Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are selling our house shortly too. And there are certain things we are not even DOING, we'd rather give the prospective buyers a discount, and then let them do what they want.
For example, one bedroom has threadbare carpet that is even held in place by a piece of duct tape.
We'll give them a carpet discount on it, and then let them put in what THEY want.
Why spend a huge amount of upfront money only to have them decide they don't like it and rip it up later?
Then again, we are also in a time crunch to sell the house before foreclosure, which is another reason we don't want to put a ton of money into the place...what if it doesn't sell in time? DAMNED if we wanna fix the place up for the bank.
Having crappy carpet won't sell it quickly ... unless you price it at foreclosure prices.
If you're doing this, and I do understand why, make sure the discount you're offering is realistic to fix the problems at hand.
Years ago, my husband and I looked at a house with a fantastic floorplan and great "bones". However -- there were several cosmetic problems that comparable houses didn't have, namely:
1. The carpet was a mess in the living room and master -- bleach/nail polish remover stains, and just a very tattered/worn look.
2. The kitchen floor was linoleum, and had a table-sized stain/worn spot right where the kitchen table used to be. Aside from that, it was clearly builder grade linoleum from 1996, and this was 2010...not nice. At all.
3. The kitchen's many countertops were all Barbie's Dream House pink. Pepto pink. Pink pink pink pink.
All of these things could've been dealt with, but the house was priced as to be competitive with the other houses in the area, houses that did not have flooring that needed to be replaced nor countertops that induced nightmares. The seller offered a $500 discount to attend to all of these things and was clear that this was their max offer. No thank you.
I think I've seen that house. Or one very much like it. It's so unrealistic that I wonder what is going through the seller's mind.
I looked at a home in September that was pretty promising but it had a detached garage that was about to fall over. It looked like a strong gust of wind is all it'll take to destroy it. The price was inline with other homes in the area that had a functional garage. The listing said that the garage was "as-is". Fliers available at the house reiterated this in bold font. I took that as a sign that the seller wouldn't even be worth negotiating with and moved on. A month ago, they still hadn't sold, so decided to offer a $1000 credit for the garage. You couldn't even demo it for that. I'm sure it'll sit on the market for sometime until the seller offers either a substantial price reduction or realistic credit. That's a huge project for a new owner to assume.
Those colors look fine to me. But when I am looking at houses online sometimes I see the strangest colors, just too out there, and I seriously would have a problem buying a house where all the walls were painted weird colors because I would NOT want to have to repaint everything. Your colors are okay. I'm talking about people who paint kids' rooms (or other rooms) funny shades of pink, purple, green, blue, etc. - like someone else is going to want those colors in a room.
I'm not a fan of dark colors on walls but how much that will matter typically depends on available inventory. If there are a lot of houses to choose from, buyers will likely choose the one that is closest to turnkey at the best price. If there are very few available homes in a sought after area, things like paint and floor covering are often overlooked since the goal is the location and walls are easily changed. I wouldn't look twice at the wall color if the house was well-built and where I wanted to buy.
When we got our house, most of the rooms colors were nice (light green, peachish beige, there was even a dark red feature wall in the living room). However, one of the bedrooms was this camel, tan color. I knew I wanted to paint it when we moved in. I painted it a light mint color. The ceiling was also a dark brown, which I contemplated painting to white, but I liked the way it looked with the green.
Paint color can always be changed and probably will be changed. If you do decide to paint, a neutral color is always best, I feel.
The before picture is the room filled with things (we saw the house when it was empty). I don't think the picture does justice to how ugly the color was.
Tell me about it; I had sports team colors in a basement in a previous house (from a previous owner). It took 4 coats of Behr to cover. Still not one of the better reasons to eliminate a house, unless there's such a huge inventory that you can pick and choose at will.
I'm speaking from the POV of someone who isn't buying or selling, so I frame my comments in a 'best case scenario' sense, i.e. lots of houses to pick from. Nasty colors like that wouldn't necessarily be a deal-breaker but it would be a strike against the property and if I was on the fence about it, they'd tip me over to the "no" side.
Make sure you've priced laminate floors and counters in the house at a competitive level; if you're selling for the same price per sq ft as houses with higher-quality surfaces, that's going to be a problem.
Well I just spent my New Years Eve painting that kitchen. OMG it is a HUGE kitchen
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Beige
