I was showing homes in Powhatan and Western Chesterfield yesterday, helping out a newer agent in our office, and a few homes had improvements made to them which actually hurt their resale value rather than helped them. Because of this fact, its very important to come up with a "Master Plan" for home improvements and your floor plan and carefully integrate them into this plan.
For example, this one home in Moseley had high hopes for it, as it was nearly listed at $100,000 less than county assessment. However, the home had a very strange 9x9 room behind the kitchen that was not accessible from the interior of the house. To enter that room, you either had to go through the garage or the exterior deck. On top of that, by having that room located there, you didn't have exterior light into the kitchen or a view out to the backyard from the sink (as most kitchens do). The better plan for such a room (staged as a bedroom, but would make a much better office or workout room) would have been located either directly behind the garage or somewhere behind one of the back bedrooms with hallway access.
The potential purchasers got so hung up on this room, that they didn't focus on all of the positives of this home, such as 7 acres, massive exterior shed, fully fenced back yard, and price under assessment.
So, when making improvements to your house, make sure that they are functional and make sense to you and potential buyers, because remember that according to NAR statistics that the average home buyer gets a new home every 6-7 years.
Til next time!
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