*Chickens Bring down value??*

I've heard this can be true of properties in the city, which is why some Homeowner's Associations don't allow chickens or other certain types of animals. If you're on a rural property, then I don't see why it'd bring the value down, but I know nothing about real estate, and if I was ever looking for a new property, I'd be thrilled to find one that already had a barn or chicken coop on it, so maybe I'm just weird like that.

Honestly, property value isn't something that I've ever worried about, or even really thought about for that matter.

 

I don't know, of course, but will tell you that we are in the middle of refinancing and got a crazy low appraisal on our house. The guy that did the appraisalwas not a nice man and BOY did he hate that we had chickens. HATED it. Our coop (brandy new and not the least bit smelly) is very close to these house. He did this tooth sucking thing when he saw them and when he saw the ripped out baseboard in the bathroom. My guess is that it made an impact.

JMHO, of course. And, we can't refinance. And, I'm still not getting rid of the chickens.

 

I don't know if it does or not, but I too would be thrilled to find a house with a chicken coop or barn already there! We will be spending the summer building a chicken tractor, a new coop and a new goat house and quite frankly, I don't care if the neighbors like it or not. I listen to their dogs barking all night long and running lose in the day and biting people, so they can put up with a coop and a few chickens and goats. Besides, I have nothing but repos around me anyway and people are buying them up for half of what we paid for our house, so the value of our property is already shot due to that. I feel that my new animal houses will be an asset to our property and not a detriment. They will be painted and landscaped around so I see no reason they would lower the value. In fact, many of my neighbors come to visit the goats each day and love hearing the chickens. Several have told me they wished I would keep a rooster as they would love to hear one crowing each morning. Now that is hilarious.

The house we sold in 2004 had a nice coop with an attached run that we built. It was adorable, yellow and white with a window box and double paned windows. The run was fully enclosed with white lattice and the whole perimeter was secured with very large river rocks. We never had a predator get in. We kept it clean and there was no smell. We had the opportunity to look at it a few months ago as the buyers moved out and will be renting the house out. They used the coop for a dog pen and it was a wreck. It stunk, there were piles of poo everywhere and it was just plain gross. So as far as I am concerned a well maintained coop is an asset.

 

You can argue against a bad appraisal! There are PLENTY of bad appraisers out there who mark you down for stupid crap. Make sure you get the detail report on what all they found wrong and what compairable houses they are using. We can a HORRID appraiser once and had to fight to show how wrong, wrong, wrong he was. Another appraiser came out and gave us a value over $100,000 higher than the previous one.

 

Quote:Thank you for this. We got the bank to agree to have another appraisal company look at the appraisal, at least. The market is crap and we know this. But, our house lost almost 30% in value over the past 20 months, according to this new guy. And, our neighbors just sold their house (that needs a roof) for $50K more than our value. Granted, it's bigger by 150 SF, but that's not much. Same builder and one year older. Jerk.

The bank said that we were free to pay for another appraisal if we wanted to. Gee. Thanks.

We're better off than some and we know that. This was an attempt to shave another 5 years and get a 1.4% lower rate off our current mortgage. Not earth shattering, but annoying nonetheless. And we'll lose the application fee if we don't go through with it.

Yesterday, a chicken ("Mrs. Nelson") jumped on top of the run and then into an open window of our home. We'd taken the screen off for repair. Imagine if the appraisal guy had seen that! Mrs. Nelson was pretty proud of herself.

Edit for clarity

 

This is a very interesting topic! I think that having a coop on a city property would actually cause a bank appraiser to mark down the value of the home. A lot of them are cloistered pencil-pushers who can't stand the idea that the outdoors have *gasp* dirt. (I know because I work for a bank myself).

However, I have heard several stories, both here and from friends, that people who were looking at properties have actually offered more than what was being asked, if they could keep the coop.

If I ever have to sell my home, I'll offer the house first with the coop. If it doesn't sell, I'll dismantle the coop (*cringe*) and put up a raised garden where the run was. I'm sure plants will go gangbusters there!