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How do you decide whether to sell a house "as is" or fix it up (paint, flooring etc.) before putting on market. Here is our house in a nutshell---- in a usually hot market in West Texas but since oil is down, houses selling slower also time of year is slow....
House is a ranch, 3000 sq ft. 4 bedroom 3 bath in golf course neighborhood. Paid $298k in 2007. It was built in the 1990s, it has never been renovated. It has popcorn ceilings, dull paint and wall paper, carpet is old and worn, tile is ok, counters are not quartz or marble, just plain laminate I guess? It has one small hole in a wall that a plumber had to make to access a pipe so that will have to be dry walled. The house has a two year old roof. Our tax statement says the house should be worth about $420,000 but I doubt it considering it's current condition. So how do you decide if you should fix up the house to put it on the market or sell at a discount and let the new owners pick out the flooring, paint etc? We are not looking to make a ton and we don't really want to live through a renovation but we could have some things done after we move out.....we are about six months out from moving so time is on our side..... Just wondering what the best path forward might be.... Thanks for any advice! Pam
Hi Pam - in my experience (over 225 real estate transaction, majority of them listings), you should aim for a clean, well maintained house when selling. What does clean mean? Often times, clean means new carpet and fresh paint especially if your carpet is old and worn and the paint is dingy and dull. I find that most buyers don't want to have to arrange for carpet to be installed and to find a painter, they just want to move in right after closing. New carpet and fresh paint does wonders for a house! The new owners can tackle kitchen/bathroom renovations at their own pace but with new carpet, fresh paint and an exceptionally clean house they can move in now.
You also don't want buyers pulling into your driveway and immediately starting a "to-do" list. A 2 year old roof is great, how are the gutters, exterior paint and the landscaping? Don't overlook the benefits of power washing your driveway/walkways/patios and cleaning the windows inside and out.
Any maintenance items that need addressing should be tackled before selling such as that hole in your drywall. Any outstanding items such as a slow leaking pipe under a sink, caulking counters/backsplashes/tubs/showers, etc should be fixed.
Find an agent that will be honest with you about the house - little, inexpensive changes can really help such as removing dated window coverings. Often times when people live in a house for a number of years they become blind to things that might be dating their house. Most buyers have a hard time seeing past the negative aspects of a property so they dismiss the property outright - anything you can to mitigate those negatives will help.
I'm not a fan of selling/marketing a house "as-is" unless the house is essentially a tear down as I find that with a fairly minimal upfront investment the seller will see the returns in a higher sales price and a quicker sale. Also, selling/marketing a house "as-is" usually brings out the buyers looking for a deal (i.e. steal).
If you really want to just get out of the house, you can look into some of the "ibuyer" programs that are sprouting up now. I'm not sure what's available in your area but Zillow, Redfin and Opendoor are all companies that have ibuyer programs. ibuyer programs look for houses that need some work, the companies pays under fair market value for the house then fixes up and resells it. Google ibuyer companies if you're at all interested in this option. My one piece of advice if you're considering this route is to pay for an independent appraisal so you have a clear understanding of the value of your property in it's current condition.
OP, when you say "as is" you are likely referring to its current state of paint, carpet, fixtures and cabinets for example. But the words "as is" also have a legal meaning that the house might have serious issues that are not being warranted or disclosed by the seller. This could include foundation problems, code violations or considerable damage which would be red flags to most buyers. So my advice is to avoid saying "as is" if you're really just referring to the current condition of a safe and compliant home.
Where markets are hot, selling "as is" isn't an issue, if the seller is willing to adjust the price. Selling is a competitive market... then the opposite is true, you want to "stand out" in a positive way. Curb appeal is the first impression, so make it good. Try and present a wow as best you can.
Imo, most buyers are looking for as close to move in ready as possible. Your house would not appeal to most buyers. However, it might appeal to a flipper who would do the work needed and then sell for a better price.
If you're not willing to live thru a renovation then you really aren't going to have a choice. Sell it in its present condition and don't look back.
Our old house we lived in for 20 years. The baths and kitchen were dated. We spent the $$ to update (floors, countertops, etc) but we did so 2 years before we planned to move so we could enjoy the upgrades for a bit. We sold it the first weekend it was listed.
Upgrades are a guess if the next buyer will like them. For instance... new floors were installed. Buyer walks in and says the floors have to go... they don't like the noise their dog makes on synthetic floors (clicking toe nails). Better to put down some new area rugs or even new inexpensive carpet. Want to upgrade? New mechanicals are ALWAYS a better investment. New AC unit, new water heater, new roof that sort of thing. No one throws them away. Avoid upgrades of a personal matter.
Paint is always good. Classic colors, nothing crazy. Empty houses are harder to present. White walls or light blue works. resh carpet, no smells.
Flippers aren’t magicians.. move out, have the painting crew arranged before you even move, the flooring guys scheduled later in the week, the professional cleaners and landscaping crew scheduled after that & a professional photographer comes through when everything is complete. The realtor posts the photos on mls on Friday evening so you’re ready for showings on Saturday and Sunday.
Leave the popcorn, btw, buyers don’t like it, but it costs more to remove than you’ll get back. You’re not replacing any tile - get the grout steam-cleaned if necessary, but leave it. - Your agent should have lists of trusted pros to get these things done quickly and at reasonable prices..
With careful planning, I’ve had tenants out on Sunday & my first showings the following Saturday. A 3,000 sq ft house, I’d figure two weeks & expenses of maybe $12k - carpet, paint & lots of miscellaneous items... even a couple percent of additional return on $400k (or an easier sale) makes it worthwhile.
I’d run a home inspector through before moving to get a handyman “punch list” ready to take care of things like the drywall repair, anti-tip brackets on the stove, anti-backflow devices on faucets, all the little crap that inspectors love to ding people on.
Sales is all about “answering objections”, if you’ve went through and answered the obvious objections, all you’ve got to worry about is price, and you’ll have a good “product”, so it’s ok to ask for top dollar. You can usually post “additional documents” to most MLS systems- take credit for whatever you do! Post your pre-sale inspection, receipts for the handyman, painter, flooring guys, etc. It’ll be harder for buyers to even ask for extra freebies if they can see that you went the extra mile to sell a “move in” ready house. Clean, fresh houses sell first and for the best money.
Our tax statement says the house should be worth about $420,000 but I doubt it considering it's current condition.
A tax assessment generally has nothing to do with the potential market price of your house. What you have to look at is recent sales of comparable houses
Quote:
Originally Posted by pammybear
So how do you decide if you should fix up the house to put it on the market or sell at a discount and let the new owners pick out the flooring, paint etc?
That's easy.
You figure out how much your house would sell for fixed up, how much it would cost you to fix it up enough to get top dollar, and how much less you would be willing to take for it if you sold it as is.
Let's say that your house would go for $420,000 fixed up but it would take you $25,000 to get it there. Would you be satisfied to sell it for $395,000? If it would take $50,000 to get it there would you would you be satisfied to sell it for $370,000?
That's how you decide.
There are plenty of people who will buy a fix up as is for an appropriate discount.
Ask your realtor. Generally anything you fix up won't pay off except for selling your house faster. I would slap on a fresh coat of paint (whatever's popular these days), give it a thorough deep clean, stage it well and be done with it.
TBH when I was looking at houses I disregard any mention of new carpet because I was going to replace it with hardwood anyways. The carpet could be two days old or 20 years old, it's coming out regardless. I look for houses that have as little carpet as possible and a wood floor in a color that I can easily match.
When we sold our house in Massachusetts 3 years ago to come to Florida, it was even older than yours and had had zero upgrades, although the roof was recent like yours. It was in great repair and maintained well but the baths, kitchen, flooring, etc were all very dated. We had neutral paint colors already so we didn't have to worry about that.
We did nothing except hire an 'extreme deep cleaning service' and a landscaper; however we also did hire an inspector before we even put it on the market to inform ourselves of anything that we might not be aware of and did several repairs based on his report. It took us a couple of months to sell because it was a bit of a tough market at the time, but we got our asking price (we had to drop it a couple of times because the original realtor's suggestion for listing price was unrealistic), didn't drop a bunch of money in the process and here's the kicker - we sold it to a buyer with a VA loan! The VA inspector told us that it was one of the very few times in his career that a prospective VA property needed NOTHING to pass inspection.
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