Market value for house with huge aquarium built in.

[MonsterMinis]

It's not an investment... it's a hobby.... the only thing I can say is if I where to put a built-in into my house and then had to sell said house.. I would have the numbers on how much it would cost to remove from the house and "fix up" and potentially offer the money break to potential buyers to hopefully off-set the people uninterested in the property from completely being off-put.

 

[Younglin]

A swimming pool (mine 55,000 gallons) LOWERS THE VALUE of the property by $10,000.

In this case the value of the house becomes virtually WORTHLESS! Not lying THIS HOUSE IS NOW WORTHLESS! Again I can NOT STRESS HOW MUCH YOU HAVE DEDUCTED FROM YOUR PROPERTY VALUE.

You would at least double the value of the property if you were to burn down the house and sell it. This saves the buyer the cost of the demolition.

Think of supply and demand. We are on a MONSTER FISH FORUM here for Pete's sake! What percentage of the population in the USA do you think that keep Monster fish tanks like we do? 1%?, 2%?

The built in monster tank will EXCLUDE ALL POTENTIAL BUYERS whom ARE NOT ALREADY MONSTER FISH KEEPERS! In a sense you will have INTENTIONALLY narrowed your clientele base by 90+%!

The housing market is HISTORICALLY POOR right now, if you are unaware. Most people are finding it difficult to sell their homes in the most ideal of conditions.

I was going to say that lol. Most people think a 55 gallon tank is big. I mean just think about the myths most people believe. As mad as it makes me, most people honestly think fish will not outgrow their home. And lots of people don't even know that water changes are necessary, so why would that kind of person ( which is most people) want a monster tank in their home?

 

[Kcameron]

definitely depends on the rest of the house and the neighborhood..and especially the buyer. There are people for whom that would be a decision maker...for others, its just another thing they have to fix so it would more than likely dampen the value of the normal house. A very nice tank in a very nice house, however, is another story

 

[screaminleeman]

I'd say that it depends on how well the build for the monster aquarium was done. If it looks great and is of good quality, then odds are that it will improve the value. Likewise, if it looks terrible and is of poor quality, then odds are that it will no improve (or even decrease) the value. As far as insurance reasons go, it's probably treated no different than a pool. That's just my 2¢.

A UPSTAIRS ABOVE SWIMMING GROUND pool BUILT INTO YOUR F'ing HOUSE maybe!

Are you kidding me! I got an standard $10,000 dollar amount given to me in this area of what an in-ground outdoor swimming pool (40,000 - 55,000 gallon range) deducts from the sale price of a house. In general the cost of removal.

It is NOT MAINLY insurance that drives the price down. Potential buyers are aware of the maintenance required for the upkeep of a pool. The $ is to remove the "pool" that the buyer can not maintain. It is NOT AN OPTION to DO NOTHING either!

You would quickly create a health hazard in the community leaving the pool water set without maintenance! You wind up getting booted from your "new house" by the health department just "ignoring the thing".

1. I am unaware of the (insurance) you speak of in the home pools! Here in Maryland it was LAW that I had to have a fence with a self closing gate installed before the inspection sign off. I was not even aware that they offered pool insurance. I have never heard of it.

2. My homeowners insurance did not change with the addition of the pool. I do not believe that there is any additional risk of home damage between a house with an outdoor in-ground pool and one with no pool.

 

[erk419]

To the author of this thread not sure of your intentions for this topic but if you were wanting to do this and was worried about lowering the value of your home you could always do it then if you want to move tear it down and take the materials with you to build at the next home.

 

[screaminleeman]

Interesting.While I don't think that a large aquarium would likely add to a homes value,I wasn't aware that in ground pools were viewed this way.

Lived through it. The absolute KISS OF DEATH!

It is common knowledge that harry homeowner CANNOT spend the required time performing PROPER maintenance on an in-ground pool. Buyers will not even look at your place short of being disgustingly filthy rich and plan on contracting Pedro & Juan's Pool-boys to do the maintenance!

 

[jcardona1]

If you plan on selling your house one day, DO NOT build an in-wall aquarium. It will be the worst thing you can do. Odds are 95% of the buyers will see that and say, NO THANKS!

 

[screaminleeman]

you guys do realize that a built in aquarium is not built into a load bearing wall, its built into a partition, therefore getting rid of it and closing in wall is not very expensive.

WTF? great smoke huh! Are you in construction? Serious, set me up with the Maryland contractor that is going to come in tear out a (non-load) bearing wall, drain and disperse hundreds to thousands of gallons of water from the tank, remove the tank and very professionally patch the wall for cheap!

I mean under 5 digits dollars! I do not see $9,999 getting a 40,000 gallon monster fish tank removed for me, but I do have some money so, if that is the case I might as well begin construction right now!

Please tell me that you are rich and consider "cheap" as something in the five to six digit dollar range!

10K+ is still a lot of money to me!

 

[krichardson]

Lived through it. The absolute KISS OF DEATH!

It is common knowledge that harry homeowner CANNOT spend the required time performing PROPER maintenance on an in-ground pool. Buyers will not even look at your place short of being disgustingly filthy rich and plan on contracting Pedro & Juan's Pool-boys to do the maintenance!

I get your point......my ABOVE GROUND pool is enough of a PIA.

 

[wlecount]

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!