This is one of the questions that has been nagging me all along: my fear of having a way too expensive sqft price in case I would need to sell. So one question I have is to what extent square footage price is a significant factor when homes are evaluated.
I contacted a couple of local real estate agents to get their opinions on different scenarios and the likelihood of getting my money back from different investments. The options I presented were:
A. SELL: sell it
B. REMODEL: $450K, 1700 sf of partly updated home. Raise the roof 4 ft on the old section, make new master BR suite, rebuild all roofs w/ fire sprinklers, etc.
C. NEW AND REPAIR: $450K, 750 sf new home and 1700 sf of repaired home: build addl. 750 sf structure and repair only as needed on existing structure
Some important qualities of what I have are: a large lot, an amazing view, a very level lot, no stairs required to get from driveway into house; no levels in house, sewer system (makes lot fully usable (no drain field).
Negatives are: traffic noise from Alpine (can also be a positive by being close to everything),
The consensus was that a small house is not necessarily a detriment, and possibly as wealthy baby-boomers retire and want to scale down, a house of this size may actually be attractive. One agent suggested the 3/3 configuration of BR/BA was important to keep. However, most buyers would consider it a tear down to give room to their mansion. A couple of recent sales suggests that just the value of the lot is in the 2.3M range.
Option C did not get a lot of positive feedback: even if a larger sqft would be gained it was unclear that the unremodeled part could get sufficient curb appeal and integration with the new structure.
Option B was seen as a viable course to take; in today's market a remodeled house like this might be able to sell for 2.3M - but no guarantees of course.
All this made me add a fourth option to the confusion:
D. UPGRADE + EXTERIOR: $300K, 1700 sf of maintained home. Stick to current building envelope; take care of deferred maintenance and energy improvements: new windows, roof resurfacing, new furnace, clean up floor plan in BR section, redo entry and get new kitchen.
