Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
4,640 posts, read 11,938,904 times
Reputation: 9885
Advertisements
I think it all comes down to price and location. Obviously, you can't do anything about location, but you can certainly look at price. If priced correctly, anything will sell. Right now, you're priced too high. You can try to chase the price thru upgrades or simply waiting for the market to come to you; but you still might have to lower your price. You can do that thru actually lowering the price or offering closing help.
My house and neighborhood appeals to young families and first-time homebuyers. The rental market is tight and rents are crazy high. I know my future buyers are going to be extremely busy and cash poor. They will struggle to come up with money down. The houses that are selling are offering cash back at closing. My neighbor just sold and gave $10,000 closing help. Nope, her house wasn't updated. It was clean and staged nicely, but still had original baths and kitchen and an awkward split-level layout.
Houses in my neighborhood were valued at about $350,000. They were larger and on bigger lots than her house. She listed at $360,000 and closing help (left the amount blank). Buyers showed up. She ended up settling for $350,000 + $10,000 in closing help and no repairs. She closed in October.
Incidentally, this information is really easy to find on the internet now with sites like Zillow, etc.
Alternatively, when we were buying, we found a gorgeous, completely updated (to our tastes!) house in our price range. But we hated the location. So we bought an older, more expensive home in need of updates to get the location we wanted. True, it was the least expensive (not by much) of the homes in the neighborhood; but that's what buyers do.
Lower the price. Not only will you appeal to the people who want to renovate to their tastes, but your house sounds very liveable for a family who can't afford the price of a renovated top finished house.
Right now I'm in the process of buying a house that has asbestos and mold in it which I knew nothing about till recently. The seller bought the house in 2009 and has absolutely no equity after researching who the seller was and finding her on FB it's obvious she doesn't have the thousands of dollars it's going to take to remediate the asbestos much less the mold.
I'd be willing to give her a break and remediate the mold myself which would mean tearing out the bath tub and putting new walls and tile which could cost close to $1500.00 but there's also mold on the asbestos. I start spraying and scrubbing asbestos and that would be a death sentence not to mention it would make the house inhabitable.
I feel bad for the family that can't sell their house and I feel bad for the young lady I was going to buy the house from but i have to look out for myself and think about the future, resale value and more importantly my health
Paint. Beige/neutral colors throughout. Paint is cheap, easy and makes a bigger impact than it should. Even if it's already marketable colors, touch-ups are always a good idea.
Clean. Thoroughly clean. Steam the carpets, wash the floors, make it look like a model home. Pick stuff up too, a mess is a terrible thing for a potential buyer to see. It raises questions about other things, like if you can't be bothered to fold a pile of laundry, can you be bothered to maintain the house?
Display. Take GOOD pictures. Not some cell phone crap. Get a real camera and go high-res. Get good light. These days so much happens online, you can't afford NOT to have good pictures.
Fixtures. You don't have to go full hog on this one, but updating a few older style cabinet handles/shower doors/etc to modern look is cheap and makes a good impression.
Built in 2000, 4 br 2.5 bath colonial.
Good town, good schools.
About 2500 sf. 9 foot ceilings, some cathedral ceilings, lots of windows, nice lot
Houses in our development in our size range go from $550K to $700K depending on the level of upgrades.
Our weakness...The finishes.
---There is neutral carpet in the LR, DR and FR on the first floor, and in all four bedrooms on the second floor. It is clean, but would probably need to be switched out upon changing owners. ---The bathrooms are original to the house. Not horribly old as you can see from the build year, in good shape, very clean, but regardless, not updated.
---The kitchen...It's big. We have nice tile floors. Standard oak cabinets though. The original laminate countertop. Original appliances in a cream color.
We are getting showings, but no offers. The house shows well. It is spotlessly clean, uncluttered, we have nice furniture, nice neutral paint colors.
If we were to do one project to try to increase our success, what would you recommend?
--Granite and new appliances in the kitchen?
--New carpet?
--Wood floors on the first floor (gulp, really don't want to do that one)
--Quick updates of the bathrooms (like maybe throw granite on the counters)
What is the thing(s) that you have seen change a house from a no-go to a possibility for yourself/your clients? Opinions of realtors especially welcome.
Thanks in advance!!!
I just don't get this. The house is 15 years old, not 50. It's not like you are in 1950's Austria trying to sell a house with red, black, and white swastika tile designs in the bathroom. What if you update to last Thursday's HGTV style and suddenly next week they are doing something completely different? Will your potential buyers laugh in your face?
Maybe if you had it built with some creepy colored surfaces everywhere, or it has a triangular bidet, or something like that, but how bad could it be?
I say clean, stage, and last but not least, price it appropriately. Do not make any changes as no matter what change you make some are not going to like it.
You sound like you are questioning if it is overpriced for what it is. If so, you have your answer. It is overpriced for what it is.
Ha ha, we came from a cookie cutter home and on our buyer's inspection report, they complained that we had to fix a "missing light dimmer switch," and replace a "closet light fixture." Talk about people that don't want to do a dang thing when they move in! They did replace the carpet though, so go figure.
When I was looking for homes in a desirable neighborhood, I not only had to deal with cosmetic issues, but faulty foundations, bad electrical work, original old plumbing, asbestos, and the whole nine yards. These were much older homes though, and this town sells a lot. I would have wished my biggest problem was a missing dimmer switch!
It's an inspector's job to report things like that. Those people paid him to find EVERYTHING. And apparently he did.
I just don't get this. The house is 15 years old, not 50. It's not like you are in 1950's Austria trying to sell a house with red, black, and white swastika tile designs in the bathroom. What if you update to last Thursday's HGTV style and suddenly next week they are doing something completely different? Will your potential buyers laugh in your face?
Maybe if you had it built with some creepy colored surfaces everywhere, or it has a triangular bidet, or something like that, but how bad could it be?
It doesn't have to be "bad." But if it doesn't have updates that look-alike houses in the neighborhood have, it's not going to sell if it's priced the same as they are.
A house in my popular 10-year old subdivision, identical to the one I live in, finally sold this summer after being on the market for a couple of months. The people had done some beautiful upgrades, including ripping out the builder's shower in the master and re-doing it with gorgeous tile, niches, expensive plumbing fixtures, etc. They were asking what I thought I could have gotten for my house had I had it on the market right now. I've done plenty of upgrades, but nothing that luxurious. Well, I have to accept that I'm unlikely to get that price if those kind of upgrades didn't sell that house in better time.
I think it all comes down to price and location. Obviously, you can't do anything about location, but you can certainly look at price. If priced correctly, anything will sell. Right now, you're priced too high. You can try to chase the price thru upgrades or simply waiting for the market to come to you; but you still might have to lower your price. You can do that thru actually lowering the price or offering closing help.
My house and neighborhood appeals to young families and first-time homebuyers. The rental market is tight and rents are crazy high. I know my future buyers are going to be extremely busy and cash poor. They will struggle to come up with money down. The houses that are selling are offering cash back at closing. My neighbor just sold and gave $10,000 closing help. Nope, her house wasn't updated. It was clean and staged nicely, but still had original baths and kitchen and an awkward split-level layout.
Houses in my neighborhood were valued at about $350,000. They were larger and on bigger lots than her house. She listed at $360,000 and closing help (left the amount blank). Buyers showed up. She ended up settling for $350,000 + $10,000 in closing help and no repairs. She closed in October.
Incidentally, this information is really easy to find on the internet now with sites like Zillow, etc.
Alternatively, when we were buying, we found a gorgeous, completely updated (to our tastes!) house in our price range. But we hated the location. So we bought an older, more expensive home in need of updates to get the location we wanted. True, it was the least expensive (not by much) of the homes in the neighborhood; but that's what buyers do.
Probably your best move
Buy on the low end of a high dollar neighborhood, that's what we did. It can only go up! We bought our first house for $80K in a neighborhood where houses were going for $120+. It only needed some cosmetic touches, etc. We put 20% down, took15 year mortgage and made double payments, paid for in 5 years. Sold it for $140K, walked way with ~ 50K cash-in-hand! That while other houses in the area were just getting out from under water
Certain things can change enough in 10-15 years that will make a relatively new house look dated. Here there is a subdivision of homes built 13-15 years ago builder default was tile in the kitchen and carpet in the main living areas. Many owners have since then remodeled to granite or quartz counter-tops and more hardwood flooring. So now houses with the original tiles and carpet look a bit dated even though they're not OLD houses at all. In this region and at that price point buyers aren't thrilled with seeing tiled kitchen counters nowadays.
I agree you need to check out the competition by going to their open houses.
I just don't get this. The house is 15 years old, not 50. It's not like you are in 1950's Austria trying to sell a house with red, black, and white swastika tile designs in the bathroom. What if you update to last Thursday's HGTV style and suddenly next week they are doing something completely different? Will your potential buyers laugh in your face?
Maybe if you had it built with some creepy colored surfaces everywhere, or it has a triangular bidet, or something like that, but how bad could it be?
I totally agree with you! That's why we never did any of these updates.
This comment is a good explanation.
Quote:
Certain things can change enough in 10-15 years that will make a relatively new house look dated. Here there is a subdivision of homes built 13-15 years ago builder default was tile in the kitchen and carpet in the main living areas. Many owners have since then remodeled to granite or quartz counter-tops and more hardwood flooring. So now houses with the original tiles and carpet look a bit dated even though they're not OLD houses at all. In this region and at that price point buyers aren't thrilled with seeing tiled kitchen counters nowadays.
I don't see the urgency of ripping out 15-year-old finishes either. My theory is that the renovation cycle has been shortened. Where it was once expected to rip stuff out after 30 years (let's say a cycle of an owner raising a family there), I think that has been shortened to 15 years or so. I think all of the HGTV shows have contributed to this madness. Like when you watch House Hunters and the young couple with a $100,000 budget is complaining there is no granite lol.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Talk about people that don't want to do a dang thing when they move in! They did replace the carpet though, so go figure. 
