<p>Thank you everyone for all of your input and advice. Your points are well taken.</p>
<p>My parents will not talk to other agents at this time (that’s a complicated story, please don’t ask), and that they will list the house on Friday for the “low” price.</p>
<p>You have all made me feel much better about that “low” price. Life will go on. Thanks again.</p>
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<p>You also have to recognize that custom amenities that work wonderfully for your family, may be a PIA/eyesore to many others. A kitchen in the basement would fit that bill for most. Instead of making a house worth more, I would immediately decrement the value by the costs required to remove such a kitchen. (I personally want a basement to be a basement.) </p>
<p>Just one example as an idea to look critically at your parents house and the community. </p>
<p>If the house is the biggest & baddest in the neighborhood, it will rarely fetch its the same price than if it were the exact same floor plan in a neighborhood with similarly-sized homes. The same is true for a home with a bunch of custom work that sits in an area with mostly tract-style housing.</p>
<p>Buebayou, your points are well taken. That kitchen could very well be a detriment to selling. Ironically, your last paragraph hit the main issue, I believe. Their house, according to the big, bad Zillow site, is the most expensive in their development. By far. And most of the other homes are bi-levels, which agents can barely give away.</p>
<p>They knew when they were building 35 years ago, that their house was much nicer than the others in the neighborhood, but they wanted that location, rather than a development that would have helped their house hold its value. It sounds like they will be lucky to get that “low” price they are listing at. Let’s just hope it sells.</p>
<p>Someone will get a very nice house for the money if they can appreciate an intercom system, and extra gas fireplace in the basement, the extra kitchen, the tons of storage space they built into every little crevice they could find, the curved staircase, the deck off of the second floor master, the patio with a brick wall, the choice between heating with gas or electric, the flat driveway (most other driveways in their development have an incline), the many built-ins in the kitchen, the upgraded appliances, the plaster walls, the custom milled woodwork, the huge pantry, the Pella windows, the extra insulation, the oversized garage, and more. But many people will not appreciate these amenities, and they could actually make it more difficult to sell to someone who wants new construction. It will be interesting to see what happens. Thanks for the reality check.</p>
<p>One of my great surprises in selling my first home was figuring out that my realtor, (a neighbor), actually had an incentive for me not to get the highest price. This is because the commission is split between the listing and selling brokers. He’s better off selling your house for less to someone that he introduces than he is selling it for more to someone that has a different realtor. Nothing you can do about that, but its a fact. Its probably less of an issue in today’s market because so many realtors have listings that can’t attract any offers at all.</p>
<p>I certainly wouldn’t ignore zillow or trulia. But I prefer to look at the sales over the past 9 months to a year and compare them to the tax assessors market value estimate. At least you have someone with no axe to grind there. Thats not precise, but it will give you a better idea than nearly anything else. </p>
<p>In a market that is truly a buyers market, everything is reversed from what it was like when we all were buying in the past 35 years. A potential buyer can look at the house and he often can be pretty sure that he can put an offer on it in a week or two, and it will still be there. Also, he will not overlook any shortcomings that the property has. The listings are full of properties for sale, and he can simply move on to the next one. In effect, those with houses are bidding for the buyers money in this environment. All that has to be factored in when selling.</p>
<p>OP - Do you live in the area? Maybe you could buy the house and sell yours? It sounds like your parents have a lovely home.</p>
<p>The dual heating system and extra insulation are certainly selling points, as are the storage areas. Most of the other upgrades sound wonderful, too. A couple of them do not - I would rip out the basement kitchen and the intercom system. And if the updated appliances in the kitchen are old, they will probably be viewed negatively. The fact that the house is clearly well-maintained and cared for will help. People will feel confident that there are no hidden issues.</p>
<p>I agree that if the house is not in an area of comparable homes that will make a huge difference. In some areas homes going through foreclosure are abandoned & have squatters.
I’d look to see what neighboring homes are selling for & how long they were in the market.</p>
<p>This is the tricky part of selling a home anywhere. Several people have said they would rip out the basement kitchen, around here that is high on the desirable list for houses. Finished basements are just another living area and often have theater rooms and are where most people do a lot of their entertaining. Having a small, secondary kitchen, usually a microwave, fridge and a wetbar type set-up are very common.</p>
<p>OP, most real estate sites around here will allow you to search for recently sold homes and give you the sale price. It would be a good way to check for comparable homes and what they sold for in your parent’s area. That will give you a better idea of how much their house is worth than Zillow.</p>
<p>Around here a basement kitchen is almost always illegal and has to be ripped out! People creating illegal apartments is a huge problem.</p>
<p>What makes them illegal?</p>
<p>The zoning folks seem to think that a second kitchen implies an accessory dwelling unit, turning what was a single family home into a two-family home, especially if it is in an area of the home that is markedly separate, like a basement would be. Sometimes zoning permits that, but in other areas it is definitely a violation of the land use code.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. Many basements in our neighborhood have mini-kitchens (microwave, mini-fridge) as part of a family room or media room. I would consider it a convenience.</p>
<p>Kitchen in the basement is legal if the zoning allows it. The zoning ordiances change from one local to the other. If the owner has a permit to put in a kitchen in the basement, it is legal. If not, the bank will not make the loan and you have to remove it, at least the stove, before the home can put on the market.</p>
<p>microwaves and fridge are not consider kitchen, the stove is.</p>
<p>If it is a daylight basement with a separate entrance, making a mother in law apt in the basement can be attractive for renting out or long term guests ( got to watch that one)
(if legal obviously)</p>
<p>you need a permit to have an in-law unit. If the illegal basement kitchen caught fire, insurance is not going to pay for it and the bank may call the loan. normally, the zoning for a single family home will allow only one kitchen.</p>
<p>Ok, I just checked the zoning laws for our town and it appears that you just need to register the additional space with the city and pay a license fee of $45 if you are collecting rent on the space. This does not apply if it is a family member (so an in-law apartment would be ok).</p>
<p>steve,</p>
<p>but did they allow two kitchens and one in the basement?</p>
<p>In our area, a second kitchen is not classified by microwave or fridge, if it has a sink or an oven it is classified as a second kitchen.</p>
<p>One issue I would be aware of is if the public records list this as 2 kitchens. In some areas they do, and if in your area they do, but your records don’t show it beware because a realtor like me will tell the inspector to go over that area with a fine tooth comb since obviously it never had county approval to begin with from a building code perspective.</p>
<p>It never fails everytime this has happened the circuit box has been double or triple tapped. The HVAC has issues, and many times if the home is on septic the field is not the right size. Septic tanks are also an issue due to how much it can pump during a 24 hour period.</p>
<p>These issues can become huge in costs. One sale was the septic issue, and it cost the owners over 25K. They had no choice by law, but to fix it because that is considered a health and safety issue.</p>
<p>artloversplus–yes they are allowed and are VERY common here. We are moving in the next year or so and EVERY house we have looked at, at a minimum, has a large wetbar with microwave and fridge. Most have a small stove, microwave, sink and fridge. Some even have a dishwasher. The only restrictions were that they had to have an egress window or walkout capability, which again, is very common here. Basements here are not the cellars they are other places of the country. They are living space and are counted as such in the overall square footage of a house.</p>
<p>Wow… Steve… are you from another country or some thing out of the world? Basement has never counted as living space in the overall square footage in my 40 years of house hunting. At least not in the New York metro area. And There is hardly any Basement in Californina.</p>