Selling a house that is dated and "worn."

[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).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Except the higher price isn’t a benefit to the seller if you’ve spent more than the gain on renovations. It is a benefit to the realtor who makes a bigger commission.

You’re not very bright, are you?

The commission difference is negligible. An agent might net 100 basis points on a sale. If they get you another $10,000 for a house, that’s $100 in their pocket. Big wow.

The key there is selling quickly. That benefits both seller and agent. This is why interests align.

The biggest job in selling a home is removing all obstacles. So the real question for OP is do you want to sell it quickly or not? Updates are expensive and you might not recover the cost of them completely. But if it takes longer to sell your home, there is an opportunity cost to that, too.

Your fixation on agent compensation demonstrates just how stupid you are and proves you should not be opinining on these matters in a public forum.

And, since I can predict how your pea brain works, I will just cut off your lame retort by affirming I am not an agent, nor am I connected to the real estate industry in any way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: And, since I can predict how your pea brain works, I will just cut off your lame retort by affirming I am not an agent, nor am I connected to the real estate industry in any way.

DP

Ha. I swear, there are people on this forum who would rather be accused of sex trafficking than be accused of being an agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Except the higher price isn’t a benefit to the seller if you’ve spent more than the gain on renovations. It is a benefit to the realtor who makes a bigger commission.

You’re not very bright, are you?

The commission difference is negligible. An agent might net 100 basis points on a sale. If they get you another $10,000 for a house, that’s $100 in their pocket. Big wow.

The key there is selling quickly. That benefits both seller and agent. This is why interests align.

The biggest job in selling a home is removing all obstacles. So the real question for OP is do you want to sell it quickly or not? Updates are expensive and you might not recover the cost of them completely. But if it takes longer to sell your home, there is an opportunity cost to that, too.

Your fixation on agent compensation demonstrates just how stupid you are and proves you should not be opinining on these matters in a public forum.

And, since I can predict how your pea brain works, I will just cut off your lame retort by affirming I am not an agent, nor am I connected to the real estate industry in any way.

DP. Our mortgage is only $2000. So even an extra 2 months on the market isn’t a huge cost vs the 50-75k the agent is trying to convince us to spend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paint and stage, but do not renovate.

I would not offer allowances but the listing should say something like "price allows you to select your own updates on your schedule."

Why? Some may be looking for a fixer but some may just want to be in the neighborhood and bought the cheapest house. Unless it’s a tear down no need to suggest it needs updates.

That's a fair point, and it depends on how dated it is. Saying something in the listing might prevent buyers coming back with price reductions for the carpet etc. when that’s already priced in. But maybe not.

This. A neighbor of mine bought a house for a steal because it wasn't updated/ weird layout. Granted it didn't need any system updates. She did a kitchen and all bath renovation and took down some walls and it is gorgeous. You can tell it is way better than just a slip, better quality. Another neighbor bought a home flipped and the cabinets, etc look cheaper even though the price was more.

She purchased for $1.2 for a house that would have easily gone for $2-2.5mil if updated, so even with updates she came out ahead. She said the sellers also had no other offers because of the state of the house whereas other homes they put offers in had multiple offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Except the higher price isn’t a benefit to the seller if you’ve spent more than the gain on renovations. It is a benefit to the realtor who makes a bigger commission.

You’re not very bright, are you?

The commission difference is negligible. An agent might net 100 basis points on a sale. If they get you another $10,000 for a house, that’s $100 in their pocket. Big wow.

The key there is selling quickly. That benefits both seller and agent. This is why interests align.

The biggest job in selling a home is removing all obstacles. So the real question for OP is do you want to sell it quickly or not? Updates are expensive and you might not recover the cost of them completely. But if it takes longer to sell your home, there is an opportunity cost to that, too.

Your fixation on agent compensation demonstrates just how stupid you are and proves you should not be opinining on these matters in a public forum.

And, since I can predict how your pea brain works, I will just cut off your lame retort by affirming I am not an agent, nor am I connected to the real estate industry in any way.

DP. Our mortgage is only $2000. So even an extra 2 months on the market isn’t a huge cost vs the 50-75k the agent is trying to convince us to spend.

DP. The problem here is that a house that sits for 2 months might go on to sit for 6 if the reason it doesn't sell sooner is that it has defects that are turn-off for buyers. What happens with houses like this is that they go through several rounds of price cuts and still can't get bites, but instead just get occasional low ball offers from the sorts of buyers who are not put off by these problems -- mostly investors who can take it or leave it.

What you do is say "okay we don't want to spend 50k but we are willing to spend 10k -- let's do the most glaring stuff and really clean it up" and that's your middle ground. It's really not just about having a low mortgage payment because you have to think about the opportunity cost of having your equity tied up in this house for months and months. The goal is to not have to beg people to buy your house (which is what it means to let it sit for months and keep having to lower the price). You don't have to renovate the whole thing but you can do a lot of things that will keep buyers from saying no right away -- in this market it is very worth it to get the house looking as good as possible in the online photos and to present the best possible version to potential buyers without a major lift.