dave1949
Super Star Member
When I got home my local realtor called and we had a long talk about return on investment for the new garage I was considering. In a nutshell, there is no ROI. He said local property values would not support my spending that kind of money on a workshop/garage and expect to get anything out of it. The only thing that makes/made sense financially was to pour a level pad down by the barn, put a roofed carport over it, and spend as little as possible, but still give me the ability to roll certain heavy implements on concrete. That was my number one priority anyway. Worse, he said I likely would not get the six figure cost of renovations I put into the place so far out of it. You never get everything out, usually, but this was all a very negative outlook. Lot of net worth burned up. Only so much any of us can take doing that so I decided to just say no. Folded my cards and going to just do something simple. Will take the money saved and put a new roof on the house in the next two years.
That's always the challenge with retirement living especially in out of the way areas that aren't commutable to decent jobs or retirement hot spots. Spend the money and make it what you want or worry about resale. I'm sure we have maxed out the resale value of this property. Spending more on it will be like giving that away to the next owner. We try to stay reasonable on that.
I don't think the retirement living wishes of most TBN members line up with the what the majority of retirees are looking for but clearly there are folks who would like to have a reasonably equipped place in the country.