Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

Tankless water heaters, realtors, home value? Opinions?

Tipmoose

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
2,678
85
Grove City
This is a question for anyone who has experience with tankless water heaters. Realtors or otherwise. Have you seen any advantage in having a tankless water heater in a home being sold? Either in terms of time on market or price?

We are thinking of getting one installed, but the 5k price tag for a gas powered one seems really hefty. Are they worth it?
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
"New hot water heater" will add all the value you'll recognize for an update. No matter if it's tankless or an undersized cheapo tank model from home depot. All the buyer looks for is the word "new".
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
A tank less water heater, or any new water heater for that matter, is not going to make or break the sale of a house... especially not in today’s market. I would NOT spend 5k for that type of upgrade prior to listing. Now, 5k into a bathroom or kitchen remodel?... yea, that could make a difference.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I had in interesting chat about this with the old timer that replaced my well pump and pressure tank over the summer. He wasn't really a fan. they don't do a better job of heating water, they are expensive, and when they fail (and like everything else, they do) they are expensive again. You'll never see a return on that investment at closing. You'd do better to install an adequate replacement for what you have and spend the other $4000 on flooring, painting, plumbing fixtures, etc., or like jagermeister says, upgrade your kitchen or a bathroom. That stuff will show your house better, and help you get top dollar.
 

Quantum673

Black Hat Cajun
Supporting Member
I will add a little perspective from the other side.

Do they help sell the house? Probably not.
However if it is a larger family that is looking at the house it can help. It is a pretty good advantage to be able to have everyone in the house take a shower, run the dishwasher, do a load of laundry and never run out of hot water.

$5k though is pretty crazy though. I installed a while house electric one in my house and it cost me $700. I installed it myself so that saved some. Only issue I had was we are on a well and the water pressure in our house sucks. We had issues with the heater due to lack of water pressure. Ended up removing it and going back to the old heater.

The cabin in TN has one that runs everything and we love it. There is no way though I would do it if it is $5k though.
 

Bankfish

Junior Member
673
64
Someone's trying to line their pockets with your hard earned cash. Ridiculous price.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike

Schu72

Well-Known Member
3,864
113
Streetsboro
How much is the unit itself? When we replaced ours, units ran 800-2500. There is quite a range.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
With an active family of 5 and mostly home cooked meals. We run the hot water very regularly. We went down this road a year or two ago and landed on a 50 gallon unit. It can reheat in 8 minutes and we've never ran out of hot water. That's even when the two teenagers go back to back on showers. Even if I only get 3 years out of it, I can still be money ahead. We couldn't justify having it on demand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Big_Holla and Mike

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I will add a little perspective from the other side.

Do they help sell the house? Probably not.
However if it is a larger family that is looking at the house it can help. It is a pretty good advantage to be able to have everyone in the house take a shower, run the dishwasher, do a load of laundry and never run out of hot water.

$5k though is pretty crazy though. I installed a while house electric one in my house and it cost me $700. I installed it myself so that saved some. Only issue I had was we are on a well and the water pressure in our house sucks. We had issues with the heater due to lack of water pressure. Ended up removing it and going back to the old heater.

The cabin in TN has one that runs everything and we love it. There is no way though I would do it if it is $5k though.

and that was another thing my plumber mentioned is that there can be issues if you are on a well and don't have great water pressure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Quantum673

Tipmoose

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
2,678
85
Grove City
The 5k amount was for installing a water filter/softener upstream of the heater, plus hauling away the old one, and installing the new unit.

It would be a gas unit so that requires venting. Because our house's construction sucks donkey balls and I hope whoever founded MI Homes dies a horrible flaming death, the venting has to travel an entire wall of our garage before it can poke through the siding.

Cost of the unit itself plus the filter/softener is 2200. Cost of installation is around 3k.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
I will tell you I don't think you'll ever get more for a house regardless of updates than right now. We sold ours in Ohio for 48k over what they were selling for two years ago. Probably 800 homes in that neighborhood and about 6 floor plans all built in the late 50s. Granted I had done a lot to that house and it was basically completely remodeled. But I saw others that we're barely touched that were only 10-15k cheaper. If you want to sell it throw a standard hit water heater innit and list that baby now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tipmoose and giles