Sunday, October 26, 2014

Period Rehabs

I recently viewed a property for sale in Downers Grove that was straight out of the 1960's.   The home needed extensive remodeling due to the collapsed kitchen, the mold and mildew odor in the home, the lime green shag carpeting and the wall paper that even is found on numerous ceilings.   The issue that my client and I struggle with is whether or not we can do our typical rehab or if we need to reproduce the 60's style that the exterior of the home exudes!   

We discussed this issue for hours and seemed to go back and forth with our opinions.  Our typical rehab is a very standard "cookie cutter" style, but it's very simple and straight forward.   The contractors can easily spit out the final product in a matter of a few weeks.   My client wondered if while previewing the finished product weather or not the general public would think that they had one foot in the 60's and one foot in modern time?   How would that affect resale value?

On the flip side... a "Period Rehab" may cost 20% more in materials and take considerably longer to complete!  Should we hire an interior decorator?  How much more time would we spend at the local Menards?  How much longer would this rehab take our contractors since this isn't the typical "cookie cutter" rehab that we have them done?   We unanimously agreed that this final "Period Rehab" would sell for a fair amount more... but how would the net ROI be affected and would it be worth it?

What do you think?

Rob Hayes