I'm hoping some real estate, appraisal, renovation, and development-minded people here can help me understand something I've been wrestling with.
I'm selling an unusual waterfront property on Lake Wylie, SC. The house was built in 1976 and still has plenty of 1976 vibes with attitude. I'm not interested in disguising that fact with gray paint, agreeable throw pillows, and creative photography.
The bigger problem is figuring out what the property is actually worth.
There aren't really clean comps.
It's roughly 3/4 acre of waterfront property with multiple structures, including the main house, detached garage with an unfinished guest house/ADU above it, a separate bathhouse, and permitted dock access. There are also grandfathered features and redevelopment/renovation possibilities that make it difficult to compare directly with a typical Lake Wylie house.
I've already had dramatically different opinions of value. One person can look at essentially the same property and see something around $700K, while another sees $830K or more.
A $130,000 spread isn't exactly a rounding error.
That has made me curious about something beyond simply, "What should I list it for?"
How do you properly value a property when the existing house, waterfront land, permitted improvements, grandfathered features, renovation potential, and redevelopment potential may all have different values to different buyers?
Do you start by determining what the waterfront land itself would reasonably sell for without the house?
Then determine what value the existing structures add, or potentially subtract?
How much weight should be given to replacement cost, renovation potential, dock rights, additional structures, and things that aren't easily reproduced today?
My first experience listing the property also taught me quite a bit. I eventually took over much of the marketing myself, researched the property extensively, documented the unusual features and started looking specifically for an agent who understands waterfront and non-cookie-cutter properties rather than trying to force this one into conventional comps.
I'm now trying to approach the next listing much more strategically.
This isn't particularly an emotional sale for me, and I'm not looking for someone to tell me my house is secretly worth $1.5 million because Grandma once owned a nice lamp.
I want a defensible number.
Ideally, the eventual buyer should feel they bought something with genuine upside, the agent should be able to explain and defend the valuation, and I should walk away knowing I didn't leave substantial value on the table simply because the property doesn't fit neatly into an appraisal box.
For those of you who deal with unusual properties, waterfront real estate, appraisal, renovation or development:
How would you break down the value of a property like this before deciding what the whole thing is worth?