Why Is Oak "Dated"?

[Julie Moriarty]

A realtor came through the house to do a selling appraisal. She deducted $15K for the bathrooms and noted "functional obsolescence" as the reason. I asked her why, since the bathrooms function perfectly well. She said tile colors and oak cabinets.

My first woodworking project was made out of pine. When I could afford oak, I felt like I had arrived. Now it seems to have about the same status as pine.

To "correct the problem" the realtor suggested IKEA cabinets. So even cheap mdf outranks oak? What am I missing?

[Mike Henderson]

I think the words "functional obsolescence" may be incorrect to describe what she was trying to say. Better would have been "out of style" or "dated". In her analysis, she probably felt that the buyers would want to remodel the bathrooms to modern style and because of that she deducted that amount from the selling price.

I don't think there's anything wrong with oak cabinets from a functional point of view, or that oak, per se, is dated. It would be the style of the cabinets and the rest of the bath that would date it.

Mike

[roger wiegand]

Our realtor put it to us very simply-- young people buying a house don't want something that looks like Grandma's house. Period. They want the currently fashionable Pottery Barn/Ikea look and colors. Doesn't matter that it's cheap, nasty junk. We took her advice, put away our antique light fixtures, got rid of the good kitchen appliances for deep discount stainless ones, swapped brass hardware for brushed nickel, painted the place in Pottery Barn colors and sold the house at a good price in a week in a very down market.

The customer is always right, they say. In your own house you can do what you like, but if you're trying to sell a product, like your house, you'd better do what the buyer is likely to like.

[Wade Lippman]

Oh, I share your pain. We lost a boatload of money on our house because no one likes corian or oak anymore. Nothing wrong with it, just out of style. We lost even more money because nobody likes wooded lots anymore. Geez. That is why we bought it at a premium price.

Our new house has granite and cherry. We will probably lose money on it in 15 years because everyone wants oak and corian.

But you got lucky; your realtor picked up on it. Ours didn't, so it took a year of reducing prices to sell.

[Prashun Patel]

Should be 'aesthetic obsolecence'.

Oak connotes 'built between 1977 and 1995', for better or for worse.

Cover your oak cabinets with an espresso gel stain and then ask for a $15k premium to the assesment.

[Brett Luna]

Our realtor put it to us very simply-- young people buying a house don't want something that looks like Grandma's house. Period.

...or their parents' house....and those houses (like ours, built in '84) is probably from a time when 'golden oak' was done to death. Heck, I remember realtors trash talking it back in the 90s. I'm guessing the stink is so bad that the aversion carries over to non-golden varieties as well.

[Matt Day]

Should be 'aesthetic obsolecence'.

Oak connotes 'built between 1977 and 1995', for better or for worse.

Cover your oak cabinets with an espresso gel stain and then ask for a $15k premium to the assesment.

+1

Oak tends to turn off most people under 40.

[David Weaver]

When I worked at aristokraft in the mid 1990s, most of the cabinets we sold were red oak with a light colored stain. It does look dated to me. We sold a ton of rigid thermofoil white doors, too. I wonder what happened to those, because the frames were painted white, and I know white paint doesn't stay white, but RTF sure does.

It's funny that on the roseanne show back in the mid 1990s when they "won the lottery" and had their kitchen redone, it went from some kind of painted softwood to light colored oak to show that they "made it".

Oak is the low cost option for amish and mennonite furniture everywhere I go around here, sometimes maple is the same price and sometimes not and cherry is always an upcharge. Given my location, it's not hard to find milled lumber here, though. Red oak is everywhere, it grows fast and it's common. We were just starting to get increasing orders back in the 1990s for maple and they had added cherry while I was at aristokraft. If I were buying a house (and I'm not boasting, my house still has varnished cabinets from the late 60s or early 70s that I'm slowly replacing with cherry that is already out of style - it has lacquer only on it over a shellac sealer), I would expect a discount for oak compared to a house that had newer cabinetry.

I'm well aware that I will get all of my solid cherry cabinets up, and the next person who moves into the house will want something that looks like it's Ikea, and they'll have the cabinets taken out and thrown away. That's their choice.

[Judson Green]

Cover your oak cabinets with an espresso gel stain and then ask for a $15k premium to the assesment.

Yes do this! With a new counter top and nickel finished what nots you'd have a hip and trend bathroom.

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

The school 'leaders" in our town decided the solid oak bookshelves and cabinetry was obsolete and the classrooms were in need of a fresh look, so instead of having the shop boys redo them, them threw them out and replaced them with some "Fresh" looking particle board ones. To be honest, I hate to admit it, but they were absolutely right! Man, did those "fresh" cabinets and bookshelves look good, all for about three weeks. But no so much when the weighty books started bowing them, and the knocks and dings started taking off the veneer.
Maybe sometimes SOME of the old ways are the best ways? Lewis

[David Weaver]

Our church was redone last year, and all of the new furniture is red oak. I think it's probably still a standard for church stuff because it's durable and it's *extremely* cheap here. About $2 a board foot kiln dried (unless you go to the borg, where it's three times that). The nice thing about it is that whether it grows fast or slow, it always seems the same hardness. And it grows everywhere (plus it's easy to split and makes great firewood).

Good dense clear white pine is much harder to find here.

[Matt Meiser]

My guess is that its not the oak, its the style/finish. The new oak/granite/stainless/tile kitchen is what sold the Mrs. when we we sold our house (the shop sold the Mr.) But mine was fairly light with a classical style (not cathedral panels for example) and the surrounding finishes were up to date. Our Realtor who is a top seller in our area highlighted the kitchen.

Then in the new house we installed oak cabinetry in all the bathrooms, but in a shaker style with espresso finish which is combination that is currently hot. We figure the shaker style is pretty classical and if its out when we sell, we can paint it whatever is in at the time. We took out oak that had flat panel doors and plastic faux-marble tops that screamed "BUILDER GRADE". The appraisal noted this. Keep that in mind--even if you find someone who happens to like what you've got, appraisals aren't guaranteed anymore. If the finishes are dated, they WILL deduct and you may not get what you want. Happened to our seller. And their seller.

The other thing that's changed in baths is counter height. All the ones we took out were very low. All the new ones are much higher.

I suspect your realtor suggested IKEA as a quick, relatively inexpensive way to update.

If you are open to constructive criticism, post a few photos here.

[glenn bradley]

In my neck of the woods, red oak screams 1970's and this may be what her reaction was. No offense to any appraisers on here but unfortunately, real estate appraisers can be pretty loose with what they think adds or detracts from a home. I have had two occasions where I have paid for a second appraisal when the first one was so out of sync with the current reality that it warranted it. One example was a large devaluing for being "too close" to the freeway; as the crow flies, it was 4.2 miles and nearly 6 by road. These things happen. The appraiser has had a bad morning, they were frightened as a child in a living room that looked like yours, who knows? I only know that if you chance upon an appraiser of this sort, forking over another fee for a second opinion has been a very good thing for me two out of two times.

[Joe Samorodin]

Barn boards are the big one for me now. The more character the better, the price is rising on the supply as well. Seems every new micro brewery needs barn wood. Now its in the kitchen, bathroom and architectural details and is being reproduced in melamine panels as well, hipsters they do pay their bills.

[scott vroom]

This thread is making me nervous....2 years ago I built rift sawn white oak cabinets in he shaker style for my kitchen. I'm thinking the oak you're referring to is the plain sawn red oak with the cathedral grain that was so popular in the 70's.