Moving - take Olympic insert with or buy new?

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glenlloyd

Member
Sep 14, 2011
164
des moines, IA
Hey all

Been a while since I've been on here, between wireless connection snafu and other things have been busy.

At any rate, seems I will be changing addresses sometime during the coming year, bought a house and will be transitioning to the new space in the spring but won't be vacating my existing house until everything's finished and it's ready to sell or rent. I guestimate that it'll be over 12 months before I'm ready for it to be on the market, that is unless I someone approaches me about buying it as it sits today. If that happens I'd have to do cash or contract sale.

As you all know I spent a lot of time installing the Olympic insert this past fall and I really enjoy it! I can't imagine ever going back to just forced air heating, it wouldn't be the same. But here's the tough question, do I pull out and take the Olympic with me when I go or leave it and hope that it helps enhance the sale (should that happen)? If I rent the house I would probably take the insert unless the tenant could demonstrate adequate ability to operate it.

The new place has an almost identical firebox so it would mean doing all of the same things there plus a few others as well, but I don't want to be in the new place next winter without an insert. Of course I'd have to do another liner install etc but that's something I planned to do anyway.

Comments and opinions welcome on this, not sure if the insert will add that much value at the sale or not.

Steve
 
I miss my old Jotul F3cb, so I would take it with me if I had the opportunity to.
Good luck on the move.
 
Has the fireplace damper assembly been cut or modified? If so, I would leave it installed. If not, I would take it out. A stove doesn't always add to the value of a house noticeably and some may view it as a liability. Exceptions would be in areas that have frequent power outages. In that case, it is a nice bonus selling point.
 
BeGreen said:
Has the fireplace damper assembly been cut or modified? If so, I would leave it installed. If not, I would take it out. A stove doesn't always add to the value of a house noticeably and some may view it as a liability. Exceptions would be in areas that have frequent power outages. In that case, it is a nice bonus selling point.

No modification to stove for install, just as it left the factory. It would mean leaving the magnaflex liner installed and capped, so someone could install another unit later if they wanted to.

I'm with you, sometimes it's unclear if they add value or not, or whether they're a liability. To the right person it could but otherwise probably not, and I live close to downtown and on a very reliable section of the power grid here, so it's unusual if the power goes out...and if it does it's not out for long.

From what I've gathered in doing some basic research about how appraisers react to fireplace inserts I think in this area they do consider it adding value, but who knows for sure.

At this point I would probably list the house with the insert reserved, that is unless I'm over at the new place during winter and want it there. I think it would cost me about $2400 to replace this unit as it sits now which is ok if the sale of the old house is where I want it to be.

I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks

Steve
 
Leave it there. You will have to go through the effort of installing an insert into the new house in any case so why go through the effort to remove the old one? I never understood people that remove stoves from hosues. It's not a washer/dryer. This will allow you to buy a nice new stove and perhaps a better one more suited to the house.

When I bought my last pickup the previous owner had cut the trailer plug off of the harness near the hitch. I presume he planned to reuse it. It save him buying a new one but forced me to go through extra effort to reinstall a plug to the old truck. So now we both had to install new plugs on our trucks.
 
Highbeam said:
Leave it there. You will have to go through the effort of installing an insert into the new house in any case so why go through the effort to remove the old one? I never understood people that remove stoves from hosues. It's not a washer/dryer. This will allow you to buy a nice new stove and perhaps a better one more suited to the house.

When I bought my last pickup the previous owner had cut the trailer plug off of the harness near the hitch. I presume he planned to reuse it. It save him buying a new one but forced me to go through extra effort to reinstall a plug to the old truck. So now we both had to install new plugs on our trucks.

Well this is a new insert, first fired this past September. If I move I would likely get the same thing since the firebox is identical and I'm quite happy with it and I would be hard pressed to find a comparably sized unit.

While I understand your comparison it's not quite the same, the loss of a trailer light plug meant something to you and was inconvenient but the cost of losing it isn't that big of a deal. Replicating the same setup in the new house is going to run over $3k, so the cost is not minimal. And whether or not the unit is new makes no difference to me.

In the end if having a working fireplace insert results in no increase in value I'll take it out and let the new owner deal with replacing it with a unit of his own choosing if he desires. If it does add value I will consider leaving it as long as I get the price that I want for the house. In other words I'll reserve the insert when the house is listed so that I don't have to remove it until the house is sold. If it gets to be winter and the house isn't on the market I'll just remove it and take it to the new place.

In the end I would prefer to just keep this stove, it's really proven to be nice to deal with. At the new house the chimney will be a little taller but pretty much the same setup as here. I suppose should I run into a windfall of some sort I could afford to just replace it, but for the next twelve months it'll be tight with two properties and taxes to match.

steve
 
If you like it, and it sounds like you do, and its almost new take it with! Just about any prospective buyer won't give you as much extra as its worth and not even half of its replacement cost. Take it with! I left a nice stove (a Jotul) at my last house and I regret not taking it with. Its going to cost you a ton to replace it.
 
If I was to take it out I'd take it all out. Leaving a prospective home buyer with an unusable appliance can hurt the price. If you plan on leaving the liner in there any prospective buyer will have to spend the money to have it removed or install an insert as the fireplace is unusable. If the liner and insert are installed correctly they are less likely to draw any attention from an inspector. Inspectors like to go over open fireplaces with a fine tooth comb. My lender required a full inspection by a certified sweep prior to buying which is good but depending on age many flues are questionable. One thing you may consider is finding a good used one or a smaller cheaper model (drolet or something) and just stick that in there and keep the Avalon. That would only be advisable if you are doing the work yourself, otherwise would probably not be cost effective. Just my .02. If I walked into a house and the realtor told me "look at the great fireplace, you can't use it until you install a $2k insert or pay to have the liner removed" I'd price accordingly.
 
That's it Rwhite, the buyer will be getting kicked in the crotch. The seller only marginally better off. The stove is a home improvement and not an appliance. You aren't taking the granite countertops with you just because you like them and can make them fit in the new house are you?
 
What about the back deck? You don't expect to get 100% return on improvements to the home.
 
rwhite said:
If I was to take it out I'd take it all out. Leaving a prospective home buyer with an unusable appliance can hurt the price. If you plan on leaving the liner in there any prospective buyer will have to spend the money to have it removed or install an insert as the fireplace is unusable. If the liner and insert are installed correctly they are less likely to draw any attention from an inspector. Inspectors like to go over open fireplaces with a fine tooth comb. My lender required a full inspection by a certified sweep prior to buying which is good but depending on age many flues are questionable. One thing you may consider is finding a good used one or a smaller cheaper model (drolet or something) and just stick that in there and keep the Avalon. That would only be advisable if you are doing the work yourself, otherwise would probably not be cost effective. Just my .02. If I walked into a house and the realtor told me "look at the great fireplace, you can't use it until you install a $2k insert or pay to have the liner removed" I'd price accordingly.

The fireplace was not usable prior to the liner, it was open brick flue without any tile liner, so even if the appliance were removed it's more usable now than it was before, and the buyer would have the option of purchasing a unit of his choice to reinstall, or just leave it as is and at least not have an old leaky damper to deal with like I did for years.

In this case the opposite argument works just as well, perhaps a prospective buyer would not want the insert at all with no intention of burning anything.

I do see where you're coming from on this but it's just not how I view the situation.

thanks

steve
 
Highbeam said:
That's it Rwhite, the buyer will be getting kicked in the crotch. The seller only marginally better off. The stove is a home improvement and not an appliance. You aren't taking the granite countertops with you just because you like them and can make them fit in the new house are you?

Buyer gets what they see, there are no surprises if the stove is reserved they know what that means, if it's gone it's gone. It's a stretch to say the buyer gets kicked in the crotch. If they want to pass because it has no appliance installed that's their choice, the house is what the seller presents, not necessarily what they buyer expects.

The stove is an appliance if you look at what the mfgr says about it.

As for taking the deck, again that's sort of a strawman argument, the situation may appear to be the same on the surface but underneath it's not the same, that is unless you paint it with a huge broad brush. A deck is a permanent install, an appliance is not, and the evidence for that can be found here on the forum when members replace old models with newer units or just switch to a different type of unit because they prefer it. I would liken a stove / insert more to a range or refrigerator or dishwasher rather than a deck.

This question probably should have been posted in a real estate forum rather than a wood burning forum.

Thanks

Steve
 
A deck is not permanent, no more than an insert attached to a liner. People upgrade decks all the time.

Compare this to a furnace, an installed and plumbed device. Wait, are you taking your furnace with you?

I am playing devil's advocate a little bit but I vote for leave it there and buy another. It's the polite thing to do.
 
I still think if you like the stove it will cost much more to replace than any extra value most potential buyers would pay for the house because of it. Many buyers, especially those with small children, might even see the stove as a negative. Even if the buyer wants a wood stove they'd probably rather pick their own. By the time the house is for sale the stove will be long gone, so its not like you'd have to keep explaining that the stove won't be part of the deal. It's a bonus that the liner is there in case they would want to add a stove.
 
Battleaxe said:
It's a bonus that the liner is there in case they would want to add a stove.

I would disagree. The liner in place changes a functioning fireplace into a ding on your inspection report that you may have to resolve before closing. It is "unsafe" since some yahoo might try and start a fire in the fireplace and the liner would not vent the smoke. A functional fireplace is good, a functional insert is good, an unsafe fireplace is a liability.

The only winner here is the installer that gets to install three stoves instead of two.
 
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