Etherneting house value increase

[gcninja]

As the odd topic says, if one were to add ethernet wall jacks and such to a house would this increase the value by any? Ive wondered since its becoming the norm and would probably be more and more common. I was wondering A) to make MY life easier B) give me a project to do C) a real reason for my father to let me run the wall jacks and everything. ive googled but found like ONE article and it had a line that said it would but not by how much and anything. thanks

[Sparda]

Only if you had the correct buyer, even then not by much. To make it 'worth' that you'd need to put the sockets in the correct locations such as next to the master phone socket or where the cable enters the house, behind the location most likely to be used to place the TV and the location most likely to be used as a work space.

[VaKo]

It might help shift the house, especially in this market but I doubt it would do anything for the price at all.

[soundguymike]

I have done this before at my parents old house and It is not even something a realtor looks at. It will not increase the home value at all. I think wireless has really prevented there being much of a demand for it.

That being said I will probably do it again though when I get my own place because of the speed, reliability and security. That is what I think you should use to try and sell the idea to your Father. Wireless is inherently more insecure then a wired network. I would also point out the reliability and cost of equipment compared to wireless.

Also this is not really that hard. It is tedious depending on the amount you are doing. I would also suggest running the cables in the wall and use "old work" electrical boxes instead of using surface mount. Just make sure you use a stud finder and make sure all the proposed walls have a cavity in between the studs that runs from floor to ceiling this is the norm. My brothers house though has a lot of cross bracing and game me headaches.

[ansichild]

Only if the buyer is also geek, and you put in fiber.

[will-wtf]

Isnt powerline networking so much simpler? Never used it but it seems to be excellent on paper...

[Sparda]

Isnt powerline networking so much simpler? Never used it but it seems to be excellent on paper...

In practice it's pretty rubbish.

[Razor512]

wont really effect the value

a better use of your time will be to add cheap things that look cool to make your house look more expensive,

also no one is buying or selling houses right now, when the economy gets fixed, then maybe but the current market has caused homes to loose up to half of their value

a good way to increase the value is to either clean the walls, floors and celling or repainting them, this makes the inside look newer, (this is recommended during the summer, then after that using a powerful fan or many window fans, air out all of the rooms for a few days, so there's no fresh paint smell (many people find fresh paint to be hiding a defect

if the house has a antenna on the roof, and jacks for cable tv then a good idea is to add both a antenna jack and cable tv jack in the living room (since we have moved to digital tv, the picture quality is just as good as with cable and in some cases even better since broadcast doesn't require as much compression because the same bandwidth usage remains even regardless of the number of people watching

also many cable providers charge like $10 a month for local channels

another thing to increase the value, add dimmer switches in active areas of the home, dimmers allow you to save energy by reducing the brightness in a room, (only the living room needs one to have a value effect)

also go with electronic thermostats (a good $30 one looks great and entices people (trust me it may seem cheesy but the more of any random electronic that anyone can use that you add to the home, the more people are likely to buy the home, It worked when I helped a friend with selling a house

(PS practical eye candy sells, decorations don't so keep eye candy to things that don't have much to do with taste in design and more to features and standard things a home needs, (nothing puts off a sale like having the wrong decorations in a home, so don't put anything that's not standard (so you want shades, and possible standard bland shades or curtains, but don't go for special designs or other things like that because those items are based on the users taste and are not universally accepted )

(if you have hardwood floors and there any panels that squeak, find out where it is coming from and nail it in as squeaks (even though many are minor ( a nail coming a little loose so when you walk, the nail slides back and forth through the wood causing a squeak) squeaks lower the value because they make the home look less solid )

(PS if the home has a central cooling system, be sure to put in a fresh filter and run the fan system for a good few hours before opening the home for people to come, at that time turn the fan off or check if it has a very low setting to keep things quiet )

(PS hardwood floors increase the value also so if there's old carpeting, remove it and clean the clean the floor )

(all in all the main thing you want when adding things to the home are things that the people living there will always use and not any items that may be seen as esoteric )