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I think what people are trying to tell you, OP, is that it's impossible to quantify this as it depends wholly on the buyer's perspective. AND it depends wholly on what their inspector might say if they get it to that point.
If everything else is in reasonably good shape, and based on your stated location, it is possible it might not be noticed by a potential buyer. In that case, no harm no foul. Or it might be noticed by a very skittish first time buyer and then they have family, friends, co workers who pile on and say "OH MY GOD that means the roof is probably leaking! And that might mean there's mold!"
Or you might be dealing with someone who has bought and sold a lot of homes and doesn't really think it's a big deal. Or someone who is looking "x" dollars above your price point and thinks "Hmmm, I like this house, it's less than we want to spend but that could be a negotiating point if I can get them to think there might be a leak (and even if I have to replace the roof it's far enough below what we want to spend that I don't care if it DOES need a roof").
And so on.
So you're asking for a specific price but that's impossible to answer. Some people might be SCARED OFF ENTIRELY and some people will not give a care but will still use it as a negotiating tactic.
I think your biggest problem is that someone has to reasonably say to themselves "why wouldn't you fix that if you were selling" and the logical leap there is "it's too hard to fix, and do I want to take that on myself" - again depends on the buyer. Maybe someone in the trades will look at your home and think it's NBD. If it were me I'd take the previously posted advice and get some glue and a roller and get it back in place and then paint over it, sounds like it's in a spot where that will not be noticed.
Finally I do not buy that this is a normal wear and tear item, absent something happening behind this, there's no reason a good tape job would come down.
After 15 years, along the ridgeline of a volume ceiling above our stairwell in our great room, some of the drywall tape has come loose - one section of about 3 inches and another section of about 6 inches. I just had another workman tell me that they can't or won't fix this. The job is too small for anyone with the proper equipment. (The spot where the problem is is practically inaccessible except by erecting a scaffold on the stairwell.)
We are aiming to sell our home later this year. I was hoping to clean this up before prospective buyers come through. Given that that is impractical, how much impact would that likely have on the selling price of the home?
If you can erect a scaffold you should be able to set up a extension ladder with stair feet. You can rent those btw. If everything is fine imo the ceiling and all you have is peeling tape you can fix it easily. People overthink the smallest repairs.
Go get a little drywall mud and thin it out with water till it’s like thick pancake batter. Or use as is out of the bag. Put some in a ziplock baggie and cut a tiny hole in one corner. Shape it in a cone shape of that squeeze bag you see bakers make frosting decoration. Put the tip behind the peeling tape and squeeze that mixture behind the peeling tape. Take a wide drywall knife/scraper and run it over the surface to flatten the tape. The excess will squeeze out and you can clean it up with a damp sponge. The drywall mix will harden back and hold the tape back down. You can paint the section if you have the right color.
Even if the exterior stuff flakes off the tape just run that wide fiat scraper over the area with some mud. It’s no different than frosting a cake. You want it as smooth as possible. You can get texture in a can to spray over the repair. A handyman should be able to do it for about $150 bucks
So, a property that is not the most desirable in the area (middle unit townhouse), paint job is old enough that a patch paint repair is likely to stand out. Asking price a bit lower than average, but not so low that it will drive everything before it. Unless you are located in a desirable close-in neighborhood of Atlanta (seems unlikely if you're selling in the $350k range), there are probably plenty of single family houses as an alternative, too.
If I were a buyer, I would probably start out asking for an allowance for a new roof or repairs (that might be $3-5k), but I'd probably settle for $500-800 to cover the drywall repair and repainting (that would cover the cost to have a wide-awake painter do it, but not to have a luxury overpriced painter do it; and it would certainly cover the cost for me to do it myself.
I think you need to talk to some actual painters, not generic handymen, as painters with extensive experience will have seen things like this before. Also tell them that you're going to be selling the house and so you want it done as cheaply as possible. You don't care if the tape comes loose a year after you've left.
Personally I'd probably build a little platform on the stairs and then put a tall stepladder on that and work with rollers with poles. You can always anchor a temporary platform to the studs in the walls and then patch the few holes with some spackling paste and a little touch-up with wall paint.
Are you confident there is not an underlying problem such as a leak in the roof or condensation causing the drywall issue? Do you actually have any evidence either way?Interesting question. Yes, we're sure that there is no underlying problem. There was a leak about 20 feet away, and not on the ridgeline - it was the dryer vent pipe. That leak was repaired, new plywood and all, and the entire roof inspected to ensure that was the only issue. This was very recently. I was under the impression that presenting evidence would call too much attention to a possible problem than it would assuage buyers' fears - no?
I wouldn't say anything unless it came up, for sure.
Also, if you choose not to repair, I would recommend against discounting the price up front. The savvy buyer will disregard your statements that "that's included in the price" and will press for an allowance anyway. Most people like to find something that they can use to knock a bit off the price anyway, so maybe this will be the thing.
Personally, I'd try rigging it with wallpaper adhesive on a really long pole, letting that dry and slapping some touch up paint over it.
It'd probably hold for a few months.
lol that what I'd do, except I'd actually get a small jar of mud.
I actually painted a very high corner that was about 8 feet x 4 inches with a paint brush duct taped to a very long pole and stood on a ladder. It wasn't as good as if I were on scaffolding, but from 15 feet away, no one knows the difference.
OP, go to home depot and get a very long painting pole and a small taping knife to apply the mud.
Other option, post on craigslist as a gig for someone to do. Pay someone $100 to spend an hour to do this.
Your posting history suggests that you only dealt with institutional investors, not the common buyer.
The market has also changed dramatically in the past decade, mostly due to the HGTV effect, wherein every buyer thinks they can do anything with a simple kit from Home Depot.
As said before, I was an investment Broker, buying, selling, and exchanging property for investors. I had a part time handyman to do my work, and others he supervised. He had 25 years experience, being head of maintenance for a huge investment company over many large apartment complexes. There was nothing he could not do.
I loved properties like OP has, that had hard to fix problems such as OP has. After many many months on the market the owners would ask me to buy them, and I would get them cheap enough, an investor could buy them, bought as a principal not as an agent without commission, and have my people fix them, then make a substantial profit, not just a commission. We fixed them right, not as so many flippers do. Most years, I bought and sold more houses this way than most agents in the area.
Best day selling houses was when a 20 year in the business broker and a small but good builder came to see me. Broker owned a small in fill track of lots for 13 two be built lots. I had a couple of modifications including 4 ft. chain link fence around back yards. They needed half to be pre-sold before they could get construction money. They offered me a low price investors could afford. I went back to my office, and found a couple waiting with a problem. This was Friday, and their VA financed would be a repo on Monday. I went and saw a perfectly maintained home. We agreed to a price, no commission. I called the VA office, and as they knew me gave me loan balance and amount needed to assume loan, and sent me the assumption papers to be filled out and signed on Monday.
I got on the phone to investors and every call was a sale of 2 to 5 homes to an investors. Sold 14 homes in 2 hours. By 5 p.m. all under signed contract. I understand that record still stands in that county. Very few agents sell 14 homes in a year, let alone 14 in 1 day.
I also listed and let other offices sell many homes, when investors sold off some. I do know buyers better than most house salespeople do. I had to, to be successful.
Remember, 20% of agents sell 80% to 85% of all homes sold. Also 80% of agents entering the business will leave the business due to not making enough sales to make a living.
I do know what is going on in the business, as I dabble in the business now and then, when I can make a nice profit as a principal, not as an agent.
Got a fifth estimate today from a second professional painter, the original outfit that fixed this problem when they painted the entire interior several years ago. $1000 minimum (and so far he's the only outfit willing to do the work). His professional advice: Don't bother. He says that there's no way it'll ever affect the sales price of the house anywhere near enough to justify the cost of the repair (though he'd love the business), and that the few buyers who would walk away based on this perhaps would have found something else wrong to justify walking away if this problem wasn't there.
It sure would have been nice if this thread could have provided actual insights I could have used to put that $1000 estimate in context, but sadly some people would rather stroke their own egos rather than be helpful, or even allow a thread they don't care for to go on unimpeded by their disruption.
Got a fifth estimate today from a second professional painter, the original outfit that fixed this problem when they painted the entire interior several years ago. $1000 minimum (and so far he's the only outfit willing to do the work). His professional advice: Don't bother. He says that there's no way it'll ever affect the sales price of the house anywhere near enough to justify the cost of the repair (though he'd love the business), and that the few buyers who would walk away based on this perhaps would have found something else wrong to justify walking away if this problem wasn't there.
It sure would have been nice if this thread could have provided actual insights I could have used to put that $1000 estimate in context, but sadly some people would rather stroke their own egos rather than be helpful, or even allow a thread they don't care for to go on unimpeded by their disruption.
Isn't what you're saying here exactly what people were trying to tell you across 60+ odd posts? Because I'm pretty sure there are 60-some posts worth of people trying to tell you exactly what you've typed here.
I mean, did you really drag out the owners or their designated estimators from FIVE different companies who all told you that it really wasn't worth the effort or the time and to save your money???? I mean, maybe after dragging out the 2nd guy and wasting his time you would've taken the hint. Dragging out the subsequent ones was perhaps a little rude.
Consider yourself lucky though: you have some VERY honest contractors in your town. Take it as a blessing for them to turn down money like that , but they're obviously too busy to worry about working for a worry wart who would bug them the whole time and nickel-&-dime them in the end. They know and can sense it.
Isn't what you're saying here exactly what people were trying to tell you across 60+ odd posts?
No. What I asked was for insights that would provide me tools I could use to assess how worthwhile was the dollar amount I would have to pay for the repair. What I got was a lot of careless back-seat driving, bombastically telling me what to do instead of providing useful insights I could use to decide for myself what I should do.
Moreover, what the rude posters in this thread were telling me (fix it) was the opposite of what the professional painter told me (don't fix it) and the opposite of what you are now saying was the obvious answer.
The fact that you couldn't tell the difference between X and Not-X shows just how damaging was the rude disruption of the thread. But thanks for helping to underscore that point.
No. What I asked was for insights that would provide me tools I could use to assess how worthwhile was the dollar amount I would have to pay for the repair. What I got was a lot of careless back-seat driving, bombastically telling me what to do instead of providing useful insights I could use to decide for myself what I should do.
Moreover, what the rude posters in this thread were telling me (fix it) was the opposite of what the professional painter told me (don't fix it) and the opposite of what you are now saying was the obvious answer.
The fact that you couldn't tell the difference between X and Not-X shows just how damaging was the rude disruption of the thread. But thanks for helping to underscore that point.
You do realize that both your participation and our participation in this forum is voluntary, or do you?
If you ask strangers on the internet a question and you don't get the answer you want in the format you want, it ill behooves you to scold us as if we were disobedient children or recalcitrant employees.
Frankly, after the attitude you've shown here I don't think I'd walk across the street to p$%^ on you if you were on fire.
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, but they're obviously too busy to worry about working for a worry wart who would bug them the whole time and nickel-&-dime them in the end. They know and can sense it.
