New (cheap) beige carpet - a real turn off! (price, expensive, value)

[jghorton]

You could tell your Realtor that beige carpets offend your sensibilities and you don't want see any houses with them ... (unless it is old and in such obvious need of replacement you can ding the seller to replace it). ... But, you are right! --- this is a pretty world-shaking issue to most people in the civilized world.

[Sky-Blue]

Originally Posted by Mary2014

First of all who of you out there living in a house expects beige carpet to actually stay clean?

Lots of people remove shoes upon entering, so all the filth on the soles doesn't track through the living areas. Not a problem for me.
But if I had kids, I wouldn't want beige carpets.

[Silverfall]

You can also post on Craigslist that you will give the carpet away for free to someone if they come and roll it. We removed the laminate floors in our house and replaced them with hardwoods. We had no trouble giving the laminate away on CL.

[LOL_Whut]

Originally Posted by Mary2014

{snip}
I am big on recycling rather than throwing away - wonder if there is a recycle market for "almost new" beige carpeting?
{snip}

I've seen people sell room-sized squares of carpet outside dorms at big universities during move-in weekend. The students buy them to put on the ugly linoleum dorm floors. These were not nice rugs, either, it was just cheap wall-to-wall.

I can't imagine what that carpet looks like the next May; I've never seen a dorm room with a vacuum. My brother's roommates didn't even throw out the empty toilet paper rolls that piled up in the corner for at least a semester.

[FelixTheCat]

I'm replacing 2 kids bedrooms with low end tan carpet. It's not the cheapest, but not what I'd buy for myself. The main living areas are hardwood. The kids rooms had really worn stained carpet, so we just wanted to get it move in ready. It's just kids rooms and they can let the kids trash the carpet and not feel bad about it. If it were the whole house, I'd go with a nicer carpet. When you sell a house, you go with neutrals. It's boring, but it won't clash with furnishings, so it will be ok with the most buyers.

[Informed Info]

When you're selling a house and those stains just will not come out, so you replace it with cheap neutral colored carpet...WTF do you care, as a buyer, about the carpet?

Change it when you move in, if you hate it that much and have the money to replace it.

Like you wouldn't care if it was a high quality carpet, more to the color of your liking, but had years of wear and tear?

The point is to make the house "look good" when selling. Easy to show, looks nice....some might be willing to live with cheap beige carpet after plunking 20% down on a mortgage.

And when sellers are supposed to know what every high-maintenence buyer wants...they'll do it, but it's gonna cost you just that much more.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

When I was house-hunting, my Realtor told me I would have trouble getting a FHA loan on a house that didn't have floor coverings (the one I was looking at was a HUD home with the carpet ripped out and bare concrete showing). She said we might even have to put carpet in to be able to close on the house...so maybe sellers are putting in carpet because it's necessary to have something there and it's a neutral color and cheap, figuring the buyer can do something different if they want when they move in.

For what it's worth, I have beige carpet in my house, and two kids and three dogs haven't put any permanent stains into the carpet. We came close once with a tube of green watercolor paint that burst, but we all take our shoes off when we come into the house, and don't let the kids eat in carpeted areas, and we also vacuum several times a week, so the carpet has stayed quite nice.

[Rogarven]

Originally Posted by LOL_Whut

I've seen people sell room-sized squares of carpet outside dorms at big universities during move-in weekend. The students buy them to put on the ugly linoleum dorm floors. These were not nice rugs, either, it was just cheap wall-to-wall.

I can't imagine what that carpet looks like the next May; I've never seen a dorm room with a vacuum. My brother's roommates didn't even throw out the empty toilet paper rolls that piled up in the corner for at least a semester.

My room mate Junior and Senior years brought his own vacuum. Only one in the entire dorm to own a vacuum. LOL

[Informed Info]

Originally Posted by LOL_Whut

I've seen people sell room-sized squares of carpet outside dorms at big universities during move-in weekend. The students buy them to put on the ugly linoleum dorm floors. These were not nice rugs, either, it was just cheap wall-to-wall.

I can't imagine what that carpet looks like the next May; I've never seen a dorm room with a vacuum. My brother's roommates didn't even throw out the empty toilet paper rolls that piled up in the corner for at least a semester.

Where did you go to college?

There was a "utility closet" on both sides (split girls/boys) of every dorm floor, that was left open so we could use the vacuum and any other supplies we needed.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

OP, you and 3 other buyers are the only retail buyers in the entire country that would prefer worn-out carpeting.

Wholesale buyers buy houses with worn out carpeting, but they replace it with brand new beige carpet.

So, if you don't like the new carpet, take it out and replace it. Nobody is going to put in expensive carpet in colors, hoping to find a buyer who will pay extra for expensive carpet and who happens to like that color. Also, the appraisal will not come back higher because the carpeting is expensive.

Call Habitat for Humanity and they will send someone to remove the new beige carpet without cutting it. You can get a tax write off, they can raise some funds, and you ca install the carpeting that you like.