The Most Valuable Things in Your Home Aren’t on the Appraisal
After 38 years in real estate, I can tell you quite a bit about what adds value to a home. An updated kitchen helps. A good location certainly matters. And an extra bathroom can do wonders for both your property value and your marriage.
But some of the most valuable things in a home never make it onto an appraisal.
The dining table with the scratches from years of family dinners. The handwritten recipe card with a mysterious stain and instructions that say “add enough flour”—which apparently made perfect sense to your grandmother. The slightly lopsided holiday decoration your child made in second grade, which you would rescue long before the tasteful replacement you bought years later. Your grandfather’s christening gown that your dad and your grandsons have used.
An appraiser has no line for “doorframe where we marked the children’s heights.” There is no adjustment for “kitchen where everyone gathers even though there are perfectly good chairs in the living room.” And the market has yet to establish a price per square foot for a house full of laughter. These are truly the components that make a house a home!
With Thanksgiving approaching, and a brand-new grandbaby in our family, I’ve been thinking about the memories still ahead. Another little person to pull up a chair someday. Another opinion about what belongs on the Thanksgiving menu. Another reason to keep the decorations that have somehow survived several decades and really ought to qualify as antiques by now.
Of course, a home doesn’t have to stay in the family forever for those memories to matter. I often talk with people who are ready for a smaller home or a simpler life but feel a pang at the thought of leaving the place where so much happened. That feeling deserves some room, too.
You can take the recipe cards. You can bring the holiday decoration, even if a substantial portion of its glitter has migrated elsewhere. You can gather around a different table and tell the same stories—although someone will inevitably insist you’re telling them incorrectly. Certainly that christening gown can move with you!
As we head into this season of gathering, I hope you’ll enjoy your home without worrying quite so much about whether it is ready for company. Clear a place at the table (or in my case, move all the mail off the dining room table!) Pull up the mismatched chair. Let someone else bring the pie.
And if a new little person eventually adds a scratch to the furniture, well, you’ll be in very good company.
What is the one thing in your home that has very little dollar value but means the world to you? I would love to hear its story.