Feb 20 "Love it or List It" Question

After seeing the February 20 “Love It or List It” episode on HGTV, I am wondering how much the house would have been worth if the basement had been updated and the commercial stove and oven had been left out. Read on and see how it may remind you of some business decisions you have seen made.

For those that do not watch the show, it is about a couple that owns a home. One wants to stay. The other wants to sell it. The show brings in a designer to hear the problems with the house and what the budget is to fix them. A realtor is also brought in to hear what the couple wants in a new house and show them ones that could meet their needs. After they have seen some houses and the design is complete, the couple is handed one more listing. It is for their house with the design changes. The couple must also decide if to love the house again or list it and move to one they have been shown.

On February 20th, the couple had a 90 year old house. It had problems on all 3 levels. However, only one level was able to be corrected and redesigned. The bath on the upper level had to be removed from the design update because money was needed to handle some structural problems.

This brings up a side point. Each week there seems to be a structure problem. Looks to me like the designer would have that checked first and then tell what she is going to do.

To make it fair there are also problems with the houses the realtor shows. Sometimes it is like he did not hear. So it is even.

Anyway, back to the stove. The designer had plans for the kitchen and told the wife to pick out the appliances. The designer even gave her the dimensions that would fit. The wife decided instead to get the commercial stove and oven. Due to space and structure needs for this appliance, the plans had to change. The money that would have been used for the basement upgrades had to be used to handle the stove and oven.

Since a nice house had been found and only 1 floor could be upgraded the couple decided to list. The upgrades did improve the value. However, I was left wondering what would have been the value if the basement had been upgraded instead of the kitchen getting a commercial stove and oven. How many people use that type of stove and oven anyway? Does this remind you of business decisions that you see made every day?