Does adding a handicap ramp increase home value? (plumber, agreement, lawyer)
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How many handicaped people are looking for a 2 story farm? LOL. None. They are looking for a one story house with everything on one floor.
It's not a two story farm house.
OP, my opinion is in line with everyone else's. It will not add value.
A 40-year old mobile home with holes in the floor has run it's useful life, and the only thing of value is the land it sits on. It's tough decision time for your family. I wish y'all the best of luck through it.
I'm trying to settle a dispute between two sisters regarding their father's farm house.
Details: VA benefits + SS for grandpa. Grandpa had a stroke and is in rehab. He has plateaued and two sisters who are responsible for his care are trying to come to a decision-should he come home or be put in a nursing care home? He is 84, has dementia, and due to the stroke he needs 24/7 care and can no longer walk.
Family Farm Home: is a single wide trailer with a home-made addition that has grandpa's bedroom and bathroom. Stairs up to the house via front door, stairs out the back down the deck. VA rehab nurse and inspector came out and said ramps and doorways would have to be installed. Lots of money, lots of time, and lots of work are involved to gut the areas Grandpa needs for wheelchair accessibility.
Sister one: It will increase the value of the house if we just put in ramps at the back door (disable the deck).
Sister two: It is pointless to only add a ramp outside if the inside is not handicap accessible. Doorways would have to be widened and in a 40 yr old metal single wide trailer (that has holes in the floor and needs desperate repair) what is the point?
The sisters already have a buyer for the property-the Amish down the road want to scrap the house and barn and build for their expanding family. Sister two is on board with this idea but sister one is not.
So, the dispute is, does making a home handicap accessible increase the value of the home? Ideally, we don't want to put grandpa into a home. But, sister one and two can not care for him-they are not trained professionals so we're still researching the cost of in home care versus a nursing facility.
Sister two is trying to research this and I'm helping her-she's my MIL. Thanks!!
Kat
3rd to last paragraph.....................it appears the Amish don't believe there is any value either with or without a ramp.
I agree with others - it will not add value. If anything, it will detract from the value because they're typically ugly and take up otherwise usable space.
I'm in the process of selling my grandmother's house. She had it custom designed and built 50 years ago to handle wheelchairs because her daughter (my aunt) was confined to one. Extra wide halls, no steps anywhere, etc. It has been a non-issue with buyers. No one cares about those features because so few people actually need them.
Sorry to hear your family is going through this, but if he's ok with being in a 24/7 care home, that may be what's best for everyone. Sell the property to the Amish and then you won't have to worry about all the other maintenance it needs.
A neighbor's house in on the market. It has a ramp and a chair escalator to the second floor.
Seller viewed it as a value-add. Feedback proved her wrong. Then she offered to remove them before closing, if desired. That did not go over too well. The property will, more than likely, over winter and sell for less had it not been encumbered by the chair and ramp.
A handicap ramp will not increase the value of a deteriorating mobile home.
Putting in ramps will be a waste of money, postponing the inevitable at best. At worst, it will give everyone a false sense of security.
24 hour caregiving is expensive, emotionally and physically draining, and often not the best for the person who often benefits from increased social interaction, more varied better diet, and getting more exercise in a facility that is handicap accessible.
It will not add any value. Furthermore, from the description; the home really doesn't have much value. The property is worth what the land is worth. Any money you put into it, is money thrown away.
As a long time real estate broker, not only will the changes not increase the value of the mobile, but will cost a lot of money to do, and what you have is what is known as a tear down in the real estate business, and the property is worth no more or less if you removed the mobile and sold the land without it.
Making that home wheel chair accessible, will cost thousands of dollars. As pointed out it is more than the ramp. Bathrooms, doorways, etc. will require considerable change. And possibly it will be nearly impossible to do some of the changes that would be needed, or would be prohibitively expensive. Example, is the hall wide enough, that a person could turn into the bathroom from the hallway, and would the bathroom be accessible from the hallway with a wheel chair.
Regardless of what you and your sisters want to do.... will he let you sell the home? While he is alive, it's ultimately his decision unless you already have power of attorney.
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