question for buyers (Mesa: for sale, countertops, condo)

[pj.poway]

I am prepping my home for sale.
I am contemplating replacing the old tile counters in kitchen and the kitchen sink. I have a quote of $3,000 for the work I need done. Would you rather look at the place with the old stuff and have an added $3000 allowance for you to pick out your own colors.
I think it would look nicer to replace and fix it all up so that a buyer doesn't have to put out more money. I found a granite that would look great and be versitle.
I will have to do an allowance for carpeting and that is ok.
My friends are really against spending that much money to improve. Me, a clean up todate kitchen would make my day and hopefully will when I move back east
thanks for advice.
I hope I am allowed to ask these kind of questions.....

[kettlepot]

In my opinion it would depend upon what is the age and style of the house you have. If your house was built in 1950's or earlier, interested buyers are probably wanting the house to be as original as possible rather than having something "new and improved" added onto it. Therefore, I don't believe it wouldn't return its value to you at sales time. However, if it is a newer house, say 1970s to today, you'd probably have to evaluate the situation a little differently.

[pj.poway]

condo built in 1978
nothing unique in construction or style
great yard and good view
I love it here but the grandbaby moved east to North Carolina and my other kids moved away so I am going to follow the kidz

[CalGrown]

Hello.........I am a loan officer and work closely with Realtors, and in my "off/spare/hobby" time, I consult with homeowners such as yourself who realize the current RE market requires their properties to show in the best light possible. I am not a contractor and don't do any of the actual labor myself, but work with homeowners to help them determine what cost-effective improvements should be made and what they can expect to get out for the dollars they put in. Then I help choose the materials/finishes, etc and oversee the upgrade project. A clean, appealing kitchen can sell a home that might otherwise languish on the market, but one thing you definitely don't want to do is put more money into the place than you can get back. If the other units are selling with tile countertops, then all that may be needed is to be sure your tiles are clean, and perhaps re-grouting. But if your competition from other comps feature granite kitchen countertops, then you may need to upgrade. I don't know how many square feet you are doing, and if the estimate includes labor and materials, but I would definitely hope you get more than one estimate!! One of my recent clients was selling a very nice townhouse in the Sorrento Mesa area......it had tons of plusses going for it......probably the best location in the community, largest floorplan, end unit, quiet. It was only 7 yrs old, but had all the original builder-standard fixtures and finishes. There were a number of other properties also for sale in the complex, so there was a good bit of competition. When I researched what was selling and what was sitting, the homes that sold in the least amount of time and closest to their original list price were consistently the ones that showed clean and uncluttered, were move-in ready and had been cosmetically updated........granite kitchen countertops, stainless appliances, new carpet/tile, paint, new light fixtures, new plumbing fixtures. They were also CORRECTLY PRICED!! If you do decide granite counters are "necessary" for your sale, I would highly recommend looking at 12" granite tiles set with "zero" grout lines.........this is a MUCH more economical way to go, over slab, and may be more appropriate for your home and price-point. Incidentally, the client I mentioned......he put in @ $10k to update his townhouse and did a FSBO with a $15k value-range. It was priced realistically for the current market......not what he could have made on it a year ago (which would have been @ $75k more). People that came thru his open house (only had to hold one) thought the place was brand new....I did some moderate staging, it showed beautifully, was scrupulously clean and attractive. He got a couple of insultingly below-value offers, but accepted one right in the middle of his value range that he received 4 days after he began marketing/showing the property. Escrow closed in less than 30 days. This was in a community where the average DOM was 120+. He did not realize a full return on the $10k he put into the property, but his goal was to sell it quickly, as he had already purchased another home and didn't want to pay 2 mortgages for very long. Good luck to you in your sale and move!

[ca2dc]

It would depend on what/how much work needed to be done on the rest of the house. For me, a kitchen is one of the first things I look at, followed by state of bathrooms and then size of bedrooms (yard status comes in next). Hopefully your sellers are able to look beyond things that need to be replaced (like paint/wallpaper/carpet) and look at the bones if there is much repair to be done (along with a price tag that is 'affordable'). If you have v. old flooring, cabinetry and appliances, putting in a new sink/counter top doesn't make much sense to me.

[wanttoteach]

I spent a year and a half trying to sell my home and I am now a buyer looking every day. If you tell buyers that you are going to give them an "allowance" to buy their own tile, it will not have much of an impact. Unless your selling price is LOW, then plan on selling for much, much lower than you thought possible. If I were to see a house with old tile (which happens every day) and the seller were to tell me that they would give a 3,000 dollar allowance for new tile, I would think, "You are going to be giving me a lot more than that..." So...I highly suggest that you do the improvements yourself, or just plan on selling very, very low. There is so much competition right now that giving a small allowance isn't going to cut it. (Forgive me if you didn't write that you were going to give a 3,000 dollar allowance. I am working off of my memory). We were looking at a home a few months ago, and the seller said that they would give an allowance for new carpet. We thought that made the seller look stingy, because with home competition the way it is, the seller needs to give much more than a carpet allowance.
Just a few thoughts from a current buyer. Somebody else may see it completely differently, but I hope that it helps to hear one point of view. Good luck! It is horrid out there right now.