Selling your theater with your house

[Anthony]

Since this only applies to people who did a full on construction (and not a surround system in the living room, which would obviously move with them to a new house), I figured I would post this here.

If it belongs somewhere else, feel free to move it Sonnie.

Anyway, the wife and I are looking to move in the next few months and we were wondering what to do with our theater.

Our realtor told us to either leave the projector, screen, and riser and sell the theater with the house, or to pull it all out and stage the room as a rec room.

As far as that goes, it would only mean removing the riser, which is floating. Flooring continues behind it and the wall paint goes all the way to the real floor. It would just be a pain, that's all.

So what would you all do? Leave the theater with the house and buy new gear (at least a new projector and stuff), or tear it out (sniff, sniff)

Or is there another option I am not considering? Obviously the goal is to sell the house quickly and for the most money we can get.

Ideas?

[bpape]

List the theater as a 'negotiable item'. If you get someone that wants it, then it's a negotiating point. If not, then you can eliminate a potential sale stopper and not have to rebuy equipment.

The upside of selling it with the house is that you get to buy new stuff!

Bryan

[kermyb123]

I have a co-worker who is selling - He was told that HT rooms are really hot on the market right now and can really "sell the deal".

[salvasol]

bpape wrote:

List the theater as a 'negotiable item'. If you get someone that wants it, then it's a negotiating point. If not, then you can eliminate a potential sale stopper and not have to rebuy equipment. The upside of selling it with the house is that you get to buy new stuff!

Bryan

I agree 100%

When you advertise your home, you can list the HT equipment as negotiable; but you need to disclose in advance if you're planning to leave the room as a recreation room (remove riser, etc.) to avoid a claim after closing the sale.

Let's say, you get a buyer Who enters into contract with you ... he saw your HT but didn't want the equipment for any reason; but he liked the room to accomodate his own HT; then after the sale he moves in and find out that you removed the riser, etc. and he finds just a plain room ... he may complaint that you didn't disclose you'll be removing things from that room ... just my suggestion (as a R.E. )

[Anthony]

Thanks for the input guys.

The default is to leave everything as is and take my gear with me. My realtor is afraid that it won't sell that way. She thinks I should either leave the equipment, or market it as a rec room.

Maybe I can talk her into leaving a note in the room saying that the riser is removable and the screen is negotiable. Then we just leave it and see how the chips fall. I'm not sure she's sold too many houses with dedicated HTs (so I don't blame her for wanting to make it an all-or-nothing thing).


The two things I absolutely do not want to do are: gut the whole thing, or leave my Magnepan speakers to someone who won't know them from a HTIB system. The projector and screen I don't mind leaving, but the projector isn't mounted (it's on a rack that I built and will probably come with us).

In other news, we found our ideal house already, but since ours is nowhere near ready to sell -- we have to just hope it's on the market when ours finally sells. Oh well, such is real estate.

[tonyvdb]

How is the real estate market in your area Anthony? here over the last 4 years it went up but over 150% a 3 bedroom house with full basement (about 2800 sq ft including the basement) goes for around $400,000 a house in an upscale neighborhood goes for over $750,000

[YW84U]

I would consider removing any equipment that your don't want to release with the house (and replace it with something less expensive, but still 'fits' the room' and keeps it operational). That way, potential buyers coming through don't get their hearts set on certain gear that they saw in the walk-through (such as the Magnepans). Most people will be stretching their budget to the max to buy the most house they can (your house), so the last thing you want is for them to feel 'put off' by trying to figure out how to afford replacing 'missing items' to get the HT back up and running or tackling some mysterious unseen wiring monster - if it is turnkey, I think it remains more marketable IMHO. Maybe throw it in as a 'gift' or incentive to lure them into better negotiations on the base home price.

When I sold my last home with an HT, it was a factor that sealed the deal and made the place stick out amongst the competition. It was by no means to the extreme of my current build, but it still had a wow factor that provoked at least the male buyers and the realtor tours. Took only four days on market to get the offer, in a February market (t'was a middle class area in a 1974 fixer-upper - nothing special, in an area where upscale houses were $425K and up).

I originally left the gear, PJ and such as 'negotiable' - turns out they were not interested in the audio (they had an RCA HTIB, and showed up with a 'techie friend' on their second viewing ), but they really were pressing to keep the PJ and screen for 'free'. The screen was a DIY drywall/paint combo, so I 'left' that for them as opposed to painting it back to dark green like the rest of the wall , along with the projector - an Infocus X1. I threw it in gratis, seeing as $900 of PJ compared to $300,000 worth of house is really nothing at all. They and their agent were soooo happy that I offered to do that, they couldn't wait to sign!! I thought their reaction to that was rather weird, myself , in retrospect, I would have let them keep the whole thing seeing as it was less that 2K of stuff. Good reason to upgrade to newer equipment! IMHO, if you look at the big picture, people move thousands of dollars up/down on pricing and negotiations, which would likely more than outweigh the original HT costs if you factored them out .

Also, ensure the showing realtor knows how to run the basics of the HT for demos - and if you're up to it, you can do up a small brochure or other document outlining some of the HT features (as well as other house features) and have it on a plexi-stand near the door for people to take with them or write notes on (leave a few pens too!). Perhaps keep some 'neutral' DVD on tap for viewings (anything Pixar is safe), and have it so that the showing agent can turn the volume up for a demo, but then turn it down so that it doesn't take over the whole house while they look at the other features and rooms.

Please, do let us know how you faire and good luck with your sale!

Cheers,

[santora]

YW84U wrote:

I would consider removing any equipment that your don't want to release with the house (and replace it with something less expensive, but still 'fits' the room' and keeps it operational).

I would agree with this. While most people wouldn't know the difference, the last thing you want is someone to come in, underbid, and then go "HEY, where are my speakers! I didn't pay for those!" Just run to CC and pick up a nice set of Polks. You can do a really nice surround set up for under $1000.

[MatrixDweller]

Really you should leave everything in your house as negotiable including furniture, appliances and your HT gear. Just make sure it's listed as negotiable. If someone were to offer you your list price (or close to it) would it be enough to buy some newer gear? Make sure your list price reflects that. A good HT/media room should help sell your house, and the ability to remove the riser and make it into a normal rec room is an added plus. And like others have said...if you don't want to part with a certain piece of your system (ie your speakers) list it as non-negotiable and not included (put that in the fine print).

You are the seller so you ultimately set the final price. If someone low-balls you on your list price you can either refuse their offer or use your negotiables as bargaining chips.


tonyvdb Alberta is booming. I doubt anywhere else in North America has had that great of a housing market in a long time. It has slowed a bit in Ontario but is still fairly good at 5-10% increase per year. In Alberta though you'll have to watch out for the bubble effect. I know the oil and gas industry is there to stay but if OPEC decided to reduce their rates it would ruin a lot of people out there.

BTW a coworker of mine just got back from Dubai and told me that the price of gas at gas stations was 40 cents per liter. It's only about 5 cents per liter in Venezuela.

[Anthony]

Thanks for the help guys. I may do all that -- buy a cheap (ish) speaker set, mount the projector and be done with it. The Maggies will collect dust for a while, but at least I saved the original boxes

We still have a lot to do, but hopefully this weekend will be fruitful. I have my bedroom "sound" wall to finish mudding, we have about 6 rooms to paint (actually 2 rooms and two hallways, but it seems like a huge task), declutter, etc. Then we need to get new carpets for the bedrooms. It's going to be a busy month.

Oh and the market around here is stable, but down. A lot of bargain hunters who want the perfect house, and a lot of sellers who just don't get that it's not 2006 anymore. For a DIY'er like me who is not afraid of a renovation, it's a great market to upgrade in.