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

A couple interesting webpages about the original question:

Zillow's article

Remodeling magazine's data

All the above and for curb appeal the state of the concrete in the front of house should be addressed if it is old and heaved and cracked......

She is hot. I would “do” her all night long.

no neighbors help sell a house.......

we've all had dick heads as neighbors at least once

I have quiet neighbors........currently

Late to the party, but:

1. Curb appeal: add big pots of flowers at the front door; paint over any garish colors with neutral; manicure the yard; get RID of all the vehicles except two.
2. Get RID of the 300 pictures of family.
3. Take down any dead animals.
4. Get rid of too much furniture-make rooms "bigger".
5. Get rid of wallpaper.
6. Paint inside with warm neutral colors.
7. No gun displays
8. Make it smell nice inside-baked cookies help.

Fantastic advise right here.... Renovations only help if the potential buyers have the same exact taste as you. If they like brown cabinets and you just installed white cabinets, you just shot yourself in the foot. You will want more money and they will be figuring out how to remodel what you just did. Just make the house as nice and tight as possible without spending a lot. Get as much as you can and move on. The market is on fire right now, so this spring may be your chance.

Respectfully disagree

They are extremely expensive to do, and you won't recover 1/2 the expense. Plus, many people will want to do them to their taste.

I read a few responses. Land scaping is your ticket. First impressions work.

Hey P,
As a Realtor for quite some time here on the east coast I have noticed some interesting changes in both the client and the market over the last 4 to 5 years. I tend to blame it on HGTV, and the do it yourself programs.
800k here is it doing well 30 to 40 year old couple with 1 to 3 kids. In all honesty in four years I've met one couple they were interested in something they could improve themselves. Generally speaking in this area one and 20 buyers can see the potential in any given property, The other 19 only see what's right in front of them and how it's presented. No imagination no creativity at all.
I feel it's very important to do everything you can to present your house on the day of hitting the market as ready to move in.
There have been many excellent responses to your post. Anything you do to improve it is good, one of the key items I noticed was Declutter and that is key down to your garage and on this site I'd say any outbuildings you have as well. And one other key point. You don't live the way you sell, try to keep your personal items to a minimum. Pack everything you can in advance store it neatly in boxes in the garage or whatever space you have, write down to your closet. When it's time to show the properties on the market have them 50% empty or less. Some may laugh but don't give the buyers wife any reason to kill the sale because the closets are big enough for her stuff.

It doesn't matter where you live in a country, hop on the Internet to your favorite real estate site and look up properties that have sold in the last six months.
Take a look at the kitchens baths, the paint colors used on the walls. Flooring materials, kitchen appliances and very important the staging.

Having said all that for years I'm hoping you'll be safe. With the new administration, I think our next years are going to be a rough couple and hopefully we rebound by then.

When the leaves are on the trees we can’t see our nearest neighbor.




P

I'd be nervous about your 4 year time-line.

We've been booming. Everything cycles. When it cycles down, I don't know, but if it were me, I'd move it soon.

Yup. I'd give my left testicular device to live on a property like his.

And I have to respectfully disagree with you. Only a VERY SMALL percentage of buyers want to buy a house then remodel it. That's just not the case. Almost 1/3 of the people buying houses right now are buying with cash. In some price ranges here in the Boise area, the prices have leaped $30,000 a month for the last two months. You will get your money out of it, and probably more. What no one here takes into consideration is the price range. People in that price ranged want to be WOW'd when they walkin. No one is wow'd with what came with a house in 1997.

How much equity do you have in the house? Is it paid for?

I would have the HVAC checked out (replace/repair as advised), water heater as well, patch and paint walls as needed, make sure windows and doors open and close the way they are supposed to, freshen up the landscaping around the house. From there - look at the "smaller" stuff . . . update kitchen and bathroom cabinet hardware, toilets and or new seats, bathroom/shower and kitchen faucets, make sure any ceiling fans are working properly and aren't noisy. I would leave the counter tops and flooring alone at this time (assuming they are in good shape now). If something breaks before you are ready to put your home on the market, fix or replace it. If you need to, you can do a :"flooring and counter top" allowance to show you are willing to accommodate potential buyers. A lot of this would/will be covered in the home inspector's report (after an accepted offer), but can be a relief not to have to do it in a rush to get it done before closing.

Only do MAJOR renovations if you think you will be there for closer to your 4 year time frame and they would be some things you would do if you stayed there . . .

Good luck !!!

Did I tell you about hearing the bulls bugling on the hill behind me in September? I got out my bugle and had an argument with a bull for about half an hour the year before last. He was pissed!

I’m feeding Steller’s jays now. We’re up to 14 regulars. They’ll eat anything.


P

We owe $80k on it. Our only debt.




P

I just sold my house. Mowed the lawn and freshened up the landscaping, repainted the front of the house, repainted the front porch and back deck, repainted the fence, stored all of our personal items and extra furniture, vacuum/mop/dust, staged with little accents like candles and fake fruit baskets, house sold in 6 hours for $26k above list price.

I suppose you have good reason to wait 4 years?