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With just a little time and investment, you can transform older or outdated properties into chic and modern dwellings that will suit your every need and desire. However, before you move in and unpack, there are a few upgrades that you need to make to ensure that your fixer-upper is a safe and comfortable environment for you and your family. Here are the top five upgrades that you should make to your fixer-upper to ensure that it is a beautiful and functional space that you can enjoy for years to come.
Install Air Conditioning Units
When it comes to fixing up a home, there are countless projects and upgrades to consider. However, one that should not be overlooked is the installation of new air conditioning units. Not only does a new air conditioning installation add value to your property, but it also enhances the quality of life for you and your family. In today's world, there are many options to choose from when it comes to air conditioning, so it's essential to have all the facts to make an informed decision. For more information, reach out to a professional in the field. They can provide you with all the necessary details and guide you in choosing the right AC unit for your home.
Update Electrical Systems
When it comes to renovating an old property, updating the electrical system should be a top priority. An outdated electrical system is a safety hazard and might not meet current building codes. This can make selling the property in the future difficult, and may result in needless complications with insurance. Electrical upgrades can also increase energy efficiency, saving you money on your electric bill. If you're considering a fixer-upper renovation, it's crucial to consult with a licensed electrician to get more information on how to best update your electrical system to ensure safety and compliance with regulations.
Replace Old Roofing
The roof is one of the most important parts of your home, and it is important to ensure that it is in good condition before you move in. Old or damaged roofing puts your home at risk for leaks and even further damage if left unrepaired. One of the most crucial upgrades that you should make is to replace your old roofing with new, durable materials that will protect your home from the elements and keep it looking great for years to come. Reach out to professionals like Emerald Roofing to get your roofing done right.
Upgrade Plumbing
Plumbing is another aspect of your home that you should prioritize when upgrading your fixer-upper. Make sure that your pipes are in good condition, and consider upgrading to low-flow fixtures and toilets to reduce your water consumption. Not only will this help you save money on your water bill, but it will also be an environmentally conscious decision that you can feel good about.
Focus on Flooring
Flooring is one of the most noticeable aspects of your home, and can really make or break the overall aesthetic. If you inherit carpets that are old and stained, or hardwood floors that are badly damaged, consider replacing them with new eco-friendly flooring materials or polishing up the existing floors to give them an updated look.
Upgrading your fixer-upper is a great way to create a beautiful and functional space that will meet all of your needs. By prioritizing these top five upgrades, you can create a home that is safe, comfortable, and stylish. Remember to work with professionals to ensure that your upgrades are done properly and to the highest standards, so that you can enjoy your new home for many years to come.
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And a low appraisal can complicate an already bumpy homebuying process. Suddenly, you find yourself in a conundrum: Your bank will fund a loan only up to the appraised value.
So do you walk away from the sale or fork over more money to cover the difference? Or maybe after a long home search you might even consider crawling into the corner of the apartment you fear you’ll rent forever and cry your little eyes out.
We know you have home-buying agita—and we’re here to help. There are ways to deal with a low home appraisal—but only if you know why it happened.
Behold the 9 most common reasons for a low home appraisal, according to our expert sources.
1. The home appraisal expert didn’t do a neighborhood deep-dive
To appraise the value of a property, appraisers rely heavily on comps, which are prices paid for similar homes sold recently. But the appraiser could select comps of homes that sold for mysteriously low prices.
Appraisers don’t normally officially inspect the comps, says Peter Grabel, managing director of Luxury Mortgage in Stamford, CT. They wouldn’t know if there was a mold issue, asbestos, or a nasty divorce that led to a quick below-market sale of a comparable home, skewing the analysis.
2. The appraiser has to go outside the hood
Sometimes there isn’t enough data on sales of similar homes in the area, forcing the appraiser to use comps from a nearby—and possibly less desirable—community, Grabel says. Ideal comps should be similar in style, size, location, and view.
3. The home appraisal didn’t account for the view
Does your home have a knockout view—or, at least, one that’s better than the comp down the street that overlooks unsightly power lines? If so, make sure your appraiser knows it, too. If the difference in view is not obvious, your home could appraise for lower than expected.
4. A gorgeous basement doesn’t rate
The house has a large, beautiful finished basement with a bedroom and a bathroom. You’ve doubled your square footage. Score! Unfortunately, appraisers are required to use much lower value per square foot for space below ground in a home appraisal.
5. The extras that totally sold you aren’t selling the appraiser
Surprisingly, a pool, tennis court, and high-end landscaping are attractive features, but they frequently don’t lead to significantly higher valuation on home appraisals.
Here’s why: When an appraiser compares two otherwise identical homes, one with the amenities and one without, the difference in their selling price is typically not nearly as much as the cost of adding these features—especially when the amenities are of better quality than is standard for the area.
For example, if you spend $200,000 to install a pool, but other homes in neighborhood have $50,000 pools, the difference in quality is not likely to appraise well. So be prepared for a lower value than expected if the property has one or more of these types of features.
6. The condo is the best in the building
Upgrades and finishes might not always boost the value of your home. This is particularly true of co-ops and condos, where the square footage plays a major role in value.
“Let’s say you are buying Unit 15A, which has a brand-new, top-of-the-line kitchen, much nicer than is customary in this type of building,” Grabel explains. “Units 15B and 15C recently sold for less. They are exactly the same size and have new kitchens but were not done to the same quality. An appraiser can make adjustments, but it will be a challenge for your unit to get the valuation that you might think it is worth.”
7. The market is too hot to keep up with
Home prices in the area might be increasing so quickly that the comps that sold six months ago don’t yet reflect this improvement.
“In Brooklyn and in Harlem, for example, prices are soaring, properties are selling for a record price per foot,” Grabel says. “If six months ago the top price was $1,000 per foot but you are paying $1,100 per foot, there are no recorded comps at that price for an appraiser to use.”
Appraisals, by their nature, are backward-looking. You can ask the appraiser to make a “market adjustment,” but they don’t have to do it.
8. You intentionally overpaid
There are many reasons you might overpay for a home: You might just fall in love with the place and want to make sure you get it—at any cost.
“During prime selling season, bidding wars erupt left and right,” Grabel says. “And the downside to winning one is the reality of getting financed on that final price.”
Remember, the bank is going to lend only the appraised fair market value, and not the higher price you might think it’s worth. So you’ll be left paying the difference yourself.
It’s an emotional choice, and we’re not here to judge. But your appraiser will, and just beware: What the appraiser says (usually) goes.
9. The appraiser is inexperienced—or just bad
Sometimes, it really does come down to a job not well done. The appraiser could be unfamiliar with the nuances of the local market or might simply rush through the job.
Unfortunately, a homebuyer obtaining a mortgage has no control over the home appraisal selection process—your lender is the one who orders the appraisal, either directly from an appraiser or through an appraisal management company.
“We actually choose to pay for appraisals so that we can limit our pool to only the top appraisers,” Grabel says. “This is not a guarantee that the value will come in where we need it to, but it typically ensures a good quality report from an experienced appraiser.”
Worried about getting a dud? You can ask your lender how it selects appraisers or if there’s a particular company it uses—then do your homework.
Keep reading on Realtor.com
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However, the quality of renovations done during the flipping process is a big factor for a potential buyer to consider. While some home flippers do top-notch jobs and pay attention to every detail while updating a property, others do it in a rush to make a quick buck — sometimes with subpar work.
While an inspector should point out the major flaws in a home before you buy it, such as roof or foundation issues, there are smaller red flags you can look for while touring a property that indicate it may have been flipped in a hurry.
Darin Bruck, an Atlanta home inspector with 20 years of experience, recently posted about this topic on TikTok. In his video, he says some surefire signs of a too-quick flip include loose railings that have been poorly reinforced, painted-over water damage under sinks or on ceilings, painted-over dust in air vents, smoke detectors that weren’t replaced, or leftover renovation debris remaining in the home.
I also turned to Delaware flipper Robyn Kessler, who has been buying and selling homes since 2005, for some pointers on shoddy flips as well. Here are four things she says to watch out for.
Cracked tile
You might spot a cracked tile and figure that’s an easy fix. However, it could indicate a much bigger problem: the flipper might not have laid the subfloor correctly, Kessler says.
“This one particularly makes me angry because putting in the correct subfloor and adhering it well so it doesn’t bounce when you walk on it would not have cost more than a few extra dollars to do it right — so it can hold the tile floor and whatever is going on top of that,” she says.
She remembers one scenario where a heavy clawfoot tub was going to be placed in a tiled bathroom with a faulty subfloor. “That would have been a scene from “‘The Money Pit,’” she says, meaning that the tub would likely have crashed through the weak floor and fallen to the level below as it did in the 1986 Tom Hanks/Shelley Long movie.
Crooked cabinets
In the kitchen, don’t just look at the amount of cabinet space or the quality of the hardware. Check to see if the cabinets are properly aligned vertically and horizontally. If not, “that’s a sure sign they weren’t level and even all around,” she says.
Ceiling spots
Always look at the ceilings for signs of water damage, Kessler says. If there’s been a leak, you can usually tell by spots, patches, or discolored paint. Be sure to check around light fixtures, where water is likely to pool. If you see signs of water damage, ask the seller what happened, because it could indicate a problem with the roof that might not have been properly addressed — leading to costly expenses down the road.
“Go to the attic, and look up at the inside of the roof, if you can,” she says. “Roofs are expensive to replace, and if there’s a leak, you’ll see it there.”
Shoddy painting
If the flipper spent the time and money on a proper paint job, you shouldn’t notice things like uneven edges, errant drips of paint on fixtures or the floor, or electrical outlets and light switches that have been painted over instead of removed first. “These items are really cheap to buy and easy to change out, so I don’t know why some people do this,” Kessler says about the outlets and switches. She also advises looking closely at the baseboards and checking to see if they were cleaned before being painted.
Kessler’s advice to potential buyers of flipped homes? “It’s important to be informed,” she says, regarding quality workmanship, how to spot it, and how much it costs. “If you don’t like to get your hands dirty and fix things around the house, then homeownership may not be for you.”
Get more tips on Apartment Therapy.
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To overcome those challenges, many people are working with their agents to find less expensive homes. And with newly built homes making up a historically large percentage of the total available inventory today, that search often includes brand new homes.
People Are Spending Less on Newly Built Homes
The graph below uses the latest information from the Census to show, in June, more of the newly built home sales in this country were in lower price ranges than in 2022:
Last year, only 58% of newly built home sales were less than $500,000. This June, that number was up to 65%. This means more people are buying less expensive newly built homes right now while affordability remains a challenge.
Builders Are Offering Lower-Cost Options
Builders have picked up on this trend and are reacting accordingly. George Ratiu, Chief Economist at Keeping Current Matters, explains:
“Builders are also responding to this shift by bringing slightly smaller homes to market in an effort to meet lower price points . . .”
New data from the Census further confirms this pattern – it shows the median sales price of newly built homes has dipped down in recent months (see graph below):
And as Mikaela Arroyo, Director of the New Home Trends Institute at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, says, the builders who are most responsive to this trend are forming pathways to homeownership:
“. . . it is creating opportunities for people to be able to afford an entry-level home in an area. . . . if you get that size down, that automatically will make it a more affordable home. The [builders] that are decreasing [size] the most are probably the ones that try to build more of an affordable product.”
How an Agent Can Help
Builders producing smaller, less expensive newly built homes give you more affordable options at a time when that’s really needed. If you’re hoping to buy a home soon, partner with a local real estate agent to find out what’s available in your area. An agent can help you look at newly built homes or ones under construction nearby.
If you’re having a hard time finding a home you like in your budget, connect with a real estate professional. You need an agent who knows all about the latest inventory in your area, including homes still under construction or just built. That way you have an expert on your side who can provide information on builder reputations, builder contracts and negotiations, and more to help you with the homebuying process.
Get more info on Keeping Current Matters.
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4 Major No-Nos a Mortgage Lender Says to Avoid When Moving to a New State
There's Only Half the Inventory of a Normal Housing Market Today
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