room and kitchen. This would save us a good chunk of money since that is a load bearing wall, whose removal would require us to put in a recessed steel beam. I've tried making our current dining room into kids' office/play area with pocket doors (we're loving the pocket doors!) and our office the dining area with perimeter counter space, but just haven't been able to make it work. Sigh! So it looks like the money will have to be spent. One improvement though (I think). I loathe the narrow hallway we currently have. It just seems like dead space to me. So rather than keep it, I've modified your layout to put our coat closet and duct work in the existing hallway space instead. This allows for a wider entry to the dining/kitchen area. This new closet would also be deeper that what we currently have, so I'd be willing to forgo the closet nook as I can stuff things into the deeper closet and also in the main floor office. I'm also tempted to extend the powderoom to 72" so the sink can go across the toilet, thus making the powder room foot print narrower and opening up the entry to the dining room even more. If I do this, I can then reposition the door as debrak2008 suggested to prevent toilet views....See MoreHelp with our home, please....
Comments (23)Have you gotten a survey done? We bought a very beautiful but challenging piece of land that has a stream bisecting it. It turns out it had a 1,000 year flood plain area in it because of the stream. The results of the survey ended up determining the shape of the house because all we were left with once the flood plain and setbacks were taken into consideration was a triangular shaped piece of property. Instead of the rectangular house we had hoped for we ended up designing an L-shaped house. We're also having to build our home at an elevated level on top of a huge pile of fill with tall retaining walls surrounding 3 sides. It will give us a gorgeous view of the creek and woods but it will be a large extra cost. The advantage though is that with these precautions we won't need to buy flood insurance....See MoreHome Remodel Covid Disaster - advice please!
Comments (71)Love the idea of beadboard in your vintage house bathroom. And, I’m still rooting for the subway tile in your kitchen for backsplash if you think it’s a manageable project for you and your wife together. I do think it’s an investment that will pay off if you do sell your house. Another idea I just had while looking at your kitchen pictures is, instead of subway tile, what about small sized hexagon tiles? When I looked up images of them I see that they are sheets of small hexagons - they’re attached to a netting. I wondered if they would be easier to manage with less cutting of tile pieces to fit around moldings and such. The look of them is somewhat vintage too and they are budget friendly also depending on the material. A simple white would work. Here’s a link to hexagon used as a vintage look tile Hexagon tile in kitchen And a link to a YouTube video installing hexagon tiles Video. There are a couple videos at this link on how to cut small tiles without a tile saw also. I‘ve never installed tile but maybe the videos could help with a decision about whether it’s a manageable project....See MoreEmily Flores
3 years ago
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