My Real Estate Blog

To a professional appraiser, diligent maintenance doesn’t translate into higher property valuations the way that improvements, upgrades, and appreciation all increase a home’s worth. But good maintenance does affect an appraiser’s estimate of a property’s economic age—the number of years that a house is expected to survive.

Economic age is a key factor in helping appraisers determine depreciation—the rate at which a house is losing value. A well-maintained house with a long, healthy economic age depreciates at a much slower rate than a poorly maintained house, helping to preserve value.

Although professional appraisers don’t assign a positive value to home maintenance, there are indications that maintenance is not just about preventing little problems from becoming larger. A study by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Syracuse University suggests that maintenance actually increases the value of a house by about 1% each year, meaning that getting off the couch and heading outside with a caulking gun is more than simply a chore—it actually makes money.

It’s like going to the gym, you have to put in the effort to see the results. In that respect, people and houses are somewhat similar—the older (they are), the more work is needed.

The 1% gain in valuation usually is offset by the ongoing cost of maintenance. Simply put, maintenance costs money, so it’s probably best to say that the net effect of regular maintenance is to slow the rate of depreciation.