Whole House Generators

[rroush52]

Aren't these typically treated as personal property?

 

[Mr Rex]

I treat them as real property, however I have yet to see a market based measurable value of them. Maybe a slight bump in reconciliation.

 

[Jan Roseberry]

I treat them as real property, however I have yet to see a market based measurable value of them. Maybe a slight bump in reconciliation.

Around here most of them are real property (expensive to buy and install correctly) but like Rex I can't find a verified monetary adjustment. I keep looking; for some reason I think there should be an adjustment.

 

[J Grant]

If they are built in, aka sunk in ground for gas line for example, and attached to house, they could be part of real property. A whole house generator (not portable but a real whole house generator with the wiring and systems built in to handle running an entire house or a portion of it)

 

[Tom Woolford]

I consider them personal property. And, with only maybe one out of three hundred homes having them, you really have to wonder about contributory value and market acceptance. I don't give them any value because I cant prove otherwise.

 

[Peter LeQuire]

Most of the generators I've seen in residences are not permanently installed and/or capable of operating all of the systems in the house. Most seem to have been capable of being moved around (out of a storage room to a receptacle near the breaker box) and are of capacity capable only of operating the refrigerator/freezer and a limited number of outlets. Few that I've seen that were of adequate capacity to operate the HVAC, the appliances and a significant number of outlets: most of these were permanently installed to the houses' electrical system and had controls that would turn operate them when utility current was interrupted: these systems tend to be more common among upscale properties in rural and mountaintop developments or having large tracts in remote areas. There aren't many of these anyway, and few of these sell in any given period - supporting an adjustment is problematic.

 

[Vermonter]

Depending on the size and how it's affixed to the property, they can have an impact on value. Did one rural subdivision near a ski slope and just about every house in the development had one. Paired sales back 5 years indicated a 0.3% difference....which I wouldn't bother adjusting for.

Tend to think these are a liability for appraisers, so have a boilerplate comment I add for homes with affixed generators.

 

[J Grant]

I typically reconcile with them in mind as a positive but don't give them a line item adjustment, they are a positive feature here

 

[LordofTexas]

Depending on the size and how it's affixed to the property, they can have an impact on value. Did one rural subdivision near a ski slope and just about every house in the development had one. Paired sales back 5 years indicated a 0.3% difference....which I wouldn't bother adjusting for.

Tend to think these are a liability for appraisers, so have a boilerplate comment I add for homes with affixed generators.

I would agree that certain areas end up allowing for a market increase based on newer features which become mainstream. I would value them if hard wired, but typically would treat it as a special feature conmmented but not adjusted for (i.e., open patios, small covered porches, etc). Once they do become mainstream and/or have a widespead market acceptance it would be hard not to value it over those without the feature (of course once proven in the market).

I tell borrowers almost everyday about their "super special feature" that you most likely will get value in the return market at the time of a future sale, but our current studies have yet to prove any added present marketable value.

 

[Michigander]

• We have areas of my market that have a lot of power losses and home owners have invested in these to the tune of $6,000 to $10,000 most typically to run a 2,000 sqft house. They are seamless and hardwired in, and the generator is not movable except with a hoist or something (much bigger than an AC condenser). I have polled agents in my market about the value added, if any, and most see it around half the cost. I've tried to extract an adjustment through grouped data analysis to limited success. As they become more prevalent, you may start to see value to it. In the meantime, polling agents seems to work reasonably well if you get a large enough sample of responses. Just my $0.02