Furnishing your home can be fun. And expensive. And stressful.
Sometimes, items that seemed cool at first become a bit of a drag later. Here are 7 items a recent poll suggested home buyers regret purchasing for their home (in no particular order):
1. Kids Playground Equipment
To be fair, playground equipment is a ton of fun during the years where kids can't get enough of it. This window can be small, though, and then the equipment can become something of maintenance frustration. The equipment takes up a lot of room in the yard and can start to look rundown if not maintained. Once it's time to sell the home, the equipment should generally be removed, unless it's in great shape. This typically leaves big dead spots in the grass and some landscaping to do.
2. Above-Ground Pools
Having grown up with one of these for a couple years, I'm a little sad to see this on the list. That said, they also take up a lot of room in the yard, lead to a lot of work to maintain them, and have a pretty short "useful" season in our part of the country (where it's tool cold and rainy for 8-9 months of the year). While above-ground pools can also be a great deal of fun, they are also a good amount of work to set up and maintain. Some owners take them down for the winter, but then they must put them back together the following summer....which often doesn't happen as planned. In most cases, it's not a great idea to sell a home with the above-ground pool still standing, creating a pre-market project for most would-be sellers.
3. Cheap Stuff
Some things aren't worth paying top dollar for. That said, sometimes it's easy to buy cheap (not necessarily the same as inexpensive) stuff to make our dollars go further and to afford more options for the home.
"For a home to look good in the long run, you must invest in high-quality things," said Judi Kutner, real estate agent and the head writer of Apartment Notes. "Low-quality will often break or damage over time, requiring new expenses."
Sometimes, it's worth buying less stuff, but of a higher quality. It lasts longer and may look better for more years ahead, which, in some cases, will actually save you money.
4. Outdoor Heaters
During the pandemic, there was a sharp increase in the money spent on outdoor living spaces, according to Bill Samuel, a real estate developer. Covered patios with kitchens, lounge seating and TVs rose in popularity throughout much of the country (though here locally a bit less...again, due to climate).
Why are heaters a challenge? Depending on the type of heater you're looking to install, there may be codes regarding heater height for the space. Other than some fire pits, many portable patio heaters release their heat fairly high above the ground. Since warm air rises, you don't get to enjoy each "unit" of heat for very long, making these units pretty inefficient.
So, it's not that people don't enjoy their outdoor heaters; it's mainly that they wind up being more expensive than many owners anticipated, especially if the users don't want to huddle close together.
5. Oversized Furniture
We're all guilty of it at one time or another: feeling like we need to fill the spaces in our home so they don't feel empty. To help with this, we get bigger pieces of furniture.
Once the pieces are home, though, the rooms can start to feel crowded. Even if you don't go for the minimalist vibe, empty spaces in room make them feel bigger and cleaner, less cluttered. Start conservatively. If you feel the room still needs more, try a wall hanging over the empty space or a potted plant. Each of these is generally cheaper and they're mobile, so you can make adjustments over time.
6. High-End Major Appliances
Yes, we just warned against buying cheap stuff above, and now buyers are talking about regretting high-end appliances...? Here's the thing: quality doesn't have to require a bunch of fancy gadgets and amenities.
Have you been refrigerator shopping lately? See-through doors, doors-within-a-door, in-unit wifi and the like are more and more common. These can be fun or even very useful features, to be sure, but they come at a cost...and offer more things that can break down before the fridge itself does.
It's useful to ask what you really need from your appliances. Do you really need the washer with 25 settings, or do you tend to use the same 3-5 for all your needs?
None of us believe we are at risk, but getting caught up in the latest and greatest is a risk to avoid when buying these items.
7. Too Many Small Appliances
Sure, it's enviable to see people on cooking shows breeze right through prep for that gourmet dinner, assisted by the wide assortment of tools at their fingertips. Do you really need all of those, though?
For many buyers, these kitchen appliances/gadgets get used a time or two and then take up space in the cabinets. We often fret over how little kitchen storage we have, because so much of it is taken up by smaller gadgets, many of which really aren't necessary.
It's easy to impulse purchase when these items come up for sale on Amazon, but worth a second thought before hitting the Buy Now button.
Are there any items the survey missed? Let me know!
Source: Go Banking Rates
