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Hot Tubs and Real Estate

Posted on February 24, 2012 by jessica

hot tubs and real estate prices

Do hot tubs help a house sell? Ask any real estate agent and he or she will likely tell you that it depends on several different factors. If you are currently selling or thinking of listing your home for sale, consider the following.

First, who is your buyer? If you live in an expensive neighbourhood, buyers looking in your area are likely to desire “luxury” amenities such as a hot tub. If you live in a neighbourhood where hot tubs aren’t common, it’s possible that yours could give you an advantage over competition that is similar in other ways (location; price; proximity to shopping, transit and schools; size of house and lot). However, if the buyers who are looking to buy in your area are simply looking for the basics, the idea of having to pay to maintain a hot tub may be a deal breaker.

Second, what are you selling? This ties into who your buyer is. If you are selling a luxury home or a fancy ski chalet, a hot tub may be desired or even expected. If you are selling a townhouse in an area where there are no hot tubs, consider carefully whether having one will give you an advantage or scare off potential buyers. Are you in an up-and-coming neighbourhood? Or is it full of families who have to struggle a bit more?

Third, have you maintained it well while it has been yours? If you are selling a place with a hot tub that hasn’t been maintained, it will likely drag down your property value. Who would want to buy a place with a hot tub that needs major maintenance, or worse, a full replacement? A buyer might even ask for a reduced price if it’s going to actually cost him or her more money, or is an eyesore on the property!

There are many considerations when it comes to real estate and hot tubs, but if you do the proper maintenance on yours and keep it looking its best, hopefully a hot tub or spa will help and not hinder your efforts to sell.

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LEGO® Offers Hot Tubs – Controversy Ensues

Posted on February 9, 2012 by jessica

LEGO®, well-known plastic block and toy maker, recently launched LEGO Friends — a new and, it turns out, somewhat controversial line of toys.

As an initiative put together simply to market to young girls (because their current market includes mostly young boys, and as CEO Jorgan Vig Knudstorp was quoted as saying, “We want to reach the other 50 percent of the world’s population”), the line includes a lot of pink and pastel colours. There are five female dolls offered now too, along with buildings such as a beauty salon and a fashion design studio. There’s even a “splash pool” that appears to be a hot tub.

Some parents are up in arms over the entire line of toys (http://stonemountain NULL.patch NULL.com/articles/moms-talk-gender-stereotyping-by-toymakers-6ea36913), claiming that it is full of gender stereotyping. Stephanie Cole says in an article on Patch.com, ” … if you keep on excluding [girls] from your marketing vision, soon they will start to believe that they would rather have hot tubs and little plastic boobs.”

We’re sure she doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with hot tubs, even though there is something wrong with gender stereotyping — whether or not you believe LEGO means to stereotype.

Regardless of the cause, perhaps it’s why this LEGO advertisement from 1973 has started making the rounds on the Internet recently:

lego ad from 1973 what it is is beautiful

Do hot tubs belong in LEGO play sets? We don’t see anything wrong with little girls AND boys having a toy hot tub — as long as kids are safe and supervised when in the real thing!

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