7 Reasons You Shouldn't Buy a Shed

Everyone says that you should live without regret but that can be difficult. Everyone has made a bad decision at least once in their life and quite often, those decisions fill us with regrets. These regretful decisions can come from almost any area of life, even shopping decisions. In fact, feeling regret about one’s purchases is so common that it has been given its own term: buyer’s remorse.

What is Buyer’s Remorse?

Buyer’s remorse is defined as “the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a vehicle or real estate.” According to one American study, 64% of people polled said they regret a purchase they’ve made. This means a majority of Americans have suffered from buyer’s remorse at some point in their life.

As a shed company, we want every one of our customers to feel completely satisfied with all of their purchases from us. For us, this means having high quality standards, plenty of customization options, and great customer service. However, sometimes this isn’t even enough to protect our customers from buyer’s remorse. So, what we want to do in this article is give potential customers advice for how to determine if they should make a shed purchase or not. Specifically, we want to give you 7 reasons why you shouldn’t buy a shed.

1. Don’t Buy a Shed if You Can’t Afford it

This first one may seem like a no-brainer but the fact that most shed companies now offer rent to own means that some people might be tempted to purchase a shed, even when they can’t afford it at the moment. While rent to own is a very convenient way to buy a shed, it shouldn’t be used as an alternative to having the bank to cover your shed purchase. The truth is that most of the time, purchasing a shed up-front is a better option than a rent to own shed. One of the main reasons to avoid rent to own, especially when you can’t afford the full cost immediately, is that if other unforeseen expenses arise and you are forced to default on your payments, your shed will be repossessed and you will have no shed and no money.

2. Don’t Buy a Shed if You Can Build One Instead

Not everyone is capable of building a shed but if you feel confident and are up for a challenge, it is sometimes worth it. There are several things you have to take into consideration when determining if you should build a shed: time, cost of materials, and complexity of the project.

It’s important to remember that time is money. You’ll need to figure out how much time it will take you to build your shed. This will vary based on your skill and the size of your shed. Do a little research and give it your best estimate. Then, if that fits within your schedule you can probably check “time” of the list.

In order to determine the cost of materials for your shed, you’ll need to find the shed plans you want to use. There are plenty of them out there so check around before settling on the one you want. Once you have the plans, take a trip to your local Lowes or Home Depot. Find all the materials you need and calculate the cost. In some situations, your cost will be very low and some it may be very high. It’s up to you to decide where the point is that it is not worth building the shed yourself.

The factors that affect the complexity of a project generally are size and extra features. If you plan to build a large shed that is fully outfitted with plumbing and electricity, then your project can get very complicated. However, if you’re only building a small shed with no gimmicks, it should be very simple and straightforward.

3. Don’t Buy a Shed as a Cheap Way to Add Value to Your Property

Many people have tried to make that argument that building a shed adds value to your property. While this may be true in some situations, often this is not the case. Homelight blog did an interview with several appraisers and asked them if a shed makes any difference to the value of a property. According to the appraisers, any value that a shed does add to a property is less than what it costs to build it. There is, however, at least one exception to the rule. If your shed can be deemed an additional living space, then it can add quite a bit of value to your property. In order for this to happen, your shed will need to have a good foundation and it will need to be a fairly large, high-quality shed. Not just any shed will do and you will most likely have to pay a little extra to get the right shed and outfit it with the necessary features.

4. Don’t Buy a Shed if You are Planning on Purchasing a Shed Kit

As a rule of thumb, shed kits are not a great purchase. While they may seem like a good middle road between building your shed from scratch and buying one from a shed company, shed kits rarely hold their value or last for any long period of time. There are actually quite a few drawbacks to purchasing a shed kit. For one, although they are often marketed as being easy to assemble, the truth is that shed kits can be quite difficult to put together. In fact, sometimes building your own shed is just as easy. Another drawback is the short lifespan of shed kits. Most kits will not last longer than 5-10 years which is a third of the life expectancy of most high-quality sheds. Finally, shed kits usually cost more than building your own shed. And since shed kits are often hard to assemble, there are really no benefits to buying a shed kit.

5. Don’t Buy a Shed if You Live in an Area Where Sheds Are Not Allowed

This one can basically be summarized with “Don’t buy a shed if you can’t buy a shed.” But why would you not be allowed to buy a shed? Many towns and cities have restrictions on the type of structures you can put on your property. Sometimes avoiding trouble is as “simple” as following certain building codes or obtaining a permit but in some situations, a shed may not be allowed (read about shed permits in SC). So, to avoid building a shed only to take it down again, please do your due diligence. Most towns and cities have a website where they list their codes and restrictions as well as provide department contact info. Rather than weed through pages of boring legal speak, it will probably be easier just to talk with someone in the Building/Zoning department. Once you’ve gotten the necessary information, go build your shed… or don’t.

6. Don’t Buy a Shed if You’re Planning on Getting it From Home Depot

I’m sure it is true that many people have had good experiences getting a shed from Home Depot or Lowes. However, when you compare the price and quality of their sheds to that of actual shed builders, shed builders are usually the best choice. Just for the sake of comparison, let’s look at 8×12 sheds. The average cost of an 8×12 shed from Home Depot is between $1,500-$5,000. The highest quality shed brand that Home Depot offers is Tuff, which has a reputation for questionable quality standards. For more information on Tuff sheds, check out their reviews here on Angi.com. While Tuff sheds are probably better than a lot of low-quality sheds out there, they definitely don’t stick out as being very good. The average cost of an 8×12 shed from Fisher Barns is between $3,000-$3,500. The quality standards for each of our barns is very high. In fact, we are proud to say that in our 18+ years in the shed industry, we have gotten no negative reviews about the quality of our sheds. When you consider that the price of Home Depot sheds is so close to Fisher Barns (and in some cases cheaper) as well as the difference in quality between them, it doesn’t make sense to purchase a shed from Home Depot or Lowes.

7. Don’t Buy a Shed on Impulse

Buying on an impulse is never a good idea but buying a shed on an impulse is a lot more expensive than most purchases. For this reason, you should avoid buying a shed just because you feel like it in the moment. As tempting as it can be to buy a shed because you saw a really cool she shed on Pinterest, for the sake of your bank account, please don’t make a shed purchase without giving it the necessary thought.

Conclusion

Hopefully after reading this, you can better avoid buyer’s remorse, at least when purchasing a shed. If you are in the process of buying a shed from Fisher Barns and are having some second thoughts, feel free to ask one of our sales team any questions you have. And if you decide that then isn’t the time to buy a shed, don’t buy a shed. We want every single customer to feel satisfied with their purchase so we will never try to pressure you to buy from us. Thanks for reading this and good luck with your future purchases, whether they involve a shed or not.