Question for local real estate agents (Greenville, Greenwood: for sale, buying a home, neighborhood)

[Tinabean]

Hey guys,
I've had a house on the market in Greenwood for about 100 days. The realtor says the pricing for the house is dead-on but the roof is nearing the end of its life...no leaks or problems but it is a 23 year old roof. Would it be better to wait and negotiate the price with prospective buyers or go ahead and replace the roof? Also, I have heard that it is ok to overlay architectural shingles on top of the existing shingles with no problem. Would a home inspector have any issue with that approach? It would save me about $3,000 doing it that way if I have to put a roof on it. Otherwise the house is showing really, really well and I've had excellent feedback.

[averagenyjoe]

I am not a realtor but I had a similar experience with a 12 yr old house in Monroe, NC. Alot different from the Greenville metro but there is some common threads running through the way people think when buying a home. We sat on our house for 2 1/2 years with a few problems the most major being a similar situation of roofing. Ours wasnt age but some hail damage. No leaks and we were trying to factor that into our price. From our experience people dont seem to care about price as much as a "perceived" weakness in the construction. Even if you made it clear that the money would be there for them to take care of it themselves. When we did the repairs the house sold quickly after. On the money end, you may not loose or gain anything in the long run but you will indeed experience more time on the market and time is money in most peoples economy. We personally went belly up and sapped out all our savings to keep the thing going. Hope that helps. Respectfully.

[Mark Brian]

A roof needing replacement on your home makes any other similar home (price, condition,location) that does not need the roof replaced look more attractive to buyers.

[averagenyjoe]

PS: Ours was also a "jaw-dropper" of a home and received 100% satisfaction on viewings. Another thing we faced was at that time you could get almost the same size house for the same price as existing homes. It was an uphill battle.

[Tinabean]

Hey guys...THANKS SO MUCH!! This is exactly the type of input I am looking for. And you are right.....every month on the market hits my budget. That, along with painting one bedroom is about all we need to do so I think I'm going to go ahead, bite the bullet and do it. If anyone else has any feedback, please continue to post. Rep to you BOTH!

[ruvidu]

A new roof will help you sell the home but I have to ask "Are you getting traffic through the house and no offers or are you not showing it."

[Tinabean]

We have been showing it a lot. We've probably had 20 scheduled showings in the 100 days on the market. The agent has been very happy with the number of showings.......the only constructive feedback we have been getting is that people prefer new construction. There are 2 other houses in our neighborhood for sale which are new construction which haven't sold either though. I had the agent pull the listings of all properties which have sold in the last 90 days in our price range and some homes are indeed moving. I think I counted 14 sales of homes in our price range in the last 90 days. I'm just trying to find the best competitive edge. It looks like replacing the roof will help, based on the responses here. I'm still waiting to see if anyone out there has had any experience with shingle overlay as opposed to ripping off the roof and starting from scratch.

[Mark Brian]

Another thing to consider is offering a Free home warranty for the buyers with an acceptable offer. Or closing costs of $XX with an acceptable offer.

[Rapunzll]

Originally Posted by Tinabean

We have been showing it a lot. We've probably had 20 scheduled showings in the 100 days on the market. The agent has been very happy with the number of showings.......the only constructive feedback we have been getting is that people prefer new construction. There are 2 other houses in our neighborhood for sale which are new construction which haven't sold either though. I had the agent pull the listings of all properties which have sold in the last 90 days in our price range and some homes are indeed moving. I think I counted 14 sales of homes in our price range in the last 90 days. I'm just trying to find the best competitive edge. It looks like replacing the roof will help, based on the responses here. I'm still waiting to see if anyone out there has had any experience with shingle overlay as opposed to ripping off the roof and starting from scratch.

I know that in MI, it is common to put a new layer of shingles over an older one, not a third layer though. Call the building code dept and ask them if there is any local ordinance against doing it.

[Tinabean]

Thanks Rapunzil! Never thought to do that. Rep to you.
Hey Mark, thanks for the suggestion on the home warranty. I added that about two weeks ago. The agent included it in the MLS listing. Although, if I put the roof on the house, I think I'll take the home warranty offer off of the table....the Home Warranty is $500!
I really appreciate this input! This forum is terrific.