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I think the key issue here is "buyer's market" or "seller's market." We are in a seller's market. I fixed the major cosmetic stuff. I left the water heater (10 years old and looked pretty bad) and I left the AC alone (it works). There were a number of minor things like some sealant around the pool light coming off and the doors separating a little. One of the spare rooms could have used a paint job. Frankly we could have spent hundreds more making everything perfect. In the end it didn't matter. They requested the big things--water heater, AC and small wiring issue. We fixed it and they were ok with us not fixing the smaller cosmetic issues. We have a few funky faucets I thought we should replace. My husband finally said we are not going to keep fixing every little thing. The faucets never came up (we might have spent a few hundred on those), the pool light never came up, a lot of minor things never came up or we rejected the repair. This was the third house they bid on and they had lost two previously to full ask price in cash. They loved the view and pool and really that over shadowed all the little things. I love our realtor. He said 'no open houses--they are a waste of time' and 'no pre-inspections' and don't bother with the small stuff. Once you've done a pre-inspection you have to fix everything or disclose it. He put a premium on the view and pool and that is what sold it. They were so happy to get the house and have a couple of major things fixed, they really did not care about the small stuff. Get a very experienced realtor and follow his/her advice. We would have ended up spending way more than we had to in order to "perfect" the house, and it would have been unnecessary. Guess if you are in a buyer's market it might work out differently.
Is that some kind of thing that this agent came up with? Never heard of such a thing...
Goodness. As a buyer I would be upset if i found out the seller knew about things and didnt fix them and left me to do it. Im not talking little things like paint, but the garage door for example. If you know it should be a certain door and you dont do it, why leave it to me to do what you should have?
Depends on your situation and condition of your house. Some repairs will have better return then others. Kitchen and baths are probably the best returns if you can do them at a good value to you. When buyers are viewing home the biggest signs they see are in upgrades needed to kitchens and baths. If it is possible for you then renovate your house before selling. But as you said that your house is 98% ready, i want to suggest you that make your house 100% ready before selling.
Personally, I never let my list get that big. When we bought the house, we made the sellers fix anything that was found. Since owning the house, I fix anything that pops up (big or small) to keep the house in good shape. When we decide to sell in another year or two, the most we will have to do is some cleaning. I fix it mainly because I want my house to be nice for my family to live in. Rarely do I ever let any kind of repairs go undone. They will just lead to bigger headaches down the road.
I went ahead and posted my list for feedback. Feel free to reply or DM if you have advice on my "fix it/to do" list before listing home.
Fixes 1. Several Stress cracks in brick (no foundation issues-this was checkedand confirmed this past week) 2. Garage Door-Damaged trim/paint on garage door base, sides, and upper 3. Door leading to garage hollow coretype, needs to be regular door. 4. French Back doors-Damaged trim (inside and out water damage),Back door threshold damaged, part of back door damage inside door. Opening between patio door frame and brick needs sealing. 5. Discoloration on brick on severalparts of house. 6. Back bathroom door notproperly aligned results in force needing to be used to shut and open door(confirmed it is not foundation issue) 7. Master bedroom door not on hinges correctly-difficult to shutall way. 8. Regrouting in corner where drywall and shower corner. Shower glass connect on drywall area, side areas of bath andshower seat 9. Threshold in hallway floor needs to be put down
10. Garage ceiling sagging in areas. replace nails and put Screws in roofing. 11. Tile in bathroom loose.-reinstall 12. Toilet in bathroom wobbly. May need to be tightened down orcaulked at bottom. 13. Crack from kitchen backsplash after we had to remove bugs thatwere stuck behind glass.
14. Garage door rubber threshold loose and not covering all of bottom panel.
15. skylight-repaint chips and upper area of shower that is not smooth.
16. Put in new screw at bottom of AC Vent in living room (sticking out halfway and jammed).
Not sure.
17. Water heater storm collar not properly sealed
18. Exposed fasteners need sealing on bathroom skylight roof.
Leave alone-will show up on inspection report
19. Chimney-Mortarcap on Chimney is damaged. 20. PVC Conduit protecting sprinkler is broken. Need new PVC pipe.
21. Need AC unit to have new outside insulation pipe. 22. Foam around outside drain pipe
23. damaged window latch-secured with two other latches on side of window.
24. Touchup paint in two spots around molding by ceiling of TV
25. Fix metal casing around water hose from wall to Toilet in back bathroom.
26. Pull down stair case at garage has been secured in rough opening using drywallscrews. Need secured with 16/ 16 d nails (4 per side)
27.Fireplace-Cracks in fire box need pointing upwith fire clay mortar, Damper will not open, Small holes in fire box. (We havenot used this since we moved in).
28. Front faucet needs support and is slightly bent but works fine.
29. Two missing knockouts in panel front
30. Wiring at garbage disposal switch enclosedwith wood blocks. Not in a junction box.
31. Loose dead front at electric disconnect boxfor a/c condensing unit,.
32. Two missingknockouts resulting in openings in panel front.
33. Exposed wiring at switch for garage disposer mounted under cabinet not injunction box. Previous owner used wood to secure. Was told there was not acorrect junction box size that would fit this area. Not sure if that is true ornot.
34. Loose dead front at electric disconnect box for a/c condensing unit. Twomissing knockouts resulting in openings in panel front.
I'm just wondering what criteria you used to put those repairs in the fix list, as opposed to those you elected not to fix and wait till they showed up on an inspection list- looks like some of those on the "leave alone" list would have been pretty easy fixes?
We did our best to fix or replace everything we could see needed attention- either we did it ourselves or hired someone to do it, before we sold our last house. The only item that ended up on the inspection list was a solid waste deflector in the septic tank, and we had that fixed before closing, and reinspected. And were VERY happy that's all that they found with the septic tank, because it was fifty years old- the original built with the house.
fix the code related issues and the trim work. silly things like discolored brick can be left alone imo
The bathroom stuff is basic maintenance. If I look at a house and that isn't in good shape, odds are there are more serious things wrong that are hidden so I'd walk away quickly.
That's what we figured, so we spent some time fixing, replacing, cleaning, painting, resurfacing and so on anything that looked like it needed it or had seen better days before we sold our house. Made me look at the house and figure I'd buy it if we were in the market for a house in that area instead of moving away. And I guess the buyers were impressed too- although it was still an old house with lots of dated "stuff", we had three offers the first day it went on the market. We accepted the offer for the asking price.
What was funny though was that we thought we'd chased everything down and fixed or replaced as we needed to. But as Murphy's Law would have it, we noticed the toilet in one of the bathrooms started leaking from the tank the evening before the house inspection. We figured mopping up the floor repeatedly wouldn't work, so we called a plumber who came in the next morning, who fixed the leak and checked things out ( it was an old toilet)- just as the home inspectors and buyers were roaming through the house to find things wrong! LOL, that toilet did not end up on their list.
I think the key issue here is "buyer's market" or "seller's market." We are in a seller's market. I fixed the major cosmetic stuff. I left the water heater (10 years old and looked pretty bad) and I left the AC alone (it works). There were a number of minor things like some sealant around the pool light coming off and the doors separating a little. One of the spare rooms could have used a paint job. Frankly we could have spent hundreds more making everything perfect. In the end it didn't matter. They requested the big things--water heater, AC and small wiring issue. We fixed it and they were ok with us not fixing the smaller cosmetic issues. We have a few funky faucets I thought we should replace. My husband finally said we are not going to keep fixing every little thing. The faucets never came up (we might have spent a few hundred on those), the pool light never came up, a lot of minor things never came up or we rejected the repair. This was the third house they bid on and they had lost two previously to full ask price in cash. They loved the view and pool and really that over shadowed all the little things. I love our realtor. He said 'no open houses--they are a waste of time' and 'no pre-inspections' and don't bother with the small stuff. Once you've done a pre-inspection you have to fix everything or disclose it. He put a premium on the view and pool and that is what sold it. They were so happy to get the house and have a couple of major things fixed, they really did not care about the small stuff. Get a very experienced realtor and follow his/her advice. We would have ended up spending way more than we had to in order to "perfect" the house, and it would have been unnecessary. Guess if you are in a buyer's market it might work out differently.
The only thing our inspectors asked about our pool light was if it was a low voltage type- the sealant was ok and there was nothing wrong with it, but the house was built in 1958, and the pool built then too. I guess they changed to low voltage pool lights well after that, but we had the pool replumbed and the light replaced in 1993, with a low voltage type, so we could answer "yes" to the question about the voltage.
We fixed everything we could on our house before we sold it, but we might have gotten away with not doing so, from prospective buyers' reaction. We got three offers on the house the first day it went on the market, one for the asking price, which we accepted. One of the others was even a cash offer, but the guy lost out because he wouldn't come up with a specific offer till he spoke to his contractor.
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