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I'm a big fan of selling "as is"; it shouldn't carry a stigma. It's easier for everyone concerned and makes the most sense. If you don't want a project, keep looking till you find a turn-key property that speaks to you. There's a lid for every pot.
100% this. If a listing has what is clearly brand new carpet, I am going to assume the seller wants to recoup the price for that. I don't want carpet. I am forced to have it in my current place (co-op building) and will never have it again. This alone would make me pass on the listing.
However, if I see old carpet, doesn't phase me because I am removing it anyway.
Only two showings was because it had been recently listed. Also because there are fewer people looking for homes with acreage - at least around here. We have since had around a dozen showings. Maybe more. We had one offer and it was lowballed. A number of people said they are planning to make an offer, but we have not seen anything from them yet. We are telling them that we are planning to pull the house off the market for a month and replace the carpeting and repaint the interior (plus a few other minor improvements), so if they are going to make an offer, make it now. There are 2-3 showings a day scheduled.
If that does not generate and acceptable offer then we will move forward with some spiffing up.
You are correct in that several viewers have said they though it was overpriced for the condition. That is why we are looking at improving the condition.
Other than subdivision houses in town (4 miles away) there are no other houses for people to go look at in the area unless they can get into the two FSBO homes. Not sure the one next door has had any viewings. One of the neighbors watches all the comings and goings at the houses in the area and loves to talk about what is going on. So we have a pretty good idea. She tells us when people come look at Dad's house too. What color car(s) how many people, how long they stay and whether they walk around outside much. The house next door gets a few cars there very rarely and the people do not walk around outside.
Based on both our realtor's suggestions and some of the suggestions here, we are going to stick with just paint, carpeting, the some kind of hard floor in the foyer and cleaning up the yard. (there are some old sheds that we will have removed). I will go through and changing out a few easy things like obviously 1970s closet door pulls, and maybe a couple of light fixtures, I will probably remove the interior storm windows that my dad put in some of the rooms. Maybe sand and refinish some of the window sills where houseplants left them kind of ugly looking.
One the plus side, pushing into May will allow people to see how beautiful the property is, but it also means I am going to have to start mowing it.
I am surprised by how little time people spend examining the property. When we bought our houses, we spent a huge amount of time just hanging out at or near the property. We went through the houses multiple times, and explored the property and the surrounding area extensively. It seems like most people come for fifteen or twenty minutes and make up their minds one way or another.
What is your buying market like now? Are you listed late in the season or just in time?
I think some buyers are taking more time now because mortgage rates went up. I keep hearing on the radio that the real estate market is slowing down but it's not true for my area but buyers may not know that, or they try to use it to their advantage by leaving negative feedback such as priced too high. I'm looking to rent or buy and am not happy to be doing it in this market with prices inflated.
You had said that there are some houses listed in pretty much the same condition as yours but they want a few hundred thousand dollars more. A serious question I have is are you priced too low to reach buyers that are prepared to spend say $500k or more? They may not even be looking in your current price range to be able to see that your house is for sale.
How did your agent come up with the house price?
Have you or your agent walked either of the FSBO houses to check them out to figure out why they priced so high? Maybe you should consider speaking to the owners to see how they decided on the price. I looked at my granddaughters fathers house Friday, I feel he is over priced, actually going there with my agent, she also said he is listed too high. It's a 4 bedroom split level with one bathroom. He has a MIL suite attached to it that can be rented out. His lower level where one of the bedrooms are smells musty.
My dad's 2 family house was sold as is in 2006. We did paint the house a neutral color which did a lot for how it shows. He also had carpet from 1967 when he bought the house, a dingy gold carpet. We ripped it out, my neighbor varnished the wood floors, they were in decent shape. If there is wood floors in your dad's house, you should consider leaving what he does have because someone may appreciate it. I do think you should get the rooms painted, especially the dark rooms. We also replaced lighting fixtures but that was about it. The rest of it was as is unless it was a safety issue.
I personally would not trust the "needs too much work" feedback since you recently listed. I personally wouldn't dump a lot of money into it because you don't know how that will affect buyers either, plus taking it off you will lose any buyers still out there looking.
My house is pending. We did not paint or do flooring. It did not hurt us one bit but for the most part, my house is builder tan, my office, the kitchen, laundry room and one wall in the family room have other color paint, in the blue and green family so not black. My house is selling for 15% over asking price.
Have you looked on zillow to see housing prices in your dad's area to judge if you are priced too high?
BTW, I would not touch the kitchen cabinets. We sold our old house with a good wood cabinets. The buyers loved them. People were ripping out kitchens when we sold back then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Some other information:
I did some research. Carpet is about $6400 for mid-level (better than Builder's grade I think). That is assuming 1800 SF of carpet (kind of a guess taking the 2280 s.f. house and subtracting the kitchen bathrooms and one bedroom that has a wood floor).
Some sort of laminate or lvl in the foyer about $600 ish. Same in the kitchen probably $2500.
Paint for about $3,000. Not including the bedrooms. Bedrooms will be tough - one has two black walls and a wall of smiley face wallpaper. Other bedrooms are mostly bold colors one other has wallpaper on one wall, and one has wood paneling on all the walls. I think I would leave the bedrooms alone.
Windows are about $16,000 for fiberglass. About $12,000 for vinyl. They are currently crappy 70s aluminum sliders. They do not leak a lot of air (but some) and dad has lived with them for 51 years. So, they are functional, they just suck. I am not enthusiastic about replacing them. Especially not with Vinyl because I feel like I am screwing the buyers since they will have problems with vinyl windows in a few years.
I have no information for counters other than you can get formica from Home Depot and they promise delivery in 30 days or less. Realtor guessed it might be $4000 for formica.
The master bathroom is original and we should probably replace the sink/vanity and the shower if we want to spiff things up. (toilets are toilets). The other two bathrooms have been redone in the last 20 years so they are not bad.
House is listed at $400,000. There are no similar recent sales and few listings in the area to compare to. There are two houses FSBO not far away that are somewhat similar, but too many unique factors to make any comparison. One is next door, larger (3000 s.f.), less land (2 acres vs 3), about the same condition, and a little bit older. It also has a flat roof which is terrible in Michigan. It is listed for $625,000 and has been lowered twice from $700,000. The other is a smaller ranch house (1700 s.f.) on 1.5 acres with no trees, same age, and condition, but it is on a busy road and not set that far back from the road, however, it is also nestled in and surrounded by a nice state park and in a slightly more desirable school district. It is listed at $650,000
There was a house across the street that sold last year FSBO. It was a dumpy ranch with tiny bedrooms. Exactly half the size of Dad's house with half the land. It did have a big ugly pole barn - a plus for some people. It sold for $313,000.
Still waiting for more reports and to see what offers come in, but I am thinking we may need to spiff it up to get $400,000 for it. Some more reports came back. Many of them said they think the price is too high for how much work it needs. Some said not interested and a few said very interested. We are waiting for offers, but if they are below what it would cost to spiff it up I think we will just pull it, spiff it and relist it. I see no point in selling it to someone who will put $25,000 into it and sell it in a month for $75.000 or $100,000 more. We may as well do it. We are not in a rush - other than I am really sick of dealing with it.
My son just sold a house that had been rented for about 5 years, so he had some of the same decisions to make, and no day to day knowledge of the quirks of the house. He intended to replace the bedroom carpet with carpet, and the living room carpet with wood. He wound up doing all the floors in wood.
He replaced dated light fixtures, replaced all the lightbulbs to daylight bulbs, and painted the entire house SW Nuance with white trim. The effect was fresh and clean and new. It sold in 2 days for $40k over the appraised value.
The things buyers want is that the small things are perfect, like do the toilets flush perfectly, or does a faucet drip? Are the appliances in perfect working order?
As for the windows. I would let the buyers replace them. We bought our house with old metal windows and replaced them with Andersen fibrex, and we love them. DH replaced the windows, so it was under $4k. If our seller had spent $20k replacing the windows, he would not have gotten any more money for this house.
One more thing...We had to keep telling my son that HE was not going to be living there. He wanted to do things like put in a backsplash in the kitchen, and maybe pay for staging. Whoa, kiddo.
Coldjensens, you seem to be leaning towards the type of higher end finishes that you would want if you were going to live there. If you start gutting bathrooms, you will never get your money out of it.
Last edited by gentlearts; 05-09-2022 at 06:51 AM..
House is listed at $400,000. There are no similar recent sales and few listings in the area to compare to. There are two houses FSBO not far away that are somewhat similar, but too many unique factors to make any comparison. One is next door, larger (3000 s.f.), less land (2 acres vs 3), about the same condition, and a little bit older. It also has a flat roof which is terrible in Michigan. It is listed for $625,000 and has been lowered twice from $700,000. The other is a smaller ranch house (1700 s.f.) on 1.5 acres with no trees, same age, and condition, but it is on a busy road and not set that far back from the road, however, it is also nestled in and surrounded by a nice state park and in a slightly more desirable school district. It is listed at $650,000
It might be that its unique enough of a place that it doesn't sell right away.
Just FYI. We finally got an offer near asking with no conditions at all other than inspection. Inspection found no undisclosed problems and we sold the house for $20K below asking price, so putting money into it did not make sense.
Take a Sunday and tour some open houses in your price range. It will show you the norm and whether you like vinyl windows will be moot. Also look at real estate sites like Redfin at closed sales in the same price range. Once again, you’ll get an idea.
I
Reading back through this is kind of funny.
There are no open houses. Houses sell too fast for that. (We never had one on this house either).
Not sure what the buyer will do with the house. They said they are going to live there.
They also asked us to sign some papers giving permission to subdivide the property (not sure why they need our permission). Not sure whether that is just normal so they have it if they ever want to divide it or sell it to someone who wants to divide it, or whether they plan to build more houses there. It would be hard to build more houses there because it is on septic and a well and does not have gas available either (propane tank in the yard). Subdividing to put in more homes would require more septic fields and tanks (where?), more wells, and more propane tanks. they did not do a perk test to see whether there is even a place for additional septic fields. So maybe they are just collecting all of the rights in case things change in the future.
Dad forgot to tell the propane company to stop deliveries when the house went on the market, so he ended up gifting them $900 worth of propane as a housewarming gift. They were pretty happy about that.
Just FYI. We finally got an offer near asking with no conditions at all other than inspection. Inspection found no undisclosed problems and we sold the house for $20K below asking price, so putting money into it did not make sense.
Congratulations. I figured that it would just take a little extra time for the right purchaser to come along. It sounds like you did okay. (I thought that your asking price was reasonable given the condition and area.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
They also asked us to sign some papers giving permission to subdivide the property (not sure why they need our permission). Not sure whether that is just normal so they have it if they ever want to divide it or sell it to someone who wants to divide it, or whether they plan to build more houses there. It would be hard to build more houses there because it is on septic and a well and does not have gas available either (propane tank in the yard). Subdividing to put in more homes would require more septic fields and tanks (where?), more wells, and more propane tanks. they did not do a perk test to see whether there is even a place for additional septic fields. So maybe they are just collecting all of the rights in case things change in the future.
Dad forgot to tell the propane company to stop deliveries when the house went on the market, so he ended up gifting them $900 worth of propane as a housewarming gift. They were pretty happy about that.
It is standard on acreage parcels in Michigan to include language about division rights. That language is usually included in the deed, such as: "The Grantor grants to the Grantee the right to make X divisions under section 108 of the Land Division Act, Act No 288 of the Public Acts of 1967, as amended"...or some such language.
Also, if it's near farmland, a statement in the Deed usually indicates that the property may be located within the vicinity of farmland or a farm operation--and that farm operations which generate noise, dust or odors are protected by the Michigan Right to Farm Act. Both of these clauses are standard practice on acreage parcels in Michigan.
I'm surprised that your agent didn't attempt to prorate the propane (or at least a portion), but that was nice of you to provide such a gift.
Just FYI. We finally got an offer near asking with no conditions at all other than inspection. Inspection found no undisclosed problems and we sold the house for $20K below asking price, so putting money into it did not make sense.
Congrats on the sale. I'm sorry that you didn't have multiple offers for list price or a little over but I guess it is what it is.
I'd not want to gift $900 worth of propane. Sucks that it was filled.
Congrats on the sale. I'm sorry that you didn't have multiple offers for list price or a little over but I guess it is what it is.
I'd not want to gift $900 worth of propane. Sucks that it was filled.
At least you didn't start sinking money into it.
Thank you.
They also told us that we did not need to clear out the remaining junk. That was pretty huge because there are two large wooden sheds and two normal sized metal sheds in the back and a decaying camper that a scrap guy got stuck int the mud and we could not move because it was too muddy to get back there. Getting that stuff out of these would have cost more than the propane.
My dad told me about the propane being filled just a couple of days before closing. It was too late to try to do anything about it, but not the end of the world.
Our realtor also shaved off one percent from his commission without being asked because of who my dad is (He was hugely involved in various volunteer efforts including helping to start and then being a big volunteer for 26 years (plus serving as chairman of the board - 6 years) for a food bank that grew to feed 450 families.) It is kind of sad to take dad out of that town, he is kind of a celebrity there (but mostly among older people because young people rarely engage in volunteer activities).
It is standard on acreage parcels in Michigan to include language about division rights. That language is usually included in the deed, such as: "The Grantor grants to the Grantee the right to make X divisions under section 108 of the Land Division Act, Act No 288 of the Public Acts of 1967, as amended"...or some such language.
Also, if it's near farmland, a statement in the Deed usually indicates that the property may be located within the vicinity of farmland or a farm operation--and that farm operations which generate noise, dust or odors are protected by the Michigan Right to Farm Act. Both of these clauses are standard practice on acreage parcels in Michigan.
I'm surprised that your agent didn't attempt to prorate the propane (or at least a portion), but that was nice of you to provide such a gift.
Thank you. It is kind of near farmland. There is a 100 acre parcel right behind it that used to be farmland. That is the last undeveloped acreage in the immediate area and will likely get developed soon. There is a huge golf course and bazillion giant McMansions subdivision sitting just out of sight (where the big farm used ot be when I was a kid). The entire area also used to be a giant apple orchard - it was divided up in the 1960s.
This makes me more comfortable. I do not want dad to see or learn of the house getting torn down. He put a huge part of himself into the property. Every single tree has a story and there are a ton of trees that he planted over the years. There is a lot of development in the area, so I was concerned the buyers just wanted to subdivide and put 5 or 6 hideous McMansions in there. They said they are going to live there, but buyers lie. If that is standard practice, I can at least continue to hope they are not lying. I know that you are not supposed to care and I know that area will eventually be 100% McMansions, but I do not want my dad (or my older brother) to see it happen. I lost my nostalgic attachment to the property during the past three years when it has become a lodestone around my neck and the devourer of all of my free time. One things is sure, I will never buy a second home. I cannot think of anything I would like less.
We found out about the propane too late to do anything. It was only a few days before closing that we got the bill. At least the buyer seemed like a nice guy. If he is not lying, he has 5 children under 8 years old that he needs a larger home for. They said he and his brother are going to live there. OTOH they bought it through an LLC.
Thank you to everyone for your advice. It was helpful even though we did not get that far. You all prevented me from pushing ahead - which would have been stupid.
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