Name: What Really Influences a Home’s Listing Price? A Real-Estate Agent and Appraiser Weigh In.
Uploaded: 2024-06-11T09:30:00Z
Duration: 6 min 50 s
Description: This home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was purchased six years ago and after extensive remodeling recently listed for $1.8 million. WSJ toured the home to learn what renovations boosted the home's listing price. Photo: Accel Media

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This home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was purchased six years ago and after extensive remodeling recently listed for $1.8 million. WSJ toured the home to learn what renovations boosted the home's listing price. Photo: Accel Media

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240606/2a31f894-671d-4d52-8b94-e7c3052a7f90/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

What Really Influences a Home’s Listing Price? A Real-Estate Agent and Appraiser Weigh In.

Narrator: This home's front door used to be here on 8th Street, but the owners moved it here, changing the address to Wallace Avenue. Why? They wanted to increase one thing: the listing price.

Lea Williams: Some buyers don't wanna live on a thoroughfare street.

Narrator: And this change is just one of many that took the house from this end of the market to this end. Let's take a look inside this property to learn how it got a nearly $2 million price tag. Six years ago, two renovators purchased this home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; a lakeside destination with a competitive market for second homes and vacation Airbnbs.

Lea Williams: It's been completely remodeled: four bedrooms, three and a half baths. It is over 3,200 square feet.

Narrator: The first renovation, which changed the address, brought this home amongst more expensive competition.

We did back that up with data of homes sold on 8th versus the streets like Wallace, and it really helped justify that price.

Narrator: And inside, the renovators knocked down most of the walls, combining the living room, dining room, and kitchen into a highly-desired open floor plan.

But there's no assurance that that preference today will last forever.

Narrator: But 71% of consumers say they would pay a premium for an upgrade, specifically in the kitchen, more than any other room.

Lea Williams: They will notice the brands of the appliances. They look for the newer, soft-closed cabinets. It's almost expected.

Narrator: But the cost to upgrade that space may be more than the value it adds to the listing price.

Think of appraising as hyper-local. It's really block-by-block. You have two identical homes side by side. One has a renovated kitchen, one doesn't, and they sell for 75,000 difference. And that's telling you in a sort of reasonable way in the market. The premium for this kitchen, maybe it cost them 50, maybe it cost them 100; it added 75,000 of value.

Narrator: These same comparisons can be made for upgrades in every other type of room. For bedrooms, the focus goes to windows and closet space. This property's primary bedroom can easily fit a king bed and two nightstands. But the two closets in this room aren't quite as generous in size.

One buyer said, "There's just not enough space for my clothes." So, for those buyers, the recommendation would be, let's expand the closet.

Narrator: The sellers decided not to front the money for a closet expansion, hoping that this would still appeal to buyers, since Coeur d'Alene has a rising short-term rental market. But just a rendering of how renovations could expand the space can actually help alleviate buyer concerns.

It's that visualization that is hard for people. They will triple the cost in their mind as they're walking through the home, and by a seller having that bid for the actual work to be done with this actual material, it will oftentimes just take that objection off the table.

Narrator: The bathroom, on the other hand, saw a full renovation, complete with a marble shower, standalone tub, and importantly for this neighborhood and price range.

I mean, you gotta have two sinks in your bathroom.

Jonathan Miller: It's not about the premium the double sink adds, it's the negative if you don't have it.

Narrator: 71% of buyers paying $500,000 or more for a property said they expect a double vanity in the primary bath. Buyers typically also expect bathtubs, especially in a market catering to families.

So, it is required, really, but it doesn't mean every bathroom has to have a bathtub.

Narrator: The seller is settled on tubs in two of the three bathrooms, with one here, one upstairs, and just a single shower in the basement. And here, the changes became more structural. The sellers actually lowered the floor in this space to create more height between the ceiling.

They can make actual real living space out of it. That really adds a tremendous value to the listing price.

Narrator: And this investment was made even more profitable by something like this: an egress window.

When you add an egress window, it adds value because now you can call this a legal fourth bedroom.

Narrator: In Idaho, an improvement like this window can pay for itself 10 times over when it comes time to sell. In fact, some of the improvements that deliver value to the listing price aren't cosmetic at all, like a home's water and HVAC system.

This tankless water heater is something that a lot of homeowners, when they're renovating, add. But what it does is it adds a cost upfront to do, but in the long run, the heating costs for water heaters are lower.

Think of it in the context of your utility bill every month, and do you want it to be less? And that's the incentive for green.

Narrator: Not all technology in the home carries that same weight; for example, in this market. Many smart home capabilities, like auto outdoor watering systems, don't actually add any extra dollars to a listing price.

But it does help make the home more marketable and sells faster.

Narrator: Before making any changes, experts suggest asking, how quickly does that seller want the property off their hands? That motivation will determine which renovations make sense. After transforming 90% of the home, the renovators sold the house near its listing price. That is with nearly $1 million invested into the renovations. But notice how all of these improvements are uniformly neutral.

You wanna appeal to as many people as possible, so you don't have olive green appliances in your kitchen unless that's the norm for the neighborhood. The market doesn't care that you love the purple bedroom.

Narrator: The renovations also center around square footage and making that number feel even bigger than it is. That's because square footage is a crucial metric to a home's value. But in the suburbs like this neighborhood, square footage has a diminishing return.

Yes, a larger home is worth a lot more money, but the difference from 4,000 to 5,000 square feet is a smaller difference than maybe from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet.

Narrator: Market conditions can also help justify expenses.

Here's a market that was underutilized, and then benefited greatly from Californians coming in and creating this demand that never existed before.

Narrator: And in April, 2024, home prices in Idaho were up over 15% compared to the year prior.

Jonathan Miller: This up-and-to-the-right phenomenon is essentially what we're seeing nationwide.

Narrator: And ultimately, the most important value driver of a property is not something you can necessarily renovate, because it's the land itself.

When we see house prices rising in a neighborhood, it's more about the land rising; the structure, the house, call it the improvements, they depreciate over time unless you upgrade them. But land, over time, generally appreciates.

The Renovations That Led to This Idaho Home’s $1.8 Million Listing Price

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