How To Price A Secret Room?

 

Creative Home Engineering specializes in secret doors. (Above is a picture from a recent Street Of Dreams Home.)

You have no idea how much I love hidden rooms.  I don’t know where it comes from but I saw one when I was a kid and it floored me. Up in a loft where everything looked normal and then my Mom pulled the bookcase back, wow.  Things always seem big when you are a kid but I am guessing the room was 14′ X 14′.

Many of my clients could probably will you I mention where a hidden room could fit in a house we were viewing.  When my friend was getting ready to move I mentioned that he had the perfect setup to make an 9′ X 9′ room into a secret room and I would lay down money that no one would guess it was there.  He thought it was cool but didn’t have the time to order and have it installed.  I did some research back then and I think it was around $10,000 for a good bookcase door.

So the real question, since I sell homes for a living, how in the world do I price a secret room?  The market decides prices but there are so few that the market doesn’t know.  And if you tell every buyer and mention it in the listing then it takes some of the mystique away don’t you think?

I know I would pay more.  Would you?  Should I wait until a deal is almost finished and then tell the buyer?  Actually the inspector should know so the inspection is complete.  I am having more fun fantasizing about it than I would have figuring out the answers to these questions.

If you have one I would love to see pictures or the house.  Indulge me please.