House Classification

[Lakes Region Guy]

The town Alton hires a company called vision appraisal to review and assess properties in town. The most expensive style of house to build is an adirondack followed by a modern contemporary. The lest expensive style is a ranch followed by a cape. It does not make much difference if you build a new house or remodel an existing house. An existing house will depreciate more than a new house. When I build my house a few years ago I contacted vision appraisal and they informed me of the above classifications. I built a ranch house and my assessment per sf is 3-4 times less than a comparable adirondack. Hope this helps

[CaptT820]

Thanks Lakes Region Guy. I am well versed with what Vision Appraisal actually appraises (individual items like decks, docks, etc.), but I did not realize that they initially take your type of house into account.

I am trying to balance the design type and house finishes versus the overall tax impact. I have cataloged all of the houses in our area and compared different tax impacts to attempt to narrow down our house design.
We are probably going to go with a modified two story colonial in the 600-900 sq. ft range with moderate finishes just to keep the tax impact to a minimum.

I had asked the question about whether or not an addition to our current place would be cheaper versus a new independent structure connected by a deck, but based on your thoughts it appears to make little difference.

The information from everybody has certainly been helpful so far. The design of this place will continue to evolve.