Basement quandary-seeking input from local realtors/home owners (Haymarket: hardwood floors, for sale)

[imisscarlsbadcalifornia]

Greetings all; I hope you are all well prepared for the generous snowfall we are expected to get quite soon!

My husband and I are contemplating finishing our basement. We bought our home at the bottom of the market in Dominion Valley and have since remodeled the kitchen, one bathroom, installed hardwood floors throughout the first two levels, painted, installed closet systems, and added some custom built in features like a beautiful china cabinet and two lovely window seats. We've invested a lot of sweat equity but have also hired professionals to do some of the work. Our basement is about 1600 square feet so it's a lot of space. What I'm trying to figure out is, what value/financial upside should we expect if we invest $40K in finishing the space? Also, and this should have preceded my question on the dollar amount, how does one best assess what the right amount of investment is to essentially max out your upside without overspending? Would you have an appraiser come in, look at the whole house, do an appraisal and then ask them what value add we'd have if we finished the basement with a full bath, a conforming bedroom with a closet, and a kitchen/bar area? Can they give me a relatively solid projection based on current market conditions which I fully understand are subject to change at any given moment?

If there is such an appraiser, are they called by a different moniker than an appraiser a bank might use to assess the value of our home if we were putting it up for sale? Does anyone have any experience with someone reliable/experienced with our market? My understanding is, and this is not based on empirical facts/figures but what I've gathered from neighbors, that many homes in our area do have finished basements and that many buyers today (our house was built in 2006 but we bought it in 2008) won't even look at a house in the burbs that does not have a finished basement because so many people who move out this far do so to gain square footage they can't or prefer not to buy closer in due to escalating costs.

The caveat here is that while we do plan to live here for at least 2-5 more years, anything can happen relative to the demands of my husband's career and/or his professional inclinations so we feel it's important to balance the actual cost of the investment with the actual value we may gain by having the work done. As i read this it sounds awkwardly worded; I hope I am conveying my questions with more clarity than it would seem as I re-read all of this.

Any input, particularly from folks with experience with real estate in Haymarket/Dominion Valley is greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone knows of some commonly used "calculator" for this kind of work, like "x dollars per square foot for a basic basement, x dollars per square foot for an intermediate basement, and x dollars for a dream space" I'd love to hear about that as I think it would help us a lot. We are planning to hold some of the space for dry storage, essentially with walls and recessed lighting and shelving, but not necessarily flooring beyond the sealed and stained concrete we already have.

Thanks in advance and stay safe out there.

[Middlin]

Are you familar with comparable homes to yours in the neighborhood? I live in Bristow and in our neighborhood there are few streets with higher end homes with really, really nice basements. If a buyer was looking for the size of the house and size of lot, then a house w/o the really nice basement may not compare favorably.

If you compared the "regular" homes withhin my community, you might find some with screened in porches, but no finished basement. A more private lot, but not the nicest kitchen. There are so many models with similar square footage with and without finished basements. Given the demographics of this area, I do think a finished basement has a very high rate of return on investment, but unless you have a luxury home I think 40k is a bit of overkill unless you plan on enjoying it yourself for many years. Even if you have a room with a closet, you would still have to have a window for egress to count as a bedroom. I would talk to a realtor that sells a lot in your neighborhood.

[johnsonkk]

If you do the work or most of it, it should not run $40k. Agree with earlier post of checking current listings. Check out open houses and then ask the realtor sitting.in that house if the finished basement is a significant portion of the listing price or if it's not finished, how much.difference it would be in cost (both to the listing and estimated cost). Do you not even envision needing a.finished b basement. Couldn't live without ours.

[imisscarlsbadcalifornia]

Thank you Middlin and Johnsonkk for your responses. Middlin, I think you're right about homes with finished basements being an easier sell/appealing to more buyers, especially in our area. My challenge is that I have no way of knowing how long we will be here. It could be another year or two, or my husband could end up retiring from his position here (15 years from now). After touring several of the basements done on our street I can tell you with confidence that no one has spent much under $40K while having a contractor do the work. The folks across the street put $100K in their basement and it's a real WOW, but I don't have a $100K budget and even if I did, I wouldn't put it in my basement; I'd rather spread the money around more but that's just me. They have a big family and I know they use it a lot, so for them it probably makes sense.

Johnsonkk, I suspect we would end up doing 30% of it ourselves. Hubby's job is very demanding; he's working a lot of hours and doing some extended travel; I don't think he will be available to do much more than stud it out, pull the electrical, and maybe attach some of the drywall (no drywall finishing...that's its own art!). But I'm going to take you up on your idea to go to a few open houses in our neighborhood; there are two houses for sale up the street from ours; and the one does not have a finished basement, so it would be interesting to talk to who ever is selling it. We have been limping along without the basement being finished, but my husband deserves a proper office and a proper shop as he does like to do woodworking, robotics, rocketry, and some light welding. He has so many tools that neighbors check with us to borrow tools before buying them so it would be great for him to have a decent work space and also the storage he needs to be organized.

Thank you both again, for your input!