UNIFORMITY – A Tip on Increasing Your Property Value

Now that you are a bona fide homeowner, or will be soon, I'd like to ask you to step back and ask yourself why you bought the house in first place; more specifically, why you chose a house in a subdivision. You could have bought a plot of land and build your house there. You could be living outside a subdivision free from those pesky restrictions and monthly dues but you didn't. You chose to live in a gated community. Why?

Take a look at the photo above, it's one of the pictures used to market a subdivision. Was it the prospect of being part of a community that appealed to you? Was it the sleek design of the houses and the cleanliness that got you? Or was it the beauty of having rows of houses all uniformed, exactly the same size and shape? Did this quality make the subdivision more captivating?

You might not have been aware of it but the uniformity of the houses is not just for aesthetic purposes or appeal. The sameness of each house actually increases the value of your property. This is the reason why developers and property managers are strictly enforcing those pesky restrictions and are making sure that you don't alter or modify the facade of your house. Yes, it can be very bothersome and you may feel very restricted. However, if you really think about it, won't the person who will benefit from these restrictions be you, the property owner? Wouldn't you want to make money out of your investment by doing nothing to your house?  

Here's the logic behind this phenomenon. Imagine that you haven't bought a house and that you are still scouting for one. You come upon two subdivisions where about 80% of the houses are already built. In the first subdivision, the houses are all uniformed and no one has deviated from the original design. The colour, doors, windows, height of the houses is all the same. Each one of them is the exact replica of the other and there is no clutter at their front steps. There are no tarpaulins hanging outside their window, no signs or advertisements. Then you visit the second subdivision and your eyes see a wide variety of houses. There's a house which is three stories high while the one beside it is just one floor. You see one coloured pink while the one across it is violet and another is orange. There's one where the laundry of the residents are hanged outside in front of the main door and there's another with a billiards table out in front. Now agent A from the first subdivision offers you Php XXX for a house and lot and agent B offers you the same amount for a house and lot in the 2nd subdivision. Which would you choose?

Aren't you more likely to choose the first subdivision than the second one? Wouldn't you feel more secured in the first one? This is because the uniformity, harmony and regularity of the houses create an atmosphere of safety, cleanliness and peacefulness, which are all qualities a homebuyer is looking for. Weren't you looking for the same things when you were house hunting? And doesn't basic Economics tell us that the more demand there is, the higher the price goes?

Thus, the answer to the age old question of "how to increase your property value" is to simply do nothing. Do not change the facade of the house. Do not add a floor to your two-storey house. Just keep the way things are. If you don't believe me, take it from the 5 brokers and 3 appraisers in my family. They all say the same thing.

The Rush of Moving In

The wait is over. After all those months of budgeting and scrambling to make sure your bank account has enough funds to pay for your monthly amortization, you're finally given the keys to your very own place! Excitedly, you open the door and step into your new abode. A million ideas go through your head on how the interior should look. Inspired, you rush to the nearest furniture shop or department store to begin making your dream house. You're like a shopping machine. You devour the store and place every item you see and like into your shopping carts. Satisfied, you make your way to the payment counter and unload everything. After the lady finishes ringing up all your purchases you hand her your credit card. As you are about to let go, a voice shouts at you and tells you, "STOP! You are making a BIG mistake. A very big, expensive mistake!"

I know the urge to make your new house look like it just came out of a magazine can be very appealing especially when you have the funds for it but that is just not the way to go. Do you remember where you used to live? Maybe it was at your parent's house or some condominium unit in Makati or in a dormitory. How much stuff did you accumulate over the years? Didn't you have boxes and boxes of figurines, picture frames, towels, books, stuffed animals which were placed in the storage room? Before you moved to your new place, didn't you have so many things you didn't even know what you were going to do with them? Had you made all those purchases in that department store, it wouldn't have been long before your house would be brimming of things, and maybe junk, that you won't even have enough space for your comfort. 

So what should you do? Wait. Let time help you decorate your house. Surely, you'll be able to visit a new place and buy one or two souvenirs for decoration. Your siblings or relatives abroad might just give you the perfect centrepiece to place on your coffee table. You receive a cross-stitched painting for your birthday and you hang it onto your living room wall. Maybe you'll even get enough picture frames during Christmas for all your photos and, even if you're not an avid reader, somehow your shelves would still find a way to fill itself with books and magazines. 

There is no need to rush to fill your house with unnecessary things for decorative purposes. Wouldn't it be nicer if every piece of item in your house has a story? It would also be a very great conversation starter when you have visitors over and you'll never run out of things to talk about! At first, your residence may look bare but slowly, the spaces of your house would eventually be filled. Pretty soon, it will become a reflection of who you are and what you've gone through in life. Let your journey be reflected in your home, everything in it, a part of who you are.