Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Where to spend money in preparing a house to sell?

I imagine an 800k house is pretty nice from the get go. Fix some paint and drywall issues, nice pressure wash if needed, cleanup the yard and get that thing on the market. No telling what inspector may find, you may be spending some money on that kind of stuff.

These guys know what they're talking about !!

Anything you can do, without spending a bunch, it's all about presentation.

Paint if needed, but I wouldn't replace anything unless it was broken. Let the new owners make it their own by letting them put what new stuff they want in it.

I"m not sure if you are serious or not, but buyers wanting to get out away from the city would probably love to see wildlife, I doubt their first thoughts are going to be the nuisance they cause.

Every house I've looked at the minute I pulled up I knew whether is was a "continue to consider". So curb appeal is huge. You get a potential buyer excited before they walk in and they'll rationalize away everything else they don't like.

Unless you have some crazy color scheme, I wouldn't make a huge investment in redoing the house but I'd have everything fixed and perfect.

The market is crazy right now. Our house is in the country in a lower income county, but is one of the nicer houses in the county... but is dated a bit. Built the same year as yours. A realtor friend told me just pretty up the necessary stuff. I reset a few landscape blocks, painted and caulked the bathrooms, and fixed a couple minor sheetrock cracks. The only reason I painted the bathrooms is after looking at "jillions" of new houses, their color schemes are, well.... more colorful. I painted greys and mocha in the baths. Left the kitchen as is.
When we bought our place, it had been on the market of 9 months. I had three buyers, word-of-mouth only before we listed it. First buyer walked in, looked around for a few minutes and said:"We'll take it." I just picked a price off the top of my head. Did contracts myself (rocketlawyer.com). When buyer financed, the house appraised $30k more than what I sold it for! Ouch! But, I had already signed an agreement with the buyer.
All this being said, with interest rates hovering in the 2.5-2.75% rates, people are hungry to buy right now.
I would try just low cost "prettying it up a bit" and see where it takes you.
Good luck!

around here people are begging to know about a home before it goes on the market on social media. They don't want to get in a bidding war.

Depersonalize and declutter.

Clean. Make sure it doesn't have an odd smell.

If you have neutral paint in good shape, leave it that way.

The flooring should be clean, but replacing it doesn't give much ROI since buyers in your price range will likely replace it if they don't like it.

Exterior doors matter. You can get from 75-85% of your money back with a new front door or garage door.

Curb appeal.

You want the house to be bright and airy. Replace dim or yellow bulbs with bright modern bulbs all of the same light color.

There's a lot of good info out there with some net searching.

Savvy prospective home buyers primarily want a house and grounds that has been well maintained throughout.

Big kitchen upgrades rarely return their costs.
Bathrooms are easier/better (unless you find rotten wood.

Maybe clean out and recaulk stained areas.

Paint, updated matching towel racks etc are a better way.
Let new owners pick their own big ticket items.

Clean up and adjust cabinet doors etc.

If you have stained old sinks, look for deals on vanity tops etc.

Clean out the dark dirty corners of the garage and basement...

Just making it bright clean an less lived in will go a long way..

Check out what's on the Market in your price range. Visit some open houses and see how $800,000 houses have in them, and what's been done. then watch them and see how fast they move. Take lots of notes. People expect certain things in $800,000 houses. If it's not there they move on. Not sure about your area but in our area there are enough $800,000 houses on the market to take care of the market. That is a very small percentage of the market.

As has been said, curb appeal then people drive up, so take care of the bushes, trees and such so people can actually see the house.
When you start moving the things out of your house (to declutter) you will be able to see where the old pictures were hunt. It will become obvious painting is important. People don't expect to see tile counter tops, they expect the upgrade, granite or whatever is available in your house. Same with the bathrooms. Watch some of the fixer upper shows and get a feel for what people are doing to upgrade. In 4 years your house could easily be worth $900,000 + depending on your market and people will expect more. No one wants carpet. Plan on replacing that. Get an agent or two through the house and see what they tell you. People want light and bright these days. They also want move in ready. Few people have the ability to make changes in a house to make it what they want. If you have wood cabinets, you may want to consider replacing them. It's important to get a feel for what you are competing with and a good agents advice.

I would agree with those who caution against putting too much money in a place to sell it. You'll never get it back. My wife and I have bought and sold three places in the past ten years...no we're not flippers, it's just how things have worked out.) My MIL recently sold an "extra" house she had bought to put her mother in some time ago. She put a bunch of money into it to make it sell better and took a bath...and she knows better! She's been a real estate broker for years!

One thing I would spend money on: have the best home inspector in the area check the place out for you. If there are any problems that might be an impediment to a sale, take care of them before you put it on the market or at least consider how much and how willing you will be to adjust the sale price if necessary. The more of this stuff you get figured out and/or taken care of before the sale, the quicker and easier the whole process will be for you.

He’s kidding.

Do the obvious to you, but also have an outside person, maybe a friend, to be brutally honest about what might turn them off that you can fix easily. It could be an outdated front door, an overgrown hedge, or busted up front walk. You get my drift. Sometimes we get so used to seeing something, we don't really see it as a potential buyer would.

^^^^^^+

Depending on if you have hardwood floors underneath, pulling up older carpet to reveal hardwood floors can work in your favor

If structurally sound just eye appeal enhancements, inside and out. I wouldn't sink a lot of $$$ in doing something the prospective buyer may or may not like.

This forum is full of a bunch of fuhging Martha Stewarts.

We're also on 5A with about 2400 ft/sq - but have an updated/remodeled 40X96' pole shed and another 36X40 shed that's only seven years old. We hope to sell in 2-3 years.. We've done major upgrades all around.. Replacing four windows by April, maybe another six by this fall.. Kitchen's been fully remodeled, with new cabinets and appliances.. Replacing the stand-alone oven in two weeks. The other two are only 4-6 years old. I hear that the most value retained in sellers' homes are related to the kitchen.. With newer, excellent appliances and room to move around are key. Painting some walls that are needed, + fixing any drywall issues are rather cheap overall and do add to the attractiveness.. Like others have said above - don't do anything radical because the new owners will want to tear most of it apart (carpeting/floors etc) and start over..

But as anything - it's location, location, location.

Martha Stewart’s net worth is $400 million.

Keep talking.

There was another thread on here about FSBO and my advice to him was pay 3-600 bucks for an independent appraisal. When we sold ours all we did was declutter, paint and clean. I had a couple of issues with the furnace I knew about that we fixed. But we were able to price the house according to the appraisal and all went well. Wasn’t over priced by much and definitely not under priced.