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Told the wife we should skip the finished basement in our Red Deer build and she still brings it up at dinner
When we built our place in Red Deer three years back, the builder pushed the full finished basement package hard, quoted us $38,000 for the whole thing. I said no and put that money into a bigger detached garage instead. Everyone told me resale would tank without a finished basement, that buyers in this market expect it. Here is the thing though, we have used that garage every single day. I do my own oil changes, the kids shoot pucks out there all winter, and we have never once missed having a rec room downstairs. The basement is still just storage and a laundry setup and honestly that is all we need. Our neighbor finished his basement the same year and I peeked in there last month, it is basically a couch and a TV nobody sits on. So to anyone saying you HAVE to finish the basement to sell later, I am not buying it, at least not in this part of Alberta. Did anyone else skip a big upgrade the builder swore you needed and end up totally fine with that call?
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annabennett2d ago
$38k for a basement in Red Deer when you could have dumped it into a detached garage is wild to me, because the math on resale is not as clean as people act like it is. A finished basement adds maybe half of what you paid back at sale time, while a big heated garage with a 220 hookup is one of the few things that actually pulls buyers in this area, especially anyone with a truck or a trailer or toys. Your neighbor basically lit 38 grand on fire for a room his family never uses, so his house is not worth more than yours, it just looks nicer in the listing photos. The builder pushes basements because that is where their margin lives, not because it is the smart move for every lot.
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