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I think you should just replace the carpets with something cheaper and don't worry about whether or not the future buyer will rip them out. Green carpeting is such a prominent feature when you walk into a room, it could easily turn buyers off. Most can't see beyond that and will get fixated on the cost and trouble to replace it themselves. No reason to spend the $7K, find a good installer than can give you some lower cost options.
When we bought our place 10 years ago, the old owners who had lived there 40 years were very proud of the 30+ year old wool, seafoam green carpet that they had covered the place in. I will admit you could tell the carpet and install were quality because even 30 years later it was in great shape, but it was covering an entire house of oak hardwood floors, including the stairs so slowly, one at a time, we ripped out the carpet as we redid rooms and exposed the almost perfect hardwoods. My point is - most people aren't going to appreciate or know if its wool and good quality so don't spend the cash....
Around here they usually just offer the buyer a flooring allowance so they can pick what they like. The odds are, they won't like whatever you install.
We have spent quite a bit of time and money to get our 1970s era home in shape for sale. It is in Northern VA which is experiencing a healthy real estate market in recent months, after home five years of falling prices. They say the average single family home is only on the market for 45 days in Fairfax County.
Here is our problem. The last owner spent quite a bit of money on very expensive carpet about 10 year ago and most of it still looks fine, except for our family room and two rooms off of that . The carpet has been cleaned many times but still looks rough and dated. Though to maintain a constant look with the rest of the house it would cost us maybe $7000 to replace the green carpet in our family room. (Because the rest of the houses carpet is so fancy) It seems like a lot of money, but once someone would walk down there they would likely be turned off because of the dated color and how rough it looks.
So lets say we spend $7000 to replace the carpet with something that is equal in quality with the rest of the house and the potential owners come in and hate carpet in a den, and then rip it out. Or we put in a hard wood floor and that costs us even more, but they prefer carpet.
What should we do? (Our real estate agent really does not have an answer)
Do nothing. You wouldn't want to sell your home to someone who'd not want your home at a decent price just because of a carpet. You said it yourself, the market in Fairfax Co. is doing well.
Around here they usually just offer the buyer a flooring allowance so they can pick what they like. The odds are, they won't like whatever you install.
That isn't a good idea- your buyers are going to demand a flooring allowance that is higher than the cost of replacement flooring. Clean & fresh (builder-grade) carpet will take their eyes off the floor so they can see the features of the home. You don't want buyers preparing a list of "discounts" they want when they're walking through the home. Fix *everything* , even if it isn't with top shelf materials. That way they're picking paint colors instead of finding flaws.
I think it depends entirely on the neighborhood. As a fellow resident of NoVA, I know as you do how huge and diverse the metro area is. What do people looking in your neighborhood expect, and what will your competition currently on the market look like? In some neighborhoods, installing builder-grade carpet would be a waste of money and a turnoff to buyers expecting higher quality or wanting hardwoods. In other neighborhoods, it would make good sense. In any case, I definitely would not install expensive wool carpet.
IIRC, you mentioned that your 70s era FFX Co. SF house will go on the mkt around $550K, and in another thread said that the houses nearest yours are larger and likely to be worth $100K more. I'm assuming that with that age of house, there is no hardwood underneath the carpet. This sounds like Vienna or something similar. It's my impression that most houses in that price range in Vienna are not fully updated, so I would think most buyers would expect that they would have to do some work and spend some money after buying, or will be patient and make changes over time. You are probably looking at first time home buyers who know they aren't going to get a perfect house at that price and most should not be "thrown" by green carpet in 1 or 2 rooms, especially if they have a good buyer's agent who will point out to them how easy it is to have carpet replaced and not to be distracted.
Also, your agent should be more helpful than she sounds from your descriptions. At the least, maybe you could ask her to tour some other houses on the market and see for yourself what's out there, then decide.
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