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We'll probably be putting the house up for sale within the next few months.
The carpet is 14 years old. It's not in bad shape, it's been cleaned regularly, but it's definitely "used". Likewise, the paint is OK (everything is white), but once again, it definitely doesn't have that new-paint look. It's 14 years old, too.
I'm seeking opinions on whether it's better to paint and re-carpet or offer an "allowance" to help the new owner pick out their own. If I put down new plush, what would be my chances of the prospective owner thinking, "Yeah, it's new but I really would have liked Berber instead." In the same thought, if I painted the inside a nice bright white again, would the new owner move in and want to repaint all the bedrooms blue?
Is offering an allowance a good sales hook? Would offering this allowance also sway the prospective owner who might think the carpet and walls are fine for now, but would in turn use the money maybe to upgrade appliances?
We haven't started interviewing agents yet, and I'll definitely ask the agent these questions, but thought I'd get some opinions from you all first.
if I was selling I would paint and recaroet. It’s the two most visually impacting items in your house that are seeen by any buyer. And it’s two less things for them to whine about and less ammo when the negotiation starts.
You don’t need to get high end carpet. And if you hav3 time you can paint yourself cheaply
Hmm, lots of opinions probably. I would be more inclined to paint a nice light neutral to freshen everything up but leave the carpet. Paint is easy, inexpensive, but it's also not an overwhelming crisis for someone who likes the house overall. If there's an obvious carpet stain/damage that buyers will notice I might offer a flooring allowance or wait to see if they bring it up in an offer. Consider it a negotiable in the back of your mind. It might or might not come up. Many buyers replace flooring almost as a matter of course either because they don't like the color or they hate carpet in general. Why try to second guess what a buyer would want to pick out? If you put down cheap new carpet it could still just get ripped out. Where does all that material go? Into a landfill somewhere. There's too much of that sort of waste already.
Last edited by Parnassia; 11-22-2018 at 11:45 PM..
To me, an allowance is just an admission that you know the carpet is bad but don't want to/can't replace it. It's not sales hook that tempts me like a house in good condition would tempt me.
I would re-do both if you can. I've tried to sell with old carpet and dinged-up walls and another time after we had spruced up, and having shabby walls and floors makes your home a markdown house the minute they walk in.
Have the carpet professionally cleaned and then price the home to reflect the condition of the carpet. Or replace it with mid-grade new carpet. Flooring is a big expense that is best replaced before moving in, so the buyers would consider bad carpet a negative. Older carpet also can hold odors that the homeowners aren't able to detect.
As for the paint, it would make a big difference if you can repaint, but unless you have incredibly bright colors, it won't be a deal-breaker.
I would repaint and replace the carpet. When we sold our house, I wanted to remove the carpet because we had beautiful hardwood floors underneath, but my hsuband didn't want to. We ended up removing the living room and dining room carpet to show off the floors. We left the upstairs and the people who were buying the house immediately wanted to remove the upstairs carpet. I would also have removed the wallpaper, which the buyers were going to also remove immediately.
I think even if the house didn't sell for more, it would have sold faster.
If it was me, I would definitely paint and re-carpet - not to say the new buyer won't redo, but it will help you sell your house if you present it as clean and having been maintained. Paint and carpet can convey that.
We are getting ready to put our house on the market within the next few months and we need to replace the carpet in both bedrooms upstairs and the finished basement and stairs going down. It isn't even a second thought, it needs to be done and I want the house to sell as quickly as possible for the best price as possible. I will also be painting the downstairs (upstairs was painted 2.5 years ago).
Last house we sold (3 years ago) we had the interior painted and did a lot of other work that added up to about $5K worth of stuff, including having the almost new carpets cleaned twice, once a month before listing and once 10 days before listing. Originally we were told we could list it for $219,000 in a very hot market. When the work was done, we listed for $249,000 and it sold a day later for $251,000. It's worth the investment to make the house look as good as you can!
Looking at this from the perspective of a buyer, I wouldn't expect a used house to look new. If the carpet and paint were unblemished, but 14 years old, I wouldn't have any concern. But I'm a guy, easily pleased and not a perfectionist about my living quarters. Some buyers will be persnickety about such issues, but if you are selling a nice property at a fair price, there will be someone like me who will buy it. The story by a poster of turning a $5,000. improvement investment into a $32,000. increase in sales price, I don't think is a common result.
A neighbor put in a herculean effort to repair, improve and fancy-up an older house, for years, before selling it. The sale price, in my opinion, was not much more than if they'd just fixed things that needed it and left everything else as it was. I'd expected that it would bring a much higher price, but some houses, of a style, size and location, have a maximum value. You have to consider all those things, when you calculate your pre-sale improvement budget.
To me, an allowance is just an admission that you know the carpet is bad but don't want to/can't replace it. It's not sales hook that tempts me like a house in good condition would tempt me.
I would re-do both if you can. I've tried to sell with old carpet and dinged-up walls and another time after we had spruced up, and having shabby walls and floors makes your home a markdown house the minute they walk in.
Have the carpet professionally cleaned and then price the home to reflect the condition of the carpet. Or replace it with mid-grade new carpet. Flooring is a big expense that is best replaced before moving in, so the buyers would consider bad carpet a negative. Older carpet also can hold odors that the homeowners aren't able to detect.
As for the paint, it would make a big difference if you can repaint, but unless you have incredibly bright colors, it won't be a deal-breaker.
I disagree on replacing the carpet. Many people don’t want carpet at all and would rather not have to rip out a brand new carpet or pay a marked up price to get a carpet they don’t want. Simply get it professionally cleaned and then allow the buyer to decide what type of flooring they want to put in. My sister just bought a new home and it had new carpet over an old asbestos flooring that had to be removed, so it was basically just extra costs for removal/disposal of the carpet on top of the asbestos flooring. The walls are definitely worth it to repaint a nice neutral though.
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