Looking for opinions about finishing our basement

[suejai]

I am looking for some opinions about how 'finished' should a finished basement be if you are going to sell your house. Our basement is partially finished - the walls are up and drywalled but not plastered, the bathroom is roughed in, the ceiling is still open, and the floors are still bare, although there is a rug laid down. One bedroom is completely finished, and we are going to put in the bathroom. My friend thinks we should leave it as is on the grounds that "people prefer to buy houses with unfinished basements". But the way I look at it is my basement can't really be considered unfinished and IMO it would just look cheesy to sell it the way it is, DH would like to avoid having to either do the work or lay out the money to get it done but will if it will increase the value; but on the other hand we don't want to throw a lot of money into it for no return.

My question is should we complete the whole basement before putting it on the market? We will be consulting a realtor, I just thought I would get as many points of view as I could.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

In my opinion clean (and uncluttered) is more important than whether it's completely finished. When we were looking I don't think finished vs unfinished would have been a deal breaker. But the houses that looked like a hotel (ie, no personal items, no clutter) were always more appealing, imo. Good luck.

 

[JR6ooo4]

how soon do you need to sell? put it up for sale with your asking price. If you get it then you don't need to finish the basement.

if you hear comments (ask your realtor to inquire from the other realtors if a completely finished basement would have garnered an offer closer to your asking price) then finish it.

Mikeeee

 

[Mom2Nick]

Only a realtor can answer this question for you. They need to price your home as is and if the basement were finished. Then you need to decide if you want to invest in the money to get up to the second figure.

 

[diznygirl]

It might sell quicker if people don't have to do the mental calculations of how much it would cost them to finish it plus the price of the house. And they might guesstimate on the high-end and not offer so much. Or just buy the house next street over with the basement already finished.

I wouldn't give them anything to think about.