Pricing the house for sale -- aarghhh!

[lets-retire]

mathjak107--That sounds like the title company was being overly picky. By stating "my only daughter Beth", arguments could be made that your MIL only had one daughter or only had one daughter named Beth. If she actually had two daughters then does that mean her other daughter was effectively cut out of the will. Obviously if she only had one daughter named Beth then putting "only" in the sentence is redundant. If she had one daughter then again "only" is redundant.

Then again I'm not a lawyer so what do I know.

 

[mathjak107]

actually they wanted it read only child beth

 

[tryan]

and the houses I have sold went within 1 day to 30 days

One thing for sure ... if a house sells in a DAY it was priced TOO LOW. Love those FSBOs !

 

[Caroline]

Pricing the house for sale -- update

Background:  Several weeks ago I asked for advice on pricing my rental property for sale to a contractor who was interested, and got scads of great advice from this forum, including the following from PJ03:

Here’s my take, I’m a builder and investor; I buy and flip properties like this one once or twice a year.  If I feel that the property is worth $450K-$460K (Fixed up) at todays value my discounted price would be in the $350K to $380K range...

You just about called it, PJ03 -- the contractor who wanted to buy my rental house fixer-upper wanted to pay $400,000.  Not unreasonable, as he's got to make a profit, after all.  I seriously considered it.

But that got me to thinking.  When did I get so lazy?  Fifteen or 20 years ago, pre-college, pre-grad school, and pre-megacorp, I would have jumped right on this, done most of the work / farmed out the rest, and kept that profit for myself.  I own a Milwaulkee Magnum Holeshooter, fergawdsakes!

Why was I thinking about giving up a big chunk of change in exchange for a little less trouble?  Has sitting in front of a computer warped my thinking, as well as my backside?  Am I getting OLD and SOFT!!!!?

Bah!  I've decided to do a lot of the work myself, press DP into service, and take the advice of you FSBO folks (WITH a lawyer for safety's sake).  At the end I'll add a chunk to my RI account whilst (with any luck) learning a few new things and not killing myself along the way.

To that end...  All of you who have so graciously shared their experience and wisdom thus far, a few additional questions:

Anybody ever reface cabinets themselves?  How'd it come out?
 
Ditto getting someone to recoat your bathtub?  (I'm leery on this one, even though I just saw it on "This Old House."

Ditto peel-and-stick floor tile? (Mostly ugly, but some look ok and I can do it myself.)

Pergo flooring?

Tips of making it LOOK good on the cheap? (I'm not trying to FOOL anyone here, I just want the biggest bang for the buck.)

My revived motto:  "No guts, no glory!"
Caroline   

 

[scrinch]

Caroline, good luck to you! Drag out that Holeshooter and get it fired up!

I had my 35-year-old porcelain over cast iron bathtub refinished 8 years ago. It looked great right afterward and it still looks great today. I just checked the receipt and it cost $395 including $45 of repairs before refinishing.

 

[Martha]

Caroline, post some pictures and we will give you more advice than you could ever want.

Did you see CFB and Laurences floors they did in vinyl? They posted pictures. Came out pretty nice and they said it was easy to install.

 

[tryan]

Anybody ever reface cabinets themselves?  How'd it come out?
 
Ditto getting someone to recoat your bathtub?  (I'm leery on this one, even though I just saw it on "This Old House."

Ditto peel-and-stick floor tile?  (Mostly ugly, but some look ok and I can do it myself.)

Pergo flooring?

On refacing the cabinets ... replace the doors sized to cover all "old" shelving.

Every tub or sink I've resurfaced was disconnected and sent in.  In place covering I've seen has been half-@ssed because the surface can not be cleaned entirely (so some areas chip easily).

Peel n'stick floor look great for a few weeks/months (depending on wear);  this is probably all you need. One tip is use lyno adhesive if you need the floor to last.

Dido Pergo flooring .... long term the seams raise due to moisture (looks like crap).  Armstrong makes a better completing product.

Hope this helps.