Worth it to repair before selling?

[Anonymous]

Our front steps are cracked and our front window is fogged. It will be about 6k to replace them. Is it worth it to repair these before selling? The rest of the house is in great condition.

[Anonymous]

I would consider doing the window, but not the step.
Buyers will see the window as they enter, and they may think of windows as a big expense, or predictive of the rest of the house. But really it depends on your market and how $6k relates to the house price.

[Anonymous]

Is your window under warranty? I found the stickers in my window, after living in my house 10 years, and called the company. Though they were installed several owners ago I made it in under the warranty deadline. The company sent replacement for free. Very easy to switch out, did it myself.

Cracked front steps could make a bad first impression. Did you get a couple quotes. I know concrete can be expensive. Are they being patched or rebuilt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your window under warranty? I found the stickers in my window, after living in my house 10 years, and called the company. Though they were installed several owners ago I made it in under the warranty deadline. The company sent replacement for free. Very easy to switch out, did it myself.

Cracked front steps could make a bad first impression. Did you get a couple quotes. I know concrete can be expensive. Are they being patched or rebuilt?

Thanks for your reply!

I don’t know of any window warranty, unfortunately.

The steps need to be rebuilt, and we got some quotes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would consider doing the window, but not the step.
Buyers will see the window as they enter, and they may think of windows as a big expense, or predictive of the rest of the house. But really it depends on your market and how $6k relates to the house price.

Thank you - this is helpful.

[Anonymous]

I would bring three realtors for interview and walk through for improvement recommendations and see if they can find it before I change it.

[Anonymous]

How cracked are the stairs? Can you fill the crack and paint the stairs to cover up the repair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our front steps are cracked and our front window is fogged. It will be about 6k to replace them. Is it worth it to repair these before selling? The rest of the house is in great condition.

Yes. The steps for sure.

The first rule of trying to sell a property is to try to remove as many objections as possible. Cracked front steps make a terrible first impression.

The foggy window may not be as big a deal as may not be always noticeable.

[Anonymous]

No. If they mention it off for the closing credit at five or 6000.

[Anonymous]

Yes- repair for as cheap as you can. It will impact the price.

Our house was originally listed at $1.2- same situation as yours, cracked front steps, foggy window. We bought it for $870 after they spend a lot of money repainting the entire interior and redoing the fireplace. The house was on the market for a fullyear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would bring three realtors for interview and walk through for improvement recommendations and see if they can find it before I change it.

This! There’s a kind of “shooting the moon” element to getting ready for sale. If you’re selling a house whose buyer is likely to do a full renovation, it may not be worth it to fix these little things. If you’re selling a house where the buyer is likely to move right in without changing anything, or likely to move in and not change anything for a while, it might be well worth repairing that stuff.

First time buyers are notoriously silly about little things and also probably won’t have cash after closing, so if your market is young families and first time buyers it might be worth doing especially if everything else is in good shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our front steps are cracked and our front window is fogged. It will be about 6k to replace them. Is it worth it to repair these before selling? The rest of the house is in great condition.

Yes. The steps for sure.

The first rule of trying to sell a property is to try to remove as many objections as possible. Cracked front steps make a terrible first impression.

The foggy window may not be as big a deal as may not be always noticeable.

Broken seal will come up on the inspection but they’re common. Unless it’s a really big window it won’t be expensive to replace the glass.

[Anonymous]

I would do both. Get multiple quotes and pick the cheapest or interview realtors and see what they say/ if they have a contractor who will do it for cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I would worry you didn't keep the house in good shape.
Fix those issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would consider doing the window, but not the step.
Buyers will see the window as they enter, and they may think of windows as a big expense, or predictive of the rest of the house. But really it depends on your market and how $6k relates to the house price.

I disagree with this person - the steps will be a huge first impression. We noticed that the front steps of our house had been newly redone and looked beautiful, but did not even notice that two windows in the house we bought had lost their seal - our realtor had to point it out to us.