Question for all Appraisers

[Brad Waterstraat]

Hello,

Back in July of 2020, I purchased my first investment property. This property appraised about 17k lower than the agreed upon price because of the back porch. The enclosed back porch is not heated or insulated, and the only way to get to the second floor of the house is to go through the back porch. Because of this, the appraiser could not value the upstairs as gross living area since it was technically not “connected” by a heated space. 

Fast forward to now and I want to refinish the back porch (insulate, heat, new windows, etc.). The only reason I’m doing this is to “connect” the two spaces and increase the gross living area. My question is: Does it matter how I heat the back porch? Can I use baseboard heaters, or do I need to run a duct from the furnace into the back porch? I don’t want to do any work if it’s not going to count as heated on the appraisal report.

Thanks!