Selling a house with a dedicated theater room in the basement... (1 Viewer)

[greggor]

As difficult a decision this is, it looks like my job will be taking me out of state and I'll have to put my home on the market. Bad timing I know. This is the third home I've owned over the past several years and it also happens to be the one I've enjoyed the most as I've customized it to fit my needs and life style.

The basement was completely un-finished when we moved in, so it quickly became project number one as it provided the opportunity for me to finally build my dream Home theater room. I also added a bar, a full bathroom, spare bedroom and an excersize area. I was careful to keep a future potential buyer in mind during the planning phase of the project.... How well I accomplished this remains to be seen though and is the reason for this post.

Are there any other members here who have sold a home with a dedicated Home Theater room? What was your experience? What equipment if any did you leave behind. I have allot of money invested in my equipment and I would be naive to expect a full return on everything so I'm leaning more towards taking most of the equipment with me, leaving behind the projector (In Focus), screen (Carada) and built in Paradigm Reference in ceiling speakers in the rear of the room. On the other hand, I know that leaving everything behind could be a powerful selling tool as well. Doing so will unfortunately leave me with nothing in terms of Home Theater equipment and I'll have to start over. We've already decided to keep our 42" wall mounted plasma with the house in our main living room.

I look forward to reading your thoughts....

Not looking forward to moving - Greg

 

[drobbins]

I sold my house with the theater in it to my brother. He has never owned a TV and a year later I don't think he has ever watched a movie in it.

If I were selling to the general public I would leave it set up the best I could. It would be a great selling point. Now if they start to really cut your selling price, tell them you want to keep the equipment. Some people will have the skill to put it back together, others won't want to bother with it and will like to keep it as is.

 

[DaveF]

I would think the finished basement would be the selling point, not the specific HT electronics. I've not heard of people buying houses, TV included

But how custom is your HT installation? Can a future owner plug their receiver into the existing wiring as-is? How about the screen: how much customization would be required for a new screen? And the projector: would the new owner have to do new construction to install a new projector into the existing mount?

I'd think that the if your system is tightly integrated and customized for your specific gear, its inclusion becomes a more useful negotiation consideration.

 

[Matt Stryker]

I had set up a great basement theater before we put our house on the market, but the realtor asked that we make the room more "vanilla" - so out went the theater seats, the FPTV, the kodak gray walls, and in came semi gloss white and new carpet.

I honestly think it may have a lot to do with what price range/income level your buyer is in. If its a roomy house with another space that can be a playroom/home office/etc, I'd probably leave it, at least initially - especially if you've put in risers for seating, wall treatments and sconces, etc - if it has high WAF, basically. But if your house is a standard 3BR/2Bath setup, the realtor suggested that people want to imagine the house fitting their life, instead of fitting their life to your house. Its the same with removing family photos, etc from the rooms to make it feel like "this could be MY home". I'm not a realtor and I've only owned and sold 1 house in my life, but that was her position - and the house sold quickly in a mediocre market.

Do you have a house already in mind or purchased where you are moving? Could it fit the equipment you already have?

 

[greggor]

Thanks for the responses...

The room was built knowing that someone else would have to deal with it at some point in the future, so it was designed to be plug and play. All components are situated in a custom built in cabinet under the stair case with-in the room, There is a door located on the opposite side of the straircase for easy access to the rear of the components. All the speakers (wiring for 7.1) can be connected via banana plugs to the back of the receiver via the labeled inputs under the staircase. I also ran HDMI, Component, and Composite cables from the cieling in the HT room to under the staircase. I never built platforms for seating and the room has a light neutral colored carpet with beige walls. The wall that the screen is mounted on is painted black and it's out fitted with black curtains. Lighting comes from recessed 4"" lighting . The room could easily be converted into a game room or even a bedroom if someone wanted to go through the trouble.

I have a relatively large house, 4 bathrooms total and two living rooms upstairs. One is used for watching television and the other one is a sitting area. I don't see anyone trying to re-purpose the rooms in the basement out of a lack of space in the rest of the house, but whi knows. I'm really just wondering if I should consider the HT room a plus or just something that's there...

We'll find out soon enough how the room is perceived I suppose. It's just hard to let it go. I'm really leaning towrads trying to market it as an added selling point. This could mean that I'll lose all my precious equipment that I worked so hard to get. Then again selling the house is our top priority.....

Thanks for listening.

Greg

 

[DaveF]

I think it's like other specialized aspects of a house, like a dedicated office or even a pool: It's a plus to those who specifically want it and it's neutral or a minus to everyone else.

Your realtor will hopefully have better insights on how to market and stage your basement features.

 

[mylan]

I have both a pool and a dedicated home theater/media room space with a game room area so I know I'll have to market it to a smaller group of people who want those things as much as I did when I built it.

I would feature the HT as a plus and advertise it as such. Just like there are people who would not want a pool, there are people who specifically do, the HT is an amenity. A.F.A. selling or keeping your gear, I would keep what you want and substitute something less expensive in its place.

Chances are prospective buyers will not be as quality oriented as you and not know the difference but I would sell it as a turn-key system with a quality universal remote so that the less experienced can operate it. Once you or your agent shows how good quality HT can be, it will be a plus to the right buyer.

When my wife and I were researching homes to get ideas we went into several models with basement theaters and game rooms, with movies playing on a loop and lighting set just right. It really set the mood and showed me what a theater space could be.

 

[greggor]

Great advice! I may start purchasing some used equipment on Ebay, including speakers so I can keep my more expensive, higher quality gear. Maybe I can find some Bose speakers at a reasonable price for the mass appeal.

 

[Edwin-S]

I would ask the buyer whether they want the home theater left intact for a higher price. If they responded in the negative then I would remove any equipment that I wanted to keep and let them decide if they want to keep the room as a home theater. I wouldn't be going out and spending money even on cheap gear just to be told by a prospective buyer that they are not willing to pay more for the feature.

Also, anyone who is interested in dedicated home theater is more than likely going to have their own gear.

 

[Matt Stryker]

or more likely in this market, they will include the equipment in the offer at your original price - many times if price isn't negotiable, the buyer will ask for things like window treatments, appliances, and even electronics instead. So if you're attached to your equipment, I would pull it before you show the house.

 

[Sam Posten]

What state are we talking about? Maybe someone here is interested =)