How much to prep house for sale?

[Cat-tirement]

We are 1 to 5 years away from ER (hopefully closer to the lower end). We already own our future retirement home. I am starting to think ahead to what we should do in the line of improvements and repairs to prepare our current house for sale. What would be best for us to work on over the next couple of years to facilitate the sale, and what will have minimal impact to making a sale? Obviously, we would prefer to keep the costs down, as we will not be here long term to enjoy the investment.

We bought our current house new in 1993. A couple of kitchen appliances have been replaced, and we had a new roof put on last year, and central A/C the year before. It still has the original carpet and vinyl flooring. The vinyl is still in good shape, though a bit dated now. There is not a lot of wear on most of the carpet, but areas are faded and there are pet stains in a number of places. (DW has suggested replacing some of the carpet with hardwood.) There are several drywall cracks, mostly at wall/ceiling junctions. A few double pane windows have lost their seal, and sometimes get internal condensation. There is an outside set of stairs leading from the driveway to the back yard, built from landscape timbers that are starting to rot away.

I've seen some folks suggest providing an "allowance" to potential buyers to help them do some improvements and replacements to suit themselves. We might also consider pricing it lower to help it move without spending much on improvements. If it would be helpful, we could have the house vacant before putting it up for sale.

So, opinions anyone? Particularly those who have been through house sales in the last couple of years.

 

[Katsmeow]

I've sold in the last few years. One website that I really recommend for discussing these issues is the GardenWeb Buying and Selling Homes discussion:

Buying and Selling Homes Forum - GardenWeb

In our case, we did work beforehand that equated to about 5% or so of our final sale price. That has been fairly typical of the houses we have sold.

So some random thoughts:

1. Buyers as a group have no imagination. Not only can they not imagine a house with a new carpet, they can't imagine a room painted a different color and so on. The first house we were trying to sell I gave a carpet allowance (carpet was in good shape, but not a color many would like). We got nowhere with it. People didn't like our color choices and even though the house was in great shape we got no offers. We took the house off the market for a year or two. Then we recarpeted the whole house in builder's grade beige carpet (our original carpet was much nicer), repainted the whole house in neutral colors, including painting over all wallpaper. We went through and did some staging of the house (more about that below). We sold the first day the house went on the market and for a far higher price than we were listed at two years before.

Bottom line - I think it will almost always pay to replace worn carpet. Most people can't get past it.

2. Most people don't like allowances. They don't want the hassle factor of having to replace the carpet, or repaint, or whatever. They want the house in move in condition. If you absolutely won't replace carpet that needs replacing (or can't do it), then you are far better off reducing the price from the get go rather than offering an allowance. Bear in mind, that the amount you will have to reduce the price will likely be far more than it would have cost you to replace the carpet.

3. Look at the competition. When deciding what work to do or not do to sell a house look at your competition. Does your competition all have hardwood floors? Does your competition mostly have carpet? Does your competition have vinyl? It is like the argument of whether to put in granite or laminate for sale purposes. In my opinion, this is all about what is expected in your neighborhood/price range.

In most cases, hardwood floors are nice to have but aren't necessarily expected except in expensive houses. I can't envision any neighborhood where hardwood floors would be expected, but vinyl floors would also be acceptable. That is, vinyl flooring is not really acceptable in most neighborhoods that would expect hardwoods. So - if vinyl is OK for your neighborhood - then the cost of hardwood flooring would be something you would never recoup and would be unnecessary to sell your house. If it was me, from what you say, I would recarpet the house with a builder's grade neutral color. The vinyl is a closer question and depends on where it is located. If it is in bathroom/utility room and it is common in your neighborhood then it could be fine to keep. On the other hand, it might not be that expensive to replace with an inexpensive ceramic tile.

4. One of the biggest things to getting a house ready for sale is to declutter and remove anything that doesn't enhance your chances of selling the house. People really do expect houses to look like model homes. You can pay someone to help you stage or do some reading about it and do it yourself. But, a lot of it is just removing stuff and making what is left look more like a model home.

5. Having the house vacate before selling will, in most cases, be more beneficial to buyers than to the seller. For a buyer, it is nice to be able to see the unvarnished house and easily see every gouge in the wall, every nail hole, every spot on the floor. But, remember, buyers as a group have no imagination. They can't imagine the house with furniture in it and they will usually compare a vacant house unfavorably to a house that is cleaned up, decluttered and staged appropriately. However, if you can't bring yourself to do any of that and would otherwise sell the house while it is cluttered and doesn't show off well - then maybe selling it vacant is an improvement. When we were buying, I saw so many houses where sellers just made no effort to declutter and make the house look nice. I kept wondering what they were thinking....

6. Obviously some of this depends on the price range you are talking about. What you would spend to get a $700,000 house ready is different than you spend for a $100,000 house. But, based solely on what you have said, I would replace the carpet, look at the competition on the vinyl flooring and decide on that, I would look at what it would cost to fix the windows and I would repair the outside stairs.

 

[Cedar]

My suggestion would be to have your home inspected by a professional inspector. That way you will know if there are any problems that need to be dealt with for financing prior to selling your home. Should cost between $350-$400. Paint is inexpensive and I can not emphasize a very clean house during marketing. Good luck

 

[Mulligan]

Kat has some very strong points. Yes, the average buyer has no imagination, and are looking for move in condition instead of allowances, as they want to be done after the move is completed. Perfect example is myself. The first time I looked to buy a house in the mid 90s, I laughed at a house that I told my dad the agent had the nerve to show me. I told him it was listed for $32,000 ( low cost area) had nasty kitchen carpet, yellow walls, and had lattice nailed on the wall and had sat on the market for over 3 years. He said that is the type of house to buy as it is only cosmetic. We bought it for $30k, painted the house, put vinyl in kitchen, and new carpet in the rest of the house. A career move forced us to move 10 months after buying it. I sold it for $55,000 in less than 30 days. I did this two other times, structurally strong house that just needed a cosmetic facelift and always made good money and a fast resale.
It's amazing how a small cosmetic flaw can ruin a potential buyers attitude toward a house. Make sure the outside looks clean and presentable so they do not have a bad attitude about the house before they enter it. It's easy to let minor things slide in the home you live in, but a buyer won't always see it that way.

 

[dcmmsu]

We recently sold our house in the Dallas area. 6 months before the sale, we paid for a home inspection and knocked everything major off the list. That, plus removing clutter and fresh paint, it sold in the first day. I think it was a little bit of good timing as well.

 

[Fermion]

One thing I am considering (we are in a similar situation but need a pretty good bit of prep to get the house in great shape) is how much I have to double pay for improvements.

We are in a high sales tax state 9.8% which also charges a excise tax on the sale of the home to the seller of 1.7%. On top of that you owe the agent 7%.

So say you had $50,000 in improvements, repairs. You pay $5,000 in sales tax and if you recoup the $50,000 in the sale price, you will pay an extra $3500 in commissions and $850 in excise tax.

Thus for the $50,000 you put in, if you only gain $50,000 in sales price, you actually lost $9350.

Perhaps reduce the price of the house by $60,000 and sell as-is?

 

[Midpack]

I composed a long reply and somehow lost it. Fortunately, my post was almost identical to Katsmeow above, so a big +1.

I've been researching the same topic as we expect to sell in the next few years. My sister was in real estate, and she too would agree with Katsmeow's reply almost word for word re: lack of imagination, allowance negatives, competing houses, using an inspector or realtor to make suggestions, decluttering/staging, etc.

Most people don't want allowances, especially working couples who don't have time to deal with renovations, they want turnkey. And what you think is a reasonable allowance most likely won't be enough. My Dad says he plans to include a $15K allowance to update their 70's kitchen - it would take at least double that (we competed a kitchen reno last summer, so we know).

If you try to sell as house as is, or skimp too much on updating, you'll have to discount the house more than you think and your field of potential buyers will also be narrower. You might get lucky, but the odds are against it. We updated our 2-1/2 baths, and redid the kitchen floor-to-ceiling last summer, money well spent by most accounts. Best of luck...

 

[gardenfun]

+1 to what Katsmeow and Midpack have advised. Unless you're in a neighborhood where there are a lot of buyers looking to buy a cosmetic fixer and flip it, I would focus on the "turnkey" buyer pool.
And I would do the remodeling sooner rather than later, so that you can enjoy it yourselves before retiring and selling!

 

[bizlady]

We are putting our house on the market at the end of Feb. Have been preparing for 6 months. Replaced the kitchen floor which was worn, and some back stairs carpet to a workroom with indoor/outdoor as it was circa 1970's orange.

Had purchased stainless fridge and stove last year before we decided to sell, so replaced Dishwasher also to match.

Painted ceilings in kitchen and bath. Walked through the house and did touch up painting where needed. House primarily neutral colors on walls and floors. Other than that, declutter, clean, and repeat.

We opted not to have an inspection. House is in good shape, but we found out that if you have an inspection and find something unknown, then it must be disclosed.

Hoping for a quick sell, and will price aggressively to that end.

 

[Fermion]

This has not been my experience with past houses and friends with houses.

I had a friend with a house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses. He spent $80,000 on a new roof, new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom. He listed the house for $290,000, it sat for 12 months while he lowered the price, finally selling it for $210,000.

I am guessing he could have sold it in about a month at $120,000 to some diy couple.

 

[savory]

+1 to what Katsmeow and Midpack have advised. Unless you're in a neighborhood where there are a lot of buyers looking to buy a cosmetic fixer and flip it, I would focus on the "turnkey" buyer pool.
And I would do the remodeling sooner rather than later, so that you can enjoy it yourselves before retiring and selling!

+1 - you saved me writing the same response.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We opted not to have an inspection. House is in good shape, but we found out that if you have an inspection and find something unknown, then it must be disclosed.

We interviewed a realtor once who wanted us to have every kind of inspection known to man. A competing realtor told us she wanted the inspections to protect herself - if we had them all we would have a laundry list of things we'd have to legally disclose about our house.

We are going to paint inside and out, replace or carpet over a few worn floors, take care of the pest report items and spruce up the front yard. I am tired even thinking about how much we have to declutter but what we have done so far does feel good.

We plan to really downsize and travel so having that coming up has saved us a lot of money. I think twice now about buying anything new that isn't a consumable when I have so much junk to get rid of as it is.

 

[Mulligan]

This has not been my experience with past houses and friends with houses. I had a friend with a house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses. He spent $80,000 on a new roof, new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom. He listed the house for $290,000, it sat for 12 months while he lowered the price, finally selling it for $210,000. I am guessing he could have sold it in about a month at $120,000 to some diy couple.

When you get into major costs like you listed, I would bet you are correct. From what I understand a new roof never adds additional value to a home, and remodels of any room rarely bring a dollar for dollar payback. Paint, cheaper new carpet install, caulking the cracks in edges of the drywall, rotted steps, and fogged windows in my opinion are the best bang for the buck.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Fix those windows, as Mulligan suggests, since the windows will never look clean with the condensation inside. They will kill your clean, turn-key look for sure. We replaced a few (kept the frames, just replaced the glass panels) with dual-pane Low-E glass, and will soon replace a few more. That glass insulates really well.

If DW thinks hardwoods, then I'd go with her instinct on that one. Hardwoods, or engineered woods, make a great first impression, but as others have said, a lot depends on your area and your buyers. Carpet is out around these parts.

We are in a situation similar to yours and have been doing some fixing up along the way: remodeled a small bath, gave the kitchen a facelift, and just put on a new roof. It was a 25-year roof with 28 years on it. It added great curb appeal and is an upgrade from the roofs around us and is like the ones on houses in the more expensive neighborhood adjacent to us. We won't have to worry about putting a roofing allowance out there if we do list the house.

Our next big project: hardwoods. After visiting many open houses, DH has said repeatedly how he feels about opening a front door and seeing an expanse of clean wood floors. We currently have birch--too soft for our dog lifestyle -- and those floors have taken a beating over 11 years. We're replacing them with acacia.

Once the floors are done, if we haven't listed this year, then we're going whole hog on the kitchen. As Gardenfun says, we're fixing up with a view to resale someday, but we will enjoy the house while we're here.

We haven't moved yet, and we may never move.

 

[Midpack]

This has not been my experience with past houses and friends with houses.

I had a friend with a house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses. He spent $80,000 on a new roof, new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom. He listed the house for $290,000, it sat for 12 months while he lowered the price, finally selling it for $210,000.

I am guessing he could have sold it in about a month at $120,000 to some diy couple.

No one said you could expect to get 100% back on reno costs (and a new roof is expected maintenance). The owner knew (or should have) that $290K was not going to fly on a $200K neighborhood. You'd have to know what they actually had in the house, neighborhood average plus reno costs doesn't mean much. And they made $10K more than had they sold it for $120K as-is, and odds are they'd have waited a long time vs offering a turnkey house at a reasonable listing price to begin with.

 

[ERD50]

...
Our next big project: hardwoods. After visiting many open houses, DH has said repeatedly how he feels about opening a front door and seeing an expanse of clean wood floors. We currently have birch--too soft for our dog lifestyle -- and those floors have taken a beating over 11 years. We're replacing them with acacia. ...

I don't know about the relative hardness of acacia versus birch, but consider pre-finished hardwood. From what I understand, the factory finishing process produces a much harder finish than any site-applied finish. The hardness of the finish may be more important than the hardness of the wood?

I did our upstairs hallway in pre-finished oak. Since it was a relatively small area, I'm guessing the labor of having to drag in sanding equipment and sealers was greater than the extra cost for pre-finished. Plus, I installed myself, and was done in two days, and we could still get to the rooms (we would have had to move out for a couple days for sealer, since the bathrooms are off this hall). And I would not be comfortable with my DIY ability to get it sanded/sealed as well as pros or a factory finish, and its a lot of work. Anyway, I'm happy with the pre-finished, the rest of the house was sealed in-place and that is fine as well. No dogs, and no noticeable scratches on any of it.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

This has not been my experience with past houses and friends with houses.

I had a friend with a house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses. He spent $80,000 on a new roof, new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom. He listed the house for $290,000, it sat for 12 months while he lowered the price, finally selling it for $210,000.

I am guessing he could have sold it in about a month at $120,000 to some diy couple.

No one said you could expect to get 100% back on reno costs (and a new roof is expected maintenance). The owner knew (or should have) that $290K was not going to fly on a $200K neighborhood. You'd have to know what they actually had in the house, neighborhood average plus reno costs doesn't mean much. And they made $10K more than had they sold it for $120K as-is, and odds are they'd have waited a long time vs offering a turnkey house at a reasonable listing price to begin with.

Agreed. All else being equal, if the house really needed $80,000 of upgrades, then it was a $120,000 house in a neighborhood of $200,000 houses. So it's unlikely it would have sold fast at $120,000 - as others have said, most people don't want to put in the time/effort/$ themselves, they want turn-key. All those upgrades being fresh, $210K in a $200K area makes sense.

-ERD50

 

[Accidental Retiree]

I don't know about the relative hardness of acacia versus birch, but consider pre-finished hardwood. From what I understand, the factory finishing process produces a much harder finish than any site-applied finish. The hardness of the finish may be more important than the hardness of the wood?

I did our upstairs hallway in pre-finished oak. Since it was a relatively small area, I'm guessing the labor of having to drag in sanding equipment and sealers was greater than the extra cost for pre-finished. Plus, I installed myself, and was done in two days, and we could still get to the rooms (we would have had to move out for a couple days for sealer, since the bathrooms are off this hall). And I would not be comfortable with my DIY ability to get it sanded/sealed as well as pros or a factory finish, and its a lot of work. Anyway, I'm happy with the pre-finished, the rest of the house was sealed in-place and that is fine as well. No dogs, and no noticeable scratches on any of it.

-ERD50

Our birch is factory finished. It's not supposed to need any refinishing, but it sure does. It just hasn't held up. It's also light and a very fine grain, so everything on it shows. Bad choice on our part.

The original red oak hardwood that came in this house got refinished in a room or two, and it's held up very well. If I had to do it over again, I'd never have removed and replaced that original 50-year old oak; I'd have repaired and refinished the old stuff throughout the house. We just didn't know any better, and we'd already made the new flooring decision once we pulled up all the carpets and saw what was underneath. Also, the floors that we did have refinished were quite a project. You really have to be out of the house for a week or so for all the sanding and the curing and stuff.

At the time we chose the birch, we actually wanted maple (which is harder) but it was out of stock, so the flooring people suggested birch. They weren't thinking, and we didnt know to ask about how hard it was.

DH installed some oak parquet in a couple of areas, and I know without doubt he would be perfectly able to install wood floors throughout the whole house, but he just doesn't want to mess with it. Not even when I volunteer to help.

But we're not quite there yet, so I may still have some time. . . .

 

[Katsmeow]

This has not been my experience with past houses and friends with houses.

I had a friend with a house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses. He spent $80,000 on a new roof, new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom. He listed the house for $290,000, it sat for 12 months while he lowered the price, finally selling it for $210,000.

Your friend didn't understand how it really works. A house in a neighborhood with $200,000 houses is expected to have a functional roof that isn't on its last legs. It is expected to have functional kitchen appliances and a functional bathroom. It is expected to have decent carpet.

You don't add to the value of a house, by giving it the things that it already should have. In most instances, upgrades will cause the house to sell faster and to bring its value to what it would have been had it not needed the upgrade. That is, a house with nasty, old carpet will usually sell more slowly. Let's say that most houses in a neighborhood sell for $250,000 with average carpet that doesn't need replacing. Let's say your house has horrible, old carpet but is otherwise typical of a $250,000 house. You spend $5000 replacing it. You don't suddenly get $255,000. You get $250,000 for your house with nice carpet and sell it quicker than you would with the old carpet. And, the old carpet might have drug your price down to $240,000 not just $245,000.

I also suspect your friend over improved his house for the neighborhood. Let's say the roof cost $20,000. I also assume his roof was really bad. Usually you don't for resale purposes replace a good, functioning roof just because it is a little old. That is because you can't get back the price since people already expect a functioning roof.

So that leaves $60,000. You say he put in new carpets, new kitchen/appliances and a new bathroom.

On our last house we sold we spend about $25k getting it ready to sell. We recarpeted the entire house, refinished our wood floors, replaced the dishwasher and the oven and cooktop, put in granite counters in our bathroom and replaced the sinks and faucets, put in granite counter in our half bath with a new sink, replaced the cultured marble countertop and sinks in our kid's bathroom, and repainted most of the house, replaced window coverings with faux wood blinds in several rooms, and paid for professional staging. To have spent $60k we would have had to do major, major kitchen remodeling (beyond replacing appliances) and major bathroom work. That is the kind of work that one is very, very unlikely to recoup on selling a house. You do that kind of work to a house because you want to enjoy those things yourself and you hope that when you sell you may recoup some of it.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

replaced window coverings with faux wood blinds in several rooms.

Did you find that to be a good ROI option? I need more stylish window treatments on some big picture windows.

 

[TrvlBug]

Fix those windows, as Mulligan suggests, since the windows will never look clean with the condensation inside. They will kill your clean, turn-key look for sure. We replaced a few (kept the frames, just replaced the glass panels) with dual-pane Low-E glass, and will soon replace a few more. That glass insulates really well.

If DW thinks hardwoods, then I'd go with her instinct on that one. Hardwoods, or engineered woods, make a great first impression, but as others have said, a lot depends on your area and your buyers. Carpet is out around these parts.

We are in a situation similar to yours and have been doing some fixing up along the way: remodeled a small bath, gave the kitchen a facelift, and just put on a new roof. It was a 25-year roof with 28 years on it. It added great curb appeal and is an upgrade from the roofs around us and is like the ones on houses in the more expensive neighborhood adjacent to us. We won't have to worry about putting a roofing allowance out there if we do list the house.

Our next big project: hardwoods. After visiting many open houses, DH has said repeatedly how he feels about opening a front door and seeing an expanse of clean wood floors. We currently have birch--too soft for our dog lifestyle -- and those floors have taken a beating over 11 years. We're replacing them with acacia.

Once the floors are done, if we haven't listed this year, then we're going whole hog on the kitchen. As Gardenfun says, we're fixing up with a view to resale someday, but we will enjoy the house while we're here.

We haven't moved yet, and we may never move.

This is our situation. The $100K we are putting into a kitchen and master bath reno to update our 25 year old home will pay back 2x when we sell 3-10 years from now (depends on who wins that battle!). I know because I have done my research. We live in an area of $1M+ homes and this is the norm. The sale price differential between 'fixer uppers' and turnkey, UPDATED homes in my area is approx. $250K. Obviously, if we lived in an area of $200K homes, there's no way we'd get the payback and would upgrade for enjoyment only.

It's too hard to generalize; you need to know your area and act accordingly. Cosmetic fixes should be done and will add to the salability of your home no matter the area. Things like new roofs, furnaces (which we have done) are maintenance costs. Now, if I could only convince DH to like hardwood floors . This is one of the things we'll do to make the home more salable when the time comes...I won't get to enjoy them in the meantime.

 

[Cat-tirement]

I've sold in the last few years. One website that I really recommend for discussing these issues is the GardenWeb Buying and Selling Homes discussion:

Buying and Selling Homes Forum - GardenWeb

In our case, we did work beforehand that equated to about 5% or so of our final sale price. That has been fairly typical of the houses we have sold.

So some random thoughts:

Thanks for the tips, and the link. Looks like lots of good info on that site. I'm guessing that it's you that has the similar username over there.

We definitely need to do serious decluttering. In fact, part of the plan is for me to ER earlier than DW to spend some time doing that, and some repairs that I can do myself, such as painting, replacing some fixtures, etc.

I understand what you are saying about showing a vacant house. Since we already own our ER destination house (which we are renting out until we are ready), it doesn't make sense to put our stuff in storage while we are trying to sell our current house. However, our destination is on the opposite side of the county, so I wouldn't want to move stuff in two phases (due to expenses and logistics) just so we could have a subset of our furnishings in place for showing. There seems to be differing opinions on whether having a stager bring in some temporary furniture would be worth the expense.

I will have to do some investigation to compare what other houses in the area have. In our immediate development, prices are probably in the 225-300K range. A somewhat newer adjacent development has prices at least 100K higher (and generally bigger and fancier houses).

 

[Cat-tirement]

And I would do the remodeling sooner rather than later, so that you can enjoy it yourselves before retiring and selling!

DW has already been pushing that very point.

 

[Katsmeow]

I understand what you are saying about showing a vacant house. Since we already own our ER destination house (which we are renting out until we are ready), it doesn't make sense to put our stuff in storage while we are trying to sell our current house. However, our destination is on the opposite side of the county, so I wouldn't want to move stuff in two phases (due to expenses and logistics) just so we could have a subset of our furnishings in place for showing. There seems to be differing opinions on whether having a stager bring in some temporary furniture would be worth the expense.

Stagers vary in how they charge. We spent about $2500 on the stager. They did more than the usual staging stuff in that we were doing some work on the house getting ready to sell. DH and I were both working full-time then so the stagers helped us find contractors, met with contractors and did shopping for us for things for the house.

Anyway, their staging fee included bringing temporary furniture where needed with no additional rental cost. For example, we had a vacant bedroom and they brought in furniture for it.

Did you find that to be a good ROI option? I need more stylish window treatments on some big picture windows.

We did this for two houses that we sold. In both cases it was very inexpensive to do and immensely improved how the house looked. Only in the most high end houses will this not be sufficient.

 

[Cat-tirement]

We opted not to have an inspection. House is in good shape, but we found out that if you have an inspection and find something unknown, then it must be disclosed.

Hoping for a quick sell, and will price aggressively to that end.

I was about to say "good idea" to the folks who suggested getting a preemptive inspection ourselves, though I hadn't thought about your point. Still, even if we don't have our own inspection so we don't have to disclose some unexpected problem, wouldn't a buyer's inspection likely show that same problem? And if it does, they would probably expect resolution, which would probably be less convenient at that time.