How to Evaluate a House Like an Investor (Even If You're Buying a Home) | #37

Return on Design - Rachel Niederhofer

Rachel Neurhoffer shares her family's home move as a real-world case study on evaluating properties like an investor. She emphasizes strategic design thinking over emotional attachment, focusing on value, opportunity, an

Key takeaways

• Evaluate homes through an investor’s lens, not just aesthetic appeal

Transcript preview

When I walk into a property I'm looking at a multitude of things and I'm not just looking at the finish finishes finishes to help me determine quality and the investment that was already made to like the appliance package the material finishes how much architectural detail those are things that are immediate evaluation points for me and it helps me to hone in on kind of the level of what we're looking at in terms of craftsmanship and quality. Welcome to Return on Design, the podcast where Beauty needs strategy and interiors become assets that perform. I'm your host, Rachel Neurhopper, designer, investor, and builder of high-impact spaces that deliver real results. Alongside my husband, I run both a design firm and a real estate investment company, where I live at the intersection of creativity and ROI every day. Each week I'll be unpacking what most people overlook. how strategic design decisions can grow your investment, elevate your lifestyle, and unlock the full potential of your property. You'll get real tools, proven strategies, and unfiltered conversations with industry experts who are doing it right. So if you're ready to invest with purpose and leverage design as a powerful tool, this podcast is for you. Welcome back to the show. Today we are going to be sharing something a little more personal, something that's really happening. in our life and that is that we are moving and if you've been following us for any time you might be wondering well why would you do that because the house we live in has been fully designed by me completely customized to suit our family built it from the ground up been raising our children here for years and yet here we are we're packing boxes we're looking at new properties and we are stepping into a whole new season. Yeah and people looking from the outside might think you're just looking for maybe a bigger home or a nicer home or just a more upgraded version of what you have. But interestingly enough, that is not what we are doing at all. In fact, this entire process is only reinforcing what we really believe about return on design and that is essentially that you cannot evaluate a purchase as an isolated event, but really buying real estate is a larger strategy and that's exactly what we want to do. focus on today. So we're going to be pulling back the curtain and sharing with all of you what we're going through and how we are evaluating the situation and making strategic decisions moving forward. So let's just go ahead and dive in with the most obvious question that people keep asking. Well, are you excited? Or is it hard? And it's like, of course, people are just assuming like, you know, you must be excited about the move or if you're excited there's not some emotional attachment or feel like, associated with leaving and leaving the house that we've put so much into and that's just really not true. Yeah, no, it's definitely emotional. I mean, we said we designed this house. You curated this house and did it to suit the needs of our growing family. We have raised our kids here, we've built memories here, we've built a life and celebrated milestones. That's really why this conversation matters because return on design is not just a about real estate and it's not just about design. It's about really designing and building assets that actually add value to life and shape families. And you know this home has done exactly that. It served our family beautifully and we really know that it's going to serve the next beautifully as well. Sometimes you know it's just time to step into the new, step into the next. And we really know that it's going to serve the next beautifully as well. Sometimes, you know, it's just time to step into the new, step into the next and next and to share with you exactly what that looks like for us. You know as we're first of all there's a big misconception right because you think oh like we said you've customized this home you built it why would you leave very valid question we've asked ourselves the same thing but there's a time you know to step into the new and that's essentially what we're doing and in addition to that there's sort of this idea that oh well you must be looking for something better looking looking to the next level, but that's not essentially true because we're really evaluating this through a completely different lens. So as we are looking, searching, and taking this step into the next, you know, we're not really looking for perfection, but we're looking more for opportunity. Yeah, because the opportunity is in the deal itself and opportunity is, or value is often an opportunity that people miss. and where can value be added or is you know from we're looking at this as from the lens of an investor really you know does what the house is matched with what the current valuation is or the potential value to put into it and that's where opportunity is created yeah I mean we talk about this a lot but price and value are not equal So we're always evaluating what's the price, what's the value. Real estate language would be like, what's the ARV and how much work needs to be done? So it's essentially the same thought process, but with kind of that design edge, right? So yes, when I walk into a property I'm looking at a multitude of things and I'm not just looking at the finish finishes do help me determine quality. And the investment. that was already made to like the appliance package the material finishes how much architectural detail those are things that are immediate evaluation points for me and it helps me to hone in on kind of the level of what we're looking at in terms of craftsmanship and quality. As an investor we're looking I'm looking at it from the lens of okay what does it look like what is the quality what is what is the price and what is the potential to be able to come out of it. what's the flow, what's the space look like? Sometimes realtors will want me to tell them exactly like how much of every little thing I want, like how many rooms, how much square footage, you know, all of these more standardized questions, what more of a conventional buyer might be looking at, and that's not even what I'm thinking about. All of those things matter in the Rolex of the full picture, it's a full picture of everything we're evaluating. And that's a full picture of everything we're evaluating. it's a give and take when you're dealing with trying to hone in on what's the best opportunity. Yeah, I mean a lot of times you get asked you know well do you like the house well that's from a convention or a buyer they're walking going oh I like this house we're looking at it from a does the value make sense right you know it can be a great home it can be a beautiful home but if the overall value to cost and what and the potentials if they don't add up on paper then it's not a deal for us. Yeah. And we look at that from the properties in our portfolio and in our own home. And this is a totally new market. So we're there's also a learning curve that we've been going through where you know we know what things cost in the market we're living in now and so coming into the new market there's sort of a baseline like let me figure out, like let me figure out. what quality expectation I have actually costs. So it's sort of looking at a vast range of, you know, price points and locations and all of the factors that play into that cost and I honestly think the market's inflated. However, you know, just for our listeners to keep that in mind of you have to give yourself enough