Selling a house that is dated and "worn."

[Anonymous]

OP, there are little things you can do too. Get a new wall thermostat, for example, with a modern look. It gives a better impression re: the condition of the heating/AC system.

Make sure the front door and front entryway are in great shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Houses should be renovated every 10-12 years and buyers expect that. No one under 45 wants to have a project they want HGTV move in ready.

That is not true based on what my adult DC's, nieces/nephews, and friends of those 2 sets have bought. All purchasers were late twenties to late thirties. Biggest concern was location and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Not hard to renovate a small or existing bathroom or to shave off some space and add closets/storage. New kitchen counters are a visit for measuring plus 1 day or 1/2 day to install.

[Anonymous]

No allowances. Sell as is. We bought ours as is and everything needed updated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to realtors who tell you to renovate. It only benefits them (easier to sell and higher selling price).

Um, easier to sell at a higher price also benefits the seller, genius

The personal cost of stress and managing the renovations during the holiday is too much. Op, would you be living in the home while these renovations are done? I'm sure you'd rather pay more to not live with that, if that's the case. Ease of selling is great but not guaranteed and you have to add in the time frame for renos which is likely longer than it would take to sell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, there are little things you can do too. Get a new wall thermostat, for example, with a modern look. It gives a better impression re: the condition of the heating/AC system.

Make sure the front door and front entryway are in great shape.

If I'm the buyer, this gives me the impression the house is worse than I suspect.

[Anonymous]

We sold by owner and paid for a 1 Year Home Warranty. It's an insurance product. It covers appliances and major systems.

[Anonymous]

Is it in an area with a lot of teardown to new builds?

[Anonymous]

Hire a "flipper" crew.

[Anonymous]

Leave the house as is. (Although advice about cleaning, painting and declutter is spot on.). Someone will take it and make it their own. Congratulations on a major life decision… I am sure your kids will thank you that they aren’t doing it for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire a "flipper" crew.

Your realtor should have one.

My house I was being relocated was in great shape but I was moving suddenly. The 'flipper crew" was a off the books cash only deal (Vemo/Zelle/Check) etc. that specializes in making house presentable to sell using a cost benefit analysis. Nothing that requires permits, no expensive stuff.

He did paint house, buff floors, do all cheap repairs like stuck door handles, replace outlets if needed, fix any loose flashing, clean AC filters, made kitchen and bathroom spotless, painted deck and then I had Gardener do a clean up. He even made it smell nice. And quick. Cause he said guys will buy foreclosures at auction and want quick flips. And those cheap little things are very very annoying a new home owner.

Moving into my house with a spotless house freshly painted and no work needed it did not matter I had a 1990s and 1970s bathroom since both were spotless and worked perfect. And my 12 year old kitchen literally looked brand new.

[Anonymous]

Deep clean and paint. If your roof is really old and in bad shape then the buyer might not be able to get home insurance coverage so keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Houses should be renovated every 10-12 years and buyers expect that. No one under 45 wants to have a project they want HGTV move in ready.

Speak for yourself. Not everyone is a spoiled brat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire a "flipper" crew.

this is what the dum dum millennial wants. then he’ll be crying about the cr*ppy flip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hire a "flipper" crew.

Your realtor should have one.

My house I was being relocated was in great shape but I was moving suddenly. The 'flipper crew" was a off the books cash only deal (Vemo/Zelle/Check) etc. that specializes in making house presentable to sell using a cost benefit analysis. Nothing that requires permits, no expensive stuff.

He did paint house, buff floors, do all cheap repairs like stuck door handles, replace outlets if needed, fix any loose flashing, clean AC filters, made kitchen and bathroom spotless, painted deck and then I had Gardener do a clean up. He even made it smell nice. And quick. Cause he said guys will buy foreclosures at auction and want quick flips. And those cheap little things are very very annoying a new home owner.

Moving into my house with a spotless house freshly painted and no work needed it did not matter I had a 1990s and 1970s bathroom since both were spotless and worked perfect. And my 12 year old kitchen literally looked brand new.

Do you remember how much you paid for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would paint and that’s it.

This but I'd also do some basic repair work to make it "move-in ready" even though it will be sold as a fixer-upper. Talking about stuff like fixing anything that would be a glaring annoyance to a new owner (but that you might currently overlook because you've lived there a long time). For us this included things like:

- replacing a set of cabinets that no longer worked properly (they were "soft close" but that function no longer worked so they just hung open a half inch) and were just looking really worn
- having the shower in the master bath re-grouted to replace grout that was very stained and had broken and fallen out in places
- replacing a bathroom light fixture and a couple plumbing fixtures that had some rust and hard water build up -- we tried just rescuing them first but they were cheap contractor-grade installs to begin with and it wasn't worth it so we just replaced with slight upgrades (what we would be comfortable living with but not top of the line) in the same style.
- replaced some wood work throughout the house that was just looking a little rough -- some broken or banged up quarter round at our baseboards, a window frame that had never been the same after an external leak that had been fixed years prior (the contractor who fixed it did not think at the time the window needed to be replaced because it was a short lived issue and he felt he'd dried the wood out enough but we saw warping emerge over time) and a few dinged up interior doors.

Where we could repair instead of replace we did that but the goal was to make the house look like something that a first time buyer would be happy to live with for a few years as they slowly renovated the aspects that were outdated. We thought about how we felt as young first time buyers and the sorts of things that would be big turn offs or make us embarrassed to host guests at a house warming. We spent about 7k total on these repairs using a handyman recommended by our realtor and I think it resulted in us selling for 20-30k more based on neighborhood comps. For us this was a better investment than staging because it just gave the house a really nice feeling when people toured it (similar to what good staging does but in a way that offers real value to a buyer that staging doesn't offer).

Some houses don't need these kinds of repairs but it sounds like OP's could probably benefit from this kind of light lift. We definitely priced in the dated kitchen and baths and the fact that some appliances were likely nearing their replacement date -- a fully renovated house in our neighborhood would easily have sold for 150-200k more than what we listed for. But these little improvements spared our buyers having to spend several thousand dollars right after buying a home to make minor repairs and move in and decorate. I remember as a first time buyer that was important to me -- I was okay with knowing "ok we'll probably be redoing the kitchen in the first 5 years and there's a chance the hot water heater will crap out early on" but I didn't want to have to repair dinged up doors or live with a stained shower with broken grout (and we didn't have the kind of funds after closing on our house to take on those repairs easily -- it would have waited a year or two at least).