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Ok, I guess I have been watching way too much HGTV, but we have had our house on the market since Thanksgiving and I like to watch the real estate shows. The house we are trying to sell was a spec home that we bought from the builder 2 years ago. While the house has some upgrades the bathroom light fixtures are the basic silver shiny rectangle with round ball lights. Would dressing up the bathroom light fixtures make much of a difference for buyers and is it worth the $$? There are things that we can't afford to fix like getting granite instead of laminate counter tops but should we go ahead and upgrade the things we can or is that a waste of time and money? Any advice would be appreciated. We are desperate to sell!!!
Your home; is it like many others in the neighborhood? What does your home look like from the outside? Is it different from the others or the same builder landscaping? In your home; do you have neutral decor or colored walls in different rooms? I'd look at those areas first to spend the money. You need to separate yourselves from others in the neighborhood.
It wouldn't deter me from buying a house, but it seems cosmetics bother many house hunters. There are probably other issues that need to be addressed....marketing, price, etc...
Honestly, unless they are hanging from the wiring I don't even notice things like bathroom light fixtures. Cosmetics are not what is important to me in a house.
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
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Lightfixtures are relatively inexpensive to replace (compared to other things) but I don't care if the home has 1980's brass, it is cosmetic and it doesn't mean anything to me as a buyer. Neither does granite.
I concur with the other posters. Bath lights are no big deal, and very
easy to replace. We are buying a new home that has the same light
you describe,and plan to replace ASAP.
I'm totally outnumbered here, but will chime in with a different perspective.
The only thing I have against "builder grade" fixtures, flooring, doors, etc. is that for me as a buyer, it starts me wondering what else the owners/builder cheaped out on. It plants a nagging doubt about the property in my mind.
We recently sold and spruced our place way up beforehand. By the time we got to the bathroom fixtures, we had ZERO money left, but I trudged out to Lowes and then Home Depot to find something that wouldn't give the impression that we didn't care. The fixture was still pretty low end cost-wise, but it didn't automatically betray itself as low end.
Considering all the opinions to the contrary here, I may be totally nuts (seriously), but in this challenging market, I tried to remove any and all "speed bumps" in my own home before listing it.
Definition of speed bump: Any detail that stops your head from nodding yes, yes, yes, yes, check, check, check, check.
We had the same lights in our guest bathroom. I hated them for years and figured a potential buyer might hate them too. Was thinking about going to Home D and getting a new fixture but got extremely lucky one day at a Habitat For Humanity place. Found a very pretty one with 5 tulip lights in silver with gold trim (unbelieveably just like the towel bar, switch plates, and toliet paper holder we already had) for $20! It didn't look brand spanking new but cleaned it up and it looks beautiful in there now.
Hopefully you can also find a nice used replacement for not much. Do you have a Habitat for Humanity place to shop? How about your Craigslist?
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