Market value for house with huge aquarium built in.

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wlecount;4933716; said:
A pool does not necessarily decrease the value of a house, it instead decreases the number of potential buyers which could force you to sell the home for less because you need to get out of it due to financial restraints or a poor market. If an appraiser came to a house that had a pool, mind you it has to been in working order or something close to it, it would not decrease the property value. It would almost always add value, but only a small percentage of what you put in to have the pool installed. There's a difference between property value and the price you sell it for. My house appraised at $238,000 but I only paid $170,000. It is still worth that higher amount, but due to market constraints and a financial problem with the seller I simply lucked out.

A fish tank falls under the same type of improvement, but again it wouldn't decrease the value per an appraiser, but it would decrease the market of potential buyers down even more. Now at closing some people might demand the tank be removed, but again that really has nothing to do with the actual value. You simply decreased the "pool" of buyers.


Now even worse is when you look at the state of today's housing market. Now you have to figure in the fact that your home likely lost value, not because of changes made to it, but because the demand is low and so many other factors. Let's put it this way, it's complicated.

I would simply warn you that a specialty addition like this won't really drop your value, but expect to have a much harder time selling it :)...in essence it likely drops the price, but not the value. Oh economics, isn't it fun!

One additional consideration is by whom the valuation is being done. When the house is being valued by the IRS for taxation purposes it will send your property value (UP) through the roof, and at the exact same time the bank is valuing your home based on a request for credit for a new mortgage for you you find that the bottom fell out!:ROFL:

Uncle Sam Da Man!
 
screaminleeman;4933746; said:
One additional consideration is by whom the valuation is being done. When the house is being valued by the IRS for taxation purposes it will send your property value (UP) through the roof, and at the exact same time the bank is valuing your home based on a request for credit for a new mortgage for you you find that the bottom fell out!:ROFL:

Uncle Sam Da Man!

Aint that the truth. I may have paid that price for my house, but my property tax was based on value and that is a big difference. Price does not equal value, especially in the eyes of the IRS unless they can make you pay more :)
 
I watched a show on hgtv where the people re did a room and added a built in aquarium of 40gal. The experts said it was a poor choice and they would not get that money back in reture.

Most normal people would be turned off but a huge aquarium that takes up space they would use for other stuff. Unless it was $1.5+ mill with an amazing salt water tank maybe it would be a selling point because people with that kind of money will pay some one to care for it.

It in no way is a good investment to build a huge costome tank in your home. You will not get any reture on your investment. So make sure you can take your tanks with you when you move.
 
I have a 150 gal in one of my basement walls. It was not expensive to build, mainly because behind the wall is unfinished. If it caused a problem with the sale of the house, it would not be hard to fix. I think, at best, it has no effect on the value.

Some things Ive done that increase the value. Kitchen and bathrooms. Things I wanted to do that wont, wrap around front porch and close off my loft into a bedroom.
 
Even as a fish keeper, I would not pay more for a house that had a huge built in aquarium.
 
Red_Belly_Pacu;4932599;4932599 said:
It would be good for a person who likes and keeps fish, the value of the home probably would not increase.

But you will get people who do not keep fishes. This wil probably lower the value of the home since they have to get people to tear it down and patch it up. If you just have the tank there without any fishes, it would be an eyesore to them.
I agree with this as well as Pharoah's following comment. A friend of mine purchased a house with a 500 gallon tank wall unit, absolutely beautiful and professional build. Only thing is my friend has limited aquarium experience, meaning 20 gallon goldfish tanks. This was a huge empty saltwater setup. They got the house for a reduced rate because of the amount of money it would take to remove and rebuild the area with the tank. In the long run they ended up setting up the tank after buying the house for a reduced rate. Now it sits empty after failed attempts of keeping salt water fish. It is currently a wasted display case of salt encrusted ornaments and coral. What a shame! I would love to have their house and incredible tank.
 
I've thought about this with the idea of building a 1000 gallon or 5000 gallon fish tank and that is I'm going to have the tank built as a giant fiberglass or acrylic one piece tank.. So that if I move I can open up a hole in a garage door or have a movable section of wall that I can move and roll the one piece giant tank out when I sell the house.

The good news is that I would be able to sell the giant tank on the giant tank market or take it to my next house.
 
Our tank will never go anywhere. If it comes out, it will come out in broken pieces. The outside wall went up after the tank was moved into position. The tank absolutely does not add to the value of the house. I'm OK with that.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com