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I would NEVER leave the carpet like that unless the rest of the house was in "fixer" status, too.
Sends a bad message.
As a buyer, I'd pass on the house unless I were price shopping and willing to take on a fixer whether that's true or not.
As a dog walker, NONE Of my clients live with that kind of carpet so no, the seller can't have a good excuse for it.
I'd replace it with cheap neutral carpet.
Let the buyer replace if they want. It'll be one less thing they have to spend on at first. And much less trouble than dealing with the "dreaded laminate" that everyone claims they hate.
Whatever he replaces it with, get rid of the carpet. Buyers will see that and think "fix immediately." New carpet or laminate, if not to their liking, at least an be lived with for a while.
Out here laminate is highly preferred over carpet as we have a huge dog/pet culture out here. Here it would be a no-brainer to install laminate and remove the carpet.
^^ this .. but I am just up the road in Seattle .. I HATE carpet . Higher quality laminate for me .
I see these shows on tv - especially the one with Tarek and his model wife - and they renovate some high end homes and put in laminate. Saying things like oh you have to use high end custom things in this or that neighborhood.
I'm a wood purist so I can't imagine high end equaling laminate. I do know there are some nice looking laminate floors...and some people seem to love that look that appears like the rippling of wood when it's been in water a while.
Yes, some laminate can be very cheep.
However, there are lots of homes being built with laminate floors.
You need to find out what in the particular area of your friend's house is well regarded. Take a look at some homes in the area that are comparable...and maybe a couple that are a little step above.
I can see some laminate when you want to give a nod to the real thing while raising several children. But...making an impression on the buyer (even one with several children) can be another thing entirely.
That said, I have to say things that are messy about a house can bring people down subconsciously and emotionally...as well as consciously, of course. Thereby, the people just get turned off.
The funny thing is you can work and work on a project with little or no compliments. But just one thing messy...low offers and bad comments.
TOTALLY untrue. And how rude calling the wife "his model wife". She's not a model - she's a realtor just like him - and they are business partners and if anything, SHE carries more weight than him. NOTHING gets bought or spent or done in those houses unless she says so and she's normally the one who makes them knock out walls and change the whole floorplan.
First of all, on that show, they aren't "renovating" and restoring houses like a homeowner might - they're flippers specializing in the market who LOVE the laminate. Although I happen to think they do a much better job in terms of design and quality than most homeowners would. Usually their buyers are entry level. Usually the worst house in the neighborhood that might even normally be a teardown. Generally the whole thing is usually a gut job. They use good design techniques with laminate AND TILE and countertops, bathrooms and cabinets etc that SELL. They also use HARDWOOD. Not ONLY hardwood floors but also custom wood cabinets.
They price the flip according to the comps like any other realtors and you even see them doing walk- throughs of comps and they have laminate, too.
The "model" wife - who makes 99% of the design decisions - ALWAYS wants to spend more and upgrade materials when appropriate. And if they can't use more expensive materials they'll do a unique design like turn white subway tile the opposite direction or add an expensive border to make it more interesting. That's sort of the joke of the show that she's the spender and he's the cheap one. It's REALITY TV with a formula, you know.
It's not like their crew "forgets" to inspect the circuit breaker and magically discovers it's worthless half way through the reno. It's semi scripted that way to make the show interesting.
It's not This Old House.
Just last night was a rerun of Season 4 Ep12 of a high end million dollar property and the only debate after the husband complaining about the high cost of the wood was over taking the $9.00 SQ FT WOOD versus the $16.00 SQ FT WOOD. Their normal laminate is $3.00 Sq Ft.
Using hardwood flooring cost $30,000. 1500 SqFT. Rehab costs were $140K.
They ALWAYS put hardwood in the high end houses they flip. Where they cut back is to put carpet on the stairs usually instead of wood. Depending on the layout of the house, they may put tile in the kitchen.
They also use a granite or marble full slab instead of engineered in the higher end homes and even in some of the starter homes to make a good design statement. And quartz of course.
If you watch the show you would know that.
Also snarky of you to claim laminate always looks wavy and people are too ignorant to see it? I guess you don't go in many houses like I do as a dog walker.
I installed laminate in a RENTAL APARTMENT I lived in in an expensive high rise in Jacksonville. It cost me $2800 for a 700 SF unit and THAT unit is the most popular one in the 38 floor building. WAIT LISTED year after year - because of the flooring and being on the pool level. It wasn't "wavy".
Alternatively you get carpet that the management company replaces for $500.00 per unit in between leases.
I had a client in a condo there he bought in 2007 for 800K. Gorgeous hardwood flooring. He HATED it. He said he regretted it and much preferred his old laminate in his other house. Of course, he had a dog, too.
Yes there are different ranges of laminate and some is thicker and more high quality than others.
We can be snarky about quality of "hardwood" too, ya know.
Like my mother's custom milled wood tongue and groove flooring would laugh at most people's Home Depot "hardwood" planks. It was a custom job because her house belonged to a builder who knew a thing or two about quality.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 08-07-2016 at 08:06 AM..
Colleague is looking to sell and was sharing a story on how his realtor advised he leave the torn up carpet (he has 3 kids, a dog, and a cat), rather than installing laminate. I guess the realtor said there would be a significantly large number of buyers that would be deterred from putting in an offer if they saw laminate flooring, rather than seeing the tattered carpeting. He doesn't have money to replace the carpet (it's a large family room) but the laminate is cheap and he could install himself. He could also tile but realtor advised him not to do that as it wouldn't fit the style of the home or the neighborhood.
I'm kind of confused (as was my colleague, hence him sharing the story with us at lunch trying to get other opinions), because I would think a ripped up carpet would mean a buyer wanting to offer lower price due to needing to replace carpet. Or some buyers may think the seller didn't take good care of the home and may not consider buying.
Is there really such a knee-jerk reaction to laminate? Personally I love Pergo. Lived in a home that had it and the stuff was nearly indestructible. It took a beating but looked just as good the day we left as it did the day we moved in and it was a few years old when we moved in.
What would you think? Is tattered up carpeting better for selling? Or laminate?
Pergo can offer some great flooring.
But, if carpeting the room is more expensive than laminate, his laminate choice is too cheap for a large family room.
What is in the rest of the house? Carpet? Laminate?
Make the room complementary to the rest of the house. If other rooms are carpet, carpet is appropriate.
If other rooms are wood, wood is appropriate.
I would hesitate to introduce cheap laminate into a single room of a house and be out of step with the rest of the house.
I don't like allowances, because they just give the parties just one more thing to talk about.
But, if he cannot afford quality floor covering, an allowance may be his best bet.
He just needs to know that we can talk about allowances all day, but a significant number of buyers may be deterred with their wonder if the house is poorly maintained when they see torn carpet and the offer of an allowance.
All real estate markets are local. Laminate is a no-no in my market unless it's really high end.
In any house, you want a fresh coat of paint and cosmetically perfect flooring when you list it since that's the cheap cosmetic improvement that will always get your money back. You want your flooring choices to be appropriate to the comps in your market. If builder grade carpet and builder grade laminate flooring works, use that. Any realtor knows what the comps have. If they mostly have hardwood and better grade carpet like in my market, you use that.
Flooring allowance or no, I would not leave floors in poor condition and expect to get top dollar. Everyone has different tastes, for some laminate is OK and for some, they hate it. All your friend can do is make it as appealing as they can within their budget, my vote would be for neutral carpeting. In our home, I put real hardwood throughout the living space, the bedrooms were carpeted. Over the years, we put laminate in the "kid's" rooms, and left our master carpeted, the realtor has suggested to us to buy inexpensive carpeting and carpet all the bedrooms the same, for a clean consistent look.
Much worse, though, is tile living room floors, which has become so common these days.
And the worst of the worst for me are "slip and fall" saltillo tiles, which are a major deal breaker for me.
Totally terrific floor in the photo, with a few Oriental or folk rugs with latex pads you can quit worrying about slipping. Where I live all floors are tile in all houses and apartments, as are some walls. Wonderful to get away from the plainess of that I associate with the basic U.S. home.
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