Basements can frighten homebuyers
August 26, 2012, BY JENNIFER V. HUGHES
As Irene Bressler lists her Ridgewood home for sale, she's touting the updated kitchen, the luxurious great room and the large wall of windows that overlook the half-acre property.
What she won't be bragging about is the basement — there isn't one. And that's just fine with her.
"I think it's a blessing that we don't have a basement," said Bressler, whose home is in the town's Salem Ridge neighborhood, which has many basement-less homes. The five-bedroom colonial is listed for $658,000.
Bressler loves the fact that she never worries about flooding and jokes that it helps her keep a lid on clutter.
"Everyone has stuff they haven't used in five years, but I think we have less stuff," she says, noting that the home has ample storage in the upstairs bedrooms and closets as well as the garage. "It forces you to not use your basement as a catchall."
Basements can be somewhat polarizing in the world of real estate.
"People have very definite tastes about basements," said Bressler's real estate agent, Beth Freed, a broker-associate at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Ridgewood.
For every buyer who worries about flooding, she says, there's a buyer who desperately wants the basement for a home-entertainment room or a play space for the kids, a man cave or extra storage. Still, many real estate agents say buyers are wary about basements, especially when they are finished, wondering what lies behind that drywall.
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