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Do You Adjust Condition When Dirty?
- Thread starter Jim Bearden
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Big ole Boy
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2003
- Professional Status
- General Public
- State
- Tennessee
There are all kinds of dirt.
There is just dirt.
There is dirty dirt.
There is messy dirt.
There is trashy dirt.
There is filthy dirt.
Some dirt grabs you in such a way that it tells you something about not just the
property - but the neighborhood in general.
There is a real art to dirtyness .....
There is just dirt.
There is dirty dirt.
There is messy dirt.
There is trashy dirt.
There is filthy dirt.
Some dirt grabs you in such a way that it tells you something about not just the
property - but the neighborhood in general.
There is a real art to dirtyness .....
Bill Baughn
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2004
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Nevada
I had a small house many years ago where the carpet was so dirty, you couldn't see the carpet through the dirt. Dishes piled up in the sink to the ceiling (honestly), the bathroom shower had so much mold in it that I wouldn't want to take a shower in there with army boots on. There was a hole next to the toilet that I thought for sure had I tried to use it, I would have fallen through the floor. I took pictures of everything. Showed the report to the lender prior to her lunch and she decided to forego lunch that day...
Bill Baughn
Bill Baughn
Richard Carlsen
Elite Member
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- Jan 15, 2002
- Professional Status
- Licensed Appraiser
- State
- Michigan
Hold on a second.
Are we talking about dirt or are we talking filth?
Dirt is one thing but filth is entirely another.
Dirt and mess cleans up. Filth on the other hand effects the very structure of a house. In most cases of filth, a certain easily discernable odor is imparted to the house that would take much more than a day of the Happy Housecleaners to correct.
Filth most defiantly has an impact on value.
Are we talking about dirt or are we talking filth?
Dirt is one thing but filth is entirely another.
Dirt and mess cleans up. Filth on the other hand effects the very structure of a house. In most cases of filth, a certain easily discernable odor is imparted to the house that would take much more than a day of the Happy Housecleaners to correct.
Filth most defiantly has an impact on value.
Michigander
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2003
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Michigan
If you were a Realtor showing two identical homes and one was all neat and clean and things put away, and the other looked a shambles, which one do you think your buyer would chose? Do you think they would pay the same for both? If your answer is that they would opt for one over the other (all other things being equal) then I would say it does affect value....how much might be altogether another thing....
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- New York
This is my argument. Don't ever take the buyer' point of view out of the argument.
If the mess can be cleaned up for a few hundred bucks and only take a day, that's fine, make sure that it is a condition of the report.
Richard Carlsen
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2002
- Professional Status
- Licensed Appraiser
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- Michigan
Good point Serena.
However, we are not selling the houses and we cannot base an adjustment for value based on what might happen with a buyer and two houses.
You either have market data to prove that the dirty house sells for less than the spic and span clean house or you state that you don't have the data but that your extensive experience tends to indicate a market preference for the clean house.
Point in fact; I do not think that I would ever make an adjustment in the grid for "dirt or filth". If something were so bad I would simply increase the effective age of the house over "average" until the cost to clean up/fix up to average were covered and make the comment that maintenance is below average for the market. I would reflect that in the final opinion of value where my final value would no doubt be at the lower end of the indicated value range. I don't think I would come right out in the report and say that the house was filthy. I'll use my subjectivity in the effective age estimate and let it stand there.
I'm probably hedging the point but the HO is going to get a copy of the report and maybe I'm just being too nice but I don't want them to read that I thought their house was filthy when there are other ways and words acceptable to say the same thing.
However, we are not selling the houses and we cannot base an adjustment for value based on what might happen with a buyer and two houses.
You either have market data to prove that the dirty house sells for less than the spic and span clean house or you state that you don't have the data but that your extensive experience tends to indicate a market preference for the clean house.
Point in fact; I do not think that I would ever make an adjustment in the grid for "dirt or filth". If something were so bad I would simply increase the effective age of the house over "average" until the cost to clean up/fix up to average were covered and make the comment that maintenance is below average for the market. I would reflect that in the final opinion of value where my final value would no doubt be at the lower end of the indicated value range. I don't think I would come right out in the report and say that the house was filthy. I'll use my subjectivity in the effective age estimate and let it stand there.
I'm probably hedging the point but the HO is going to get a copy of the report and maybe I'm just being too nice but I don't want them to read that I thought their house was filthy when there are other ways and words acceptable to say the same thing.
Michigander
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2003
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Michigan
Wouldn't it be simple enough to do a matched pair analysis to determine if a house that is not well kept sells for the same as one that is? What about foreclosures on newer houses? Typically they sell for quite a bit less than their occupied bretheren, correct? If a house is only a couple of years old, it won't typically be as beat up as older foreclosures. What do these newer houses under foreclosure tell us about market reaction to dirt? It would be an interesting case by case to compare for anyone who has some spare time on their hands....
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