Will an epoxy garage floor increase the resale value

[ALinCarolina]

You guys nailed it. What the house appraises for and what may appeal to buyers are two different things. Appraising is a very inexact science. It really bugs me that appraisers look at basic house size and a few other things and completely ignore what I feel are significant details. We built our home with great attention to detail and did a lot of the work ourselves over a long time. Things like bead board ceilings, heavy crown molding, tile floors, five different species of hardwood floors, high quality millwork, great landscaping with extensive irrigation, antique lighting, geothermal heat pumps, and I could go on and on. To find true comps the appraiser would need to look far and wide which they aren't going to do. They'll compare it to some basic houses of similar size and since it is not a huge house they probably wouldn't even be high end type houses.

 

[BentBierz]

I'm wondering if an epoxy garage floor will increase the resale of a home. I know that I for one really like a Finnished garage floor. But would a real estate appraiser, appraise a home higher if the floor was finnished vs unfinnished?

Having been active duty military for 30+ years we bought and sold a lot of homes over the years. A mistake we made earlier in our lives was to make upgrades a year or two before we were due to transfer and really didn't get to enjoy what we had done for that long. We quickly figured out that the upgrades benefited the new owners much more than they benefited us. That said, we started making any upgrades (or remodeling that we wanted done) at the beginning of our tour so that we would at least be able to enjoy our efforts.

But to the point of the question...hardly anything we have ever done (kitchen, master bath, deck, garage cabinets/walls/floors, widen cement driveway, RV pad, etc.) resulted in us getting our "investment" back. What it did do in many cases though was make our house highly attractive and quicker to sell...something very important for a military person who has orders to transfer somewhere else and who can't keep a house on the market forever.

 

[BentBierz]

I might also add that we never got a dime back for a new A/C or water heater but at least it was a mental checkmark for a buyer that these were items they most likely wouldn't need to worry about in the near future.

 

[200mph]

Absolutely YES.

After counting the bedrooms, placing the big screen TV and vetting the local schools,

Women buy kitchens, Men buy garages and workshops.

A maintenance-free garage floor is an excellent selling point. It may add $$ value, and it will definitely place your home above similar comps with unfinished floors, helping it sell sooner.

Note: The larger the garage, the more important a shiny surface is. Our former house had epoxied floors, the new house did not, and we were able to lower the sale price accordingly.

 

[-Brent-]

An epoxy floor alone, I'd say no. We tried to buy a house that had a well-equipped shop behind the home and other prospective buyers bid it far beyond the asking price. The house needed work, too, but it had great potential. In that scenario I think value was added big time.

My shop, which in reality is a detached 2-car, is in the process of being rebuilt and I've poured a significant amount into it. It's probably the only thing we've done to the property that hasn't increased the value. Since I plan to live here a long time and need a shop, that didn't matter.

 

[steveo1o9]

I just purchased my home this past September with a finished two car garage that had a fresh coat of paint on the floor. Several of my buddies commented on how nice the floor looked and said how they were jealous. The floor was not a selling point but certainly added to the overall package. My offer would have been the same regardless of the garage floor, unless it was severely pitted and cracked. Unfortunately the floor coating is sh!t and scratches and comes off very easily, but that is a different story...

 

[TOYSTRY]

Amen. 23yrs in the Navy and counting and just bought a home last summer and completely remodeled. I just installed overhead storage in the garage, painted/repaired drywall and am about to have floors epoxied (I also installed Newage Bold Series cabinets) however those will likely come with me when I move unless the prospective buyer is willing to pay for them.

 

[JazzBlueRT]

Do you plan on selling anytime soon? If not, then the property value increase is irrelevant because the only thing that could happen is that your taxes may go up with a higher appraised value.

If you do plan on selling soon, then the finished garage floor may help sell the home quicker reducing your carrying costs of the home while being listed.

Why pay someone to do the work? Painting a flat floor is probably the easiest type of painting there is. Pour the paint on the floor and spread with a 3/4 roller.

 

[Homerr]

I'm of two minds here, but both are from a 'garage guy' perspective as a buyer.

1) If you're topping out on paying for a home, then no, it's not worth paying extra for it, downplay it if it already exists.

2) If you have the money it's a great to acknowledge it as a selling point and pay a small $2-4k premium to not have to do the work yourself.

If #1 above, just tell your wife that it's on your list to do to an unfinished slab if you're buying. It's hard, dirty work but rewarding.

 

[lostmymanual]

Nadda for blue collar markets. That's more of a specialty like showrooms for people with collections. And even then, they're likely to refinish it to match their motif anyway at that point.

You'd be better off putting that money in kitchens and bathroom floors than finishing a garage floor if you are seeking a return of investment. You won't see a dime of that back in a garage. Refinishing a garage or shop floor is a labor of love and a point of pride for the owners. Much like building a one-off custom car, boat or different accessories on a truck; you won't see a monetary return on investment when you decide to go a different direction. In my experience of buying/selling; buyers are not looking at the garage floor. They're looking at the yard, kitchen and bathroom(s) primarily.

If an epoxy floor had conveyed with either our shop or our garage, it would have cost me time and money to get the floor re-textured to a point that I would not have to worry about injury from sliding on loose fluid(s) or dripping rain/ melting snow. Pulling into garages from the ice and snow can be dangerous enough even with modern ABS. If they had installed some sort of tile or decking in my shop, it would have been a deal killer if they were asking more for the listing. It would have been lost on me because I would have had to pull it up so I could cut/weld/grind metal without destroying the decking.

As it was, my house sat on the market for over a year because the owners thought that shop they installed somehow doubled the value. The reality set in and I can assure you they didn't receive more than assessed value, which put them back at square one. They may have gotten 10% more for the place than they would have if they had not built the shop.

They would have gotten what they wanted if they had taken the same money and put it into the house itself. Specifically the dated kitchen and small bathrooms. If in doubt, contact a legitimate assessor in your area before making a large investment for a residence you plan to sell. It would have saved the previous owners at least $45K USD.

I'm not complaining. I love my shop but it wasn't the smartest move on their part to build. Shops and garages are what they are: Utility spaces. Usually a space that is not lived in doesn't bring a lot of value to the property and is not a great return on investment.

One of the hardest things I have to deal with is that the easiest person for me to fool is myself. Like almost every other guy, I can convince myself that the new great idea I have makes financial sense. I tend to start looking at buying equipment up front to try and justify a project. That's how we end up with really cool tools that we use once. Don't touch my tools though....

 

[JeremyBell]

Well, there's 'Appraised Value', and also the value in selling the house quicker/easier.
You know how they always say: "you can easily move garage tiles to your new garage ??"
Well, I've just sold my house and moved to one (with a bigger garage).
It sold in less than a month - the guy side of the new owners took one look at my pattern of Gladiator floor tiles and fell in love.... Sold the house quickly, but had to leave him the tiles (and some of the cabinets).
Worth it to me though.