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There are quite a few homes in my market with elevators. One of my best friends has one, but they hardly ever use it. Another friend has a son who had a catastrophic brain injury, and the elevator allows her to care for him at home.
It's a HUGE plus that the elevator shaft is already framed in. I don't think you would necessarily recoup the COST of the elevator, but in my experience having it as an option would open up your buyer pool to people who want to move an in-law in with them. That's big with people who are transferred down here from Up North.
I mean, build it if you have the money and would use it and HATE the look of a stair climber. To me, it's like whirlpool tub: nice to have and not a negative.
A friend of mine is a high end builder and regularly puts elevators in his homes over a single story for two reasons: That really aren't that expensive in the scheme of things and they have GREAT resale value.
People actually love having an elevator in their home.
It completely makes sense in a 5000 sf home.
It would make no sense in a 2000 sf home.
If I remember correctly, it only costs him around $20,000. I agree it is a huge cost saver that the shaft is already framed in.
Forgot to add they are very common in homes and townhomes in my neighborhood.
Elevators are being use more and more in larger higher priced homes. We would have put one in our 4 level home, is it was laid out so we could. It is considered the must have improvement in the future for multiple story quality homes, and is not going to turn people off of that large of a home.
We have installed 3 chair lifts, between floors of our 4 level home due to our age. They work great. It we want to sell and get rid of the chair lifts, it only involved taking them up, and the type of carpet will cover the small screw holes involved, and where controls are mounted at the top and bottom removing a few screws, filling the holes, spraying a little Spackle and touching up the paint. We have a young couple whose parents live across the lane, have made us a standing offer to buy the home with the chairlifts in it.
Problem: You will probably not completely recover the cost of the elevator when you sell, but one should not ever count on recovering the entire cost of any home improvement. A lot of people will upgrade a home before selling, and are always angry when they cannot get their cost back or an additional profit by doing an upgrade. Take this from someone that was a real estate broker from 1972 till I finally retired.
An elevator will not turn off buyers for a large home. In fact the elevator will attract a lot of potential buyers, who would like a 2 story home, but someone in the family has trouble with stairs. it will also attract the buyer that wants to do a one up man ship on their friends and family. But you may never recover all of the cost. Never do any improvement with the idea of getting your money back. On the other hand, it can help you get full value, not a have to take a lower offer.
Here is the one that fascinates me, and the easiest to install and cost from $20,000 to $25,000 installed.
We installed the Rubex model stair lifts. Cost just under $2,000 each, and they are so easy to install I installed them myself (age 80+ at the time). We got the electric not battery ones. If the power went out for a period of time the battery ones are out of use very soon in under 1 day the way we use them. We do not have to worry about replacing the batteries. Have had them about 5 years and they work great every time. Cost much less than most stair lifts.
Wow- some terrific responses. Thank you all very much.
The original home builders planned the house like this with the elevator potential because they anticipated elderly in-laws coming to live with them. Right off the elevator space is A huge Bonus Room with 4 closets, a separate sitting room and a full bath. We use it as a craft and art studio plus guest room. Also upstairs are 3 other bedrooms, a library( easily another bedroom) and 2 full baths and 1/2 bath.
I think our next step is to get a few elevator folks out to meter-meter the place and give us estimates and do the same for chair lifts.
I appreciate all the different points of view. A lot to consider. Again thank you . Reps where i could.
BTW- we had my mother living with us (2 kids) for 10 years in our previous Georgia home. That house had two master suites-one on each floor plus a full daylight basement. We bought it in a hurry specifically for combining our family and taking care of her. One story for each generation is the only way to go!!!
If you bought it in 2007, you'll be unlikely, at this time, to "recoup" all you paid for it, unless it sits in suburban Washington, D.C. or a few other very choice markets. That of course is for you to determine. The space for the elevator in a house that size is unlikely to put a dent in its worth. I have the same thing in mine. But since I plan to die in this house, its impact on resale doesn't matter. It looks for all the world like ordinarily useful space - I planned it that way.
If you physically need the elevator now then deduct it (handicap improvements) on your taxes next year. I did that a few years ago when I had to pave my driveways because I could no longer navigate them safely due to injuries.
In my opinion, if your house is worth $300k without an elevator, it will be worth the same $300k with an elevator, so dont bother installing one. Your house value is based on comparable houses (comps).
Question - is there a resale market for the stair lifts themselves? If you did those, you might be able to recoup some of the cost by taking it out and selling separately when/if you sell the house.
In my opinion, if your house is worth $300k without an elevator, it will be worth the same $300k with an elevator, so dont bother installing one. Your house value is based on comparable houses (comps).
However a properly prepared comp, is also adjusted for differences between the homes. An elevator will add some value, but not completely be recovered on sale. And as you are doing it for a handicapped family member, with your doctor preparing a statement that the elevator is a necessary tax deductible medical expense, you should talk to your tax advisor on this. With a tax deduction both state and federal, you may recover most of what you may lose combined with what you can get extra for the elevator being in the home.
In 2007 we bought a house about 3/4 finished. It is close to 5,000 sqft and was custom designed to steal a bit of space from a 3 car garage and a large storage closet on the 2nd floor for a future home elevator. The house is on a crawl space. We use that "future elevator" space as a mud room but if we put an elevator in there is plenty of room in the garage for a bench, pegs, storage lockers for the kids etc.
The original builders decided not to buy and that is where we came in. Now we are in the position of needing either an elevator or buying one of those stair climbers to get to the second floor. The elevator is very expensive but the stair climber is butt ugly and I'm thinking it would be a big negative for future buyers.
We are hoping to downsize in about 2-4 years to a single story home. Can we recoup the cost of that elevator? We haven't had any elevator people out yet but I just wanted to run this by the professionals here.
Thank you for your comments. Also do you recommend a particular brand or have warnings we should heed?
Buy the stair climber thing. It's ugly but you can remove it and the house is fine. You will not get the money in the elevator investment. Unless you target older or handicapped buyers. And even then you're gonna be limited to the comps in the area. I see elevators like pools. Yeah they are nice but not paying extra for it.
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