Getting ready to sell. Worth changing bi fold doors?

[Anonymous]

I am getting ready to sell. My storage / laundry area has two bifold luan doors - cheap crappy doors installed by a DYI previous owner.

Is it worth changing these crappy but otherwise functioning doors with newer panel doors, which are nonetheless still cheap and basic but more visually interesting (despite fake woodgrain texture)? Something like :

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202037503/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=JELD-WEN+Panel+Molded+Primed+Bi-Fold+Door&storeId=10051#.UInjXXq9KSM

Between materials and labor, probably a $400 job. The idea is to visually improve the storage area -- where finishes are decisively less nice than the rest of the house -- in an economical way.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the listing price. If it is in the upper echelons for your area, by all means go ahead. If not, I would not bother (unless existing doors spotty, rusty, broken, etc.). Good luck with the selling!

[Anonymous]

if it looks really sloppy, yes.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. Forgot to say: a third closet (where washer and drier is) used to have a bifold door but it was removed. I need to install one there, and was planning to install one like in the link above. I think it would be nice for the existing doors to be replace so that they all match. One more reason to change the 2 bifold doors, right?

[Anonymous]

Change the doors.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I'd change bifold doors for bifold doors. I recently replaced all the ones I had with sliding panel doors (again, that fake woodgrain stuff from Home Depot). Looks a million times better.

[Anonymous]

I just went through getting a house ready to sell. It's tough trying to decide what to replace and what to leave. Where I drew the line is, I spent the money on things that were in the key areas (front yard, front of house, living room, kitchen, bathroom) and anything that I thought would really turn off buyers.

Some things that would factor in for me - Is your storage/laundry area part of the living area, or part of an unfinished basement? How is the market in your area - are things moving fast or slow? Etc.

If the doors really look awful/dated, or don't match the rest of the house, I'd try to do something about them, either replace them or paint them. A coat of paint can make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I would bother. Fake woodgrain is not any better.

[Anonymous]

I would replace, but I would select less expensive ones. You want something that looks okay and do not detract from the appeal but do not cost too much. The current ones sound like they do detract from the appearrance. The reason you want to go for lower end is that you have no idea if the buyer wants bifold doors. If they are just going to be replaced again after the buyer moves in, you should get something inexpensive, but acceptable. Don't be like the woman in another thread who spent a few thousand dollars to replace the carpet in her home to sell only to find out that the buyer tore up the brand new carpet to put in some form or hard flooring and she saw her thousands of dollars just discarded. If buying to sell a property, buy the least expensive acceptable replacements. You never know what a buyer will want to replace, so don't over-invest for a sale.

[Anonymous]

I like that the listing notes that these doors are not hurricane rated. You know if you were planning on having a hollow core front door. I like these and I think having new doors like this really brings a place up, especially in a utility closet.

[Anonymous]

If your current doors are the bifold doors I'm thinking of, if the laudry storage area isn't visible from say the bedrooms or living room etc. I might not bother, especially if other areas are updated. Someone won't walk away because of laundry doors if the big ticket items are done. If the doors are really fugly, the person may just take off the doors till they figure out what they want. If you do replace the doors, I agree with pp to pick the least expensive acceptable alternative.

[Anonymous]

I sold a 70's townhouse last year and replaced all the ancient, ugly sliding closet doors with new bifold doors. They weren't super-cheap, but as one of them was the foyer closet that you saw when you walked in, I thought it was worth the minor expense. (I did a lot of upgrades, including new kitchen/baths, paint and flooring.) My house sold in 8 days on market without an open house and I walked away with a check for 160K.

[Anonymous]

I think the location of this area is critical. Is it on the first or second level near a living space or in the basement? If basement I wouldn't bother but anywhere else I might.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. They are in the basement, in a storage / laundry room. i want to make the room look like it's a habitable room -- e.g. an exercise room or a craft room -- not just a place where you dump boxes and paint cans. As i mentioned, there are three closets, two with the ugly lauan / flush doors and a third (washer/dryer) with no doors. At a minimum, i would like install a new door in the third closet, and i would like to have them match. I will then either install a third lauan / flush door in that closet and paint all three doors with quality paint (cheaper option) or install raised panel doors in all three closets to match (expensive option). Cheaper option would be $100 plus one hour handyman. More expensive option $250 plus two hour handyman, approximately.

This room is currently the least attractive room in the house. The other basement room is nicer, but less nice than the upper floors, which look really good.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you're trying to make the room look more habitable, I'd probably do the doors. That's really not that much money, and some people really like a turn-key house so they won't have to do this stuff. what does your realtor say?