Some home improvements don’t pay off when you go to sell your house. And some can damage the design of the house, which means the buyer will view it as a future repair.

Don’t be that person. Think ahead.

Imagine if buyers are factoring in the cost of demolishing what you spent a lot of money on.

That would be awful and money down the drain. Also, a bad home repair can stop buyer interest in your home, creating a stumbling block in the minds of would-be purchasers.

The Big Bad List of No-No Home Improvements
(DON’T Do These)

#1 Turning a bedroom into a walk-in closet

This is when you steal the bedroom next to the master bedroom and make it into a gigantic closet. This happens more than you think and it makes it difficult for buyers to envision the original floor plan.

People search for a minimum number of bedrooms. If they need 3 and you converted it to 2, they’ll have to factor in the cost of converting it back.

#2 Combining 2 bedrooms to make a gigantic playroom

It might sound like a good idea. Just like the previous “don’t do”, it eliminates a bedroom in the mind of a buyer.

And the buyers factor in the demolition AND reconstruction costs.

#3 Choosing the wrong flooring materials

This goes for color, type, and style.

Before you change the flooring, and especially if you are preparing to sell in the near future, consult with your realtor, stager/interior designer, and a flooring store to find out the latest style in flooring materials.

Wrong choices include adding wall-to-wall carpet when everyone wants wood, or picking the wrong “type” of material such as dark, speckled shag carpet when the current style is smooth, neutral-colored carpet.

The exception on replacing carpeting is the bedrooms. Many people prefer carpeted bedrooms, especially for noise reduction.

Whatever you do, start with viewing most current popular flooring materials at a flooring store. These styles change every year, so a dated style of home improvement doesn’t produce the same “I’m in love with the house” reaction. What this means is don’t go with 1990’s style wavy or distressed Pergo if plank wood laminate is the latest style. Stay up with the times in your decision making.

#4 Adding built-ins: Creating a permanent problem

With the exception of closet organizer built-ins, most buyers don’t like built-ins. This includes entertainment centers, wrap-around office desks, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and built-in kitchen booth-style tables and benches.

They can make the room look smaller than it actually is, and it restricts where buyers put their furniture.

Built-ins are essentially furniture. If a buyer already has their own desk, bookshelf, etc,, the built-ins may mean that they have TWO of the same thing.

This is not to say that built-ins aren’t stunningly beautiful. The issue is whether you will recoup the cost of installing them when you go to sell, or whether you wasted your money and effort.

#5 Installing an expensive surveillance system

Surveillance systems are an individual choice. Yes, they’re great for protection and safety, but you might not recoup the actual cost. You might think this is a bonus, but extra monthly monitoring fees might not be something that the buyer wants.

If you want it for yourself, put it in.

#6 Making a walk-through bedroom to create garage access

Some houses have a side door for entry to the garage. So to “correct” this and add direct access, some homeowners add a door that connects a bedroom to the garage.

If you make a bedroom into a walk-through room this means that somebody’s bedroom is a traffic path and is no longer a private bedroom.

Whoever ends up with the walk-through bedroom loses privacy and gets the worst room in the house.

#7 Eliminating cathedral ceilings to add a loft

People love cathedral ceilings because they make the house appear more spacious and bring in a lot of light.

If you’re tempted to steal from the ceilings to add a loft, think twice. You lose one of the best selling points of the home.

Consider the home where the owners created a loft that could only be accessed by a ladder in a mini-closet along a side wall. You had to be under 5 feet tall to go up the ladder. Horrible. The living room’s open layout was ruined and a home improvement disaster was created

#8 Removing the wrong interior walls: Nightmare in home repairs

Either know what you’re doing or hire someone who does if you’re going to move walls. I’ve seen kitchen layouts ruined when someone relocated the refrigerator way across a room. I’ve seen islands added that interrupted the kitchen flow.

I’ve also seen houses where all interior walls were knocked out to create an open living room/kitchen/family room floor plan, with no crucial supports remaining to hold up the roof! Scary and a disaster waiting to happen.

Make sure you consult with a designer and licensed contractor before you knock any walls down.

#9 Installing ultra high end kitchen appliances

If you love high-end appliances, by all means put them in. But keep in mind that you might not recoup all your costs later. This holds true for outdoor kitchens as well.

Subzero refrigerators are expensive to repair. Viking stoves and specialty exhaust hoods are wonderful additions, but not everyone loves to cook. Be sure to check out the Remodeling Cost vs Value Report for your county before you start that expensive kitchen remodel.

#10 Selecting the wrong kitchen counter top materials

• Marble is beautiful, but it’s pricey and it stains, and the upkeep is unrealistic.
• The same with slate. It scratches.
• Wood counter tops really take a beating.
• Corian used to be popular, but isn’t so much these days. It looks dated.
• Formica is out.
• And as lovely as tile is, it’s not as popular as it once was.
• Concrete counter tops are loved by some, perceived as heavy by others. It’s person specific.

Kitchen counter styles change constantly. Consult with a tile and granite store before starting any project.

Ask at the store what’s popular and go with the most recent trend.

Remember that buyers watch HGTV and flipping shows, so they are looking for the latest materials when they shop for homes.

#11 Installing a freestanding wood-burning stove

Don’t add a freestanding stove, not even a pellet stove. It takes up space and can be a danger to people walking by. An exception to this rule is installing the new kind of decorative electric heaters that you can find on Amazon.

They add something visually and are more or less a glorified blow dryer. Beautiful though.

#12 Going overboard on ornate and expensive lighting fixtures

Unless you are in a custom-built or luxury home, you don’t need to go all out with the lighting. Just update it to a current style.

Your buyer might not appreciate a $4000 chandelier over a kitchen dining table in a standard tract home. It’s overkill for the neighborhood and it’s difficult to clean.

It’s best to remove any specialized lighting before putting your home on the market if you’re not leaving it with the house. Just add a cheaper replacement fixture. Then take the expensive one with you to your next home.

#13 Adding wallpaper

Wallpaper is not a fix. It’s a potential problem. Buyers view it as a future REPAIR.

And if you have old style paneling, it can be tempting to cover it with textured wallpaper as a solution. You might be creating a worse problem. Sometimes painting over it is a better solution, or just removing the paneling altogether.

And absolutely don’t follow the latest trend of putting wallpaper on the ceiling! It’s hard enough to paint a ceiling, let alone having to rip off wallpaper and re-texture.

It’s pretty now, but will it be stylish later?

#14 Eliminating the closet in a home office

If you’re trying to create a home office space, preserve the closet, or at least make it easy to change back. The issue here is that it’s a bedroom if it has a closet.

What if a future buyer wants to use it as a bedroom? Avoid any future selling problems by leaving leave the closet intact.

#15 Adding a sun room for extra living space

Don’t do it. Some people justify it because it seems like an economical way to get more living space, but it creates other issues.

Don’t expect to get a price bump from an older, decrepit sun room. They tend to be a money loser, not a benefit.

Older sun rooms are built to a lower energy efficiency standard than what we have today. If it’s all glass and faces south, and if it’s not properly insulated, it can function as a pizza oven for most of the year. You walk from the interior into the sun room and a wave of heat hits you full blast.

The room next to the sun room becomes darker. It deprives the main room of light.

In the minds of buyers, removing a dated sun room a huge demolition project.

#16 Garage conversion to a bedroom or Airbnb

This might be fine in an emergency family situation where you need to move an elderly parent in and you create an accessory dwelling unit. But that garage bedroom will never look like the other bedrooms. It’s best not to leave the garage space for garage things like cars.

And if you’re thinking of using a garage conversion as an Airbnb, think again. It used to be a good idea, but many cities have short-term rental restrictions. Be sure you investigate the local rules.

Cities have parking space rules as well. This could also be a problem if you eliminate the garage.

#17 Improperly constructed man-cave or she-shed

If you’re going to add one, do it right, with a correctly poured foundation.

Most of the ones I see are potential tear downs, which can get in the way of your future sale.

I once saw a shed/office whose foundation was tilting. Although cute in the property photos, with this improperly installed foundation, it was actually a tear-down (unless the buyer didn’t mind leaning all day long.)

#18 Adding a covered patio (or latticed patio)

For those of us who grew up with patio covers, it seems like a necessity. But you don’t need to add one unless you do a lot of barbecuing and outdoor dining. Ask yourself if this is going to be an important space for you and your family. In today’s market, it’s a personal choice, and it doesn’t necessarily add anything to the selling price.

In addition, like a sun room, it also takes light away from the room that it’s adjacent to.

#19 Adding a tennis court (or most sports courts)

It depends on the buyer. You won’t likely recover your costs with a tennis court. Sports courts are taste-specific to the buyer.

#20 Adding solar panels, especially leased ones

Solar panels seem like a good idea, but first do the math to see if they’ll save you money. In addition, whether the panels are leased or owned will be an issue to a future buyer.

Installing leased solar panels could save you money right now, but there will be that future day when the solar lease will be up. At that point you can pay the lease off, have the panels hauled away, or continue leasing for a predetermined period.

Whatever the case, just be sure you’re not creating a $30,000 future headache.

With a lease, the buyer has to assume the lease as part of the sale. Not every buyer wants to do this.

#21 Don’t be the house on the block with the “different” roof

Be careful if you install a roof that’s different than the rest of the neighborhood. If it’s a tract house neighborhood with composite shingle roofs, don’t be the oddball who adds the only Mexican tile roof on the block. That goes for metal roofs as well.

Tile roofs are heavy and require extra bracing in the attic. There’s likely a reason that most homes on the block stuck with the original roofing style and materials.

I once saw a standard 70’s style tract house structurally ruined when someone added arches and a heavy clay tile roof. Every other house on the block had composite shingles. The excessive weight of the tile created deep cracks around every interior doorway and as well as cracks in the Satillo tile floor. That roof was squishing the house!

Be careful if you change roof types, and make sure to consult a contractor for advice about the weight and how to prepare for it.

#22 Not everyone wants a swimming pool

If you add a swimming pool, you might not your money back. So install it for your own personal lifestyle, but don’t count on it adding tremendous value later on. Pools are a personal taste issue.

If you’re in a neighborhood that has an HOA and an association pool, that private pool in your back yard could be an extra expense that many buyers won’t want. Because the HOA already provides a pool, There’s a double pool fee in the minds of most buyers.

Here are a few things to avoid if you absolutely can’t resist installing that pool:

• Don’t put it too close to the house. Where will the pool fence go? Could there be settling years from now? I’ve seen homes with pools extremely close to the home’s perimeter, so close in fact that there was no room for a fence.
• Don’t make entire back yard all pool and concrete. Most people like to see some green.
• Don’t put the pool too close to a slope. In a rain, could mud wash into the pool? Great. Now your pool has dirt and worms whenever it rains.

BONUS ADVICE: Talk to your accountant

You may be asking the question, “Are home repairs tax deductible?”

The best way to handle this is to consult with your tax professional at the very beginning of when you start the home repairs or home improvements so that you keep the necessary receipts for tax time.

This is an extremely important question for any home owner when you go to sell your house.

Wrap Up

So what if it’s too late and you already own a house with problem improvements? Should you rip them out? Not necessarily.

Keep in mind that a home is more than just a strategic set of perfect home improvement projects. It’s a place where people LIVE, and everyone has different things that matter to them.

This list is meant to be informative, not chastising. But in case you are considering selling your house, you and your realtor will need to make a plan to deal with any problematic issues.

With the knowledge of home improvements that might get in the way for a future buyer, this list is here to increase your awareness. This way you have a greater chance of making the kind of home improvements that make selling easier in the future.