A salesperson at a car dealership once told me it was better to buy a new car and take out a loan (instead of a buying the used car I told him I was interested in) because "it's an investment."
I just looked at him, said "that's NOT how it works," and walked away.
(The mustachian win in all of this is that we never ended up replacing my car. And I can't say the ridiculousness of car salespeople wasn't one of the things that pushed us in that direction...)
I just got into an argument with a couple of people who INSIST I need to add on to my house, because it will pay me back! It's an investment!
Now, I know that people invest in real estate. And they sometimes make a killing. But I'm not one of them.
This is my home.
It's small.
It has 1 bathroom and 2 bedrooms.
It's on an approx 5000sf lot.
It has no garage, no basement, no attic.
It has an 8-10' wide, 100ft long driveway that goes to someone else's house. So let's call it a usable 4000sf lot.
It is the bottom of the SFH market.
It was built in the mid 1940s.
Going "up" would cost AT LEAST $400,000. Far too much structural work to be done on the foundation to make that work for anything less.
It would NOT be a $1.3M house by the time that is done. I mean still: no garage.
Thing is, we've probably put $75,000 into the house already (over 15 years - roof, windows, insulation, paint, sewer lateral, backyard, floor refinishing, new kitchen done by spouse), and it's worth about $72k more than we paid for it.
There is literally no reason to add on to my house EXCEPT for that fact that I'd do almost anything for a second bathroom. Except, apparently, call an architect.