Question for home buyers - fix up prelist or not?

[Anonymous]

DH and I are getting ready to list our home in a few weeks or so. It's going to be priced in the upper 600s, in Bethesda. House is an older home, but we've done plenty of improvements/upgrades over the years and it's in move-in condition.

However, like most older homes, there are things we could fix. Nothing structural, and things we could certainly fix/remediate for a max of $5-10K or so. For example, there is evidence of moisture in an exterior wall. One realtor we talked to said, yes, remediate the moisture before you list (of course, we'd do it properly - not just a coat of paint but proper waterproofing). The realtor also suggested we do other projects, mostly cosmetic.

I'm thinking, eh, just price the home appropriately and get it listed while rates are low, and save ourselves the disruption of all the home improvement work. Sophisticated buyers won't be turned off by a water spot here or there or scuff marks on the wall (they may come in and totally remodel the basement/bathroom, or repaint, anyway). My thought is buyers buy for schools, and neighborhood, and the basic bones of the house.

Buyers, what do you think?

[Anonymous]

I bought a house in that price range and neighborhood recently.

A scuff mark wouldn't have worried me, but a water stain certainly would have. I would fix that or you will turn off a lot of buyers.

As for painting, I would do it if you have overly strong colors or it is looking a bit old.

it is worth doing some cosmetic stuff because it can make a difference to perception of the house. Most buyers are not as sophisticated as you think, particularly if your definition of sophisticated involves turning a blind eye to potential moisture problems.

[Anonymous]

We recently sold a similar property in Bethesda in under four days. Our realtor's advice, which we took, was:
1) first and foremost, stage the property properly. Our agent paid for two hours with a professional stager. This was so valuable that we would have paid for it ourselves.
2) spend about 1K painting and cosmetic changes to bathrooms and kitchen (recaulk, change ugly faucets etc.)
3) price it right.

Our house sold, when several comparables are still sitting on the market. I say, spend your money on the stager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is worth doing some cosmetic stuff because it can make a difference to perception of the house. Most buyers are not as sophisticated as you think, ...

I totally agree with this. Even people who think they are sophisticated buyers will be attracted to a nice package, and will be deterred by a package with minor blemishes. If you can, I think putting in a little extra time/money to polish up your place so it shines will increase the sale value more than the cost of that superficial polishing. I'm sure it will sell without that polishing, but you'll be selling for a discount. The decision whether to polish or not might depend on how much time/energy you have to devote to that.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a house last week so based on my recent experience looking around houses, I would say trust your realtor and do those things to make it look walk-in ready. Yes, I'm not a sophisticated buyer. But it started to get depressing looking at all the awful stuff out there! We're thrilled to be buying something that we don't need to do anything to. And we probably paid for that. But in this tough market, you want to stand out and get a quick sale. Lots of awful properties are sitting for a long time on the market - if they had come on better presented they may have gone quickly.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm already convinced. I'm going to do the fix up. Thanks for the responses.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a huge house for a steal because the seller didn't do any painting or any of those little fixes that would have fetched more money. For several hundred to a couple thousand dollars you should be able to a) get more money for your house and b) sell faster.

Also consider getting a home inspector to take a look at the place for any potential problems that may cause the seller to negotiate you down like furnace, water heater, etc. The house was already priced low for, but we still negotiated cosmetic things like the floors needing refinishing, furnace having the wrong sized filter, improper installation of dryer vent, evidence of home insurance claim for water damage due to poor installation of a water line to a fridge, etc.

[Anonymous]

We put about $5,000-$10,000 into mostly cosmetic stuff before we listed our house, and we probably sold for $100K+ more than we would have otherwise. Our house was SO pretty and shiny and lovely in appearance when it was ready to list. I just about weep looking at the pictures from the listing brochure, thinking I'd like to live in such a beautiful house. Oh wait...I did...it just wasn't as pretty when we actually LIVED there.

Oh, and we put about half of our possessions into storage so the house looked much larger and less crowded. HUGE difference and our house sold instantly.

[Anonymous]

12:10 here. I will also say that when we were looking for a new place, I noticed stuff like TONS of kids' fingerprints all over the windows and glass doors, and smudge and scuff marks along various places, and even though I *knew* that was cosmetic stuff, the thought I had was this: Really, this is the best they could make it look when they KNOW it's showing today? What kind of care do they put into this place when it isn't showing? So even though it was minor cosmetic stuff, it made me question their "usual" standard of care for the home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:10 here. I will also say that when we were looking for a new place, I noticed stuff like TONS of kids' fingerprints all over the windows and glass doors, and smudge and scuff marks along various places, and even though I *knew* that was cosmetic stuff, the thought I had was this: Really, this is the best they could make it look when they KNOW it's showing today? What kind of care do they put into this place when it isn't showing? So even though it was minor cosmetic stuff, it made me question their "usual" standard of care for the home.

NP here. This is very interesting to me, because we are people who are extremely meticulous about taking proper care of our house on all the things that matter--e.g. we inspect the furnace/AC every year, get our gutters cleaned every few months, repaint the siding every few years, replace our furnace filters every month, even had our dryer ents cleaned, etc., etc. Yet on a day-to-day basis we are messy! Neither DH nor I is a neat person, and with kids, well, we just let the interior of the house go--there are definitely scuff marks on walls, pencil marks where children have run rampant and we haven't cleaned the off yet , etc. The funny thing is that we are insanely responsible about everything structural/important in the house, we're just not into interior cleanliness.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, there were a couple of homes I didn't even go into when I was looking, because they were so messy - and in one case, dirty. We opened the front door, and that was enough to convince me I didn't want to see the house. And this was before the foreclosure crisis hit. I couldn't believe that people didn't clean up when they knew the house would be shown. Now admittedly, had the house appeared unique or special in terms of architecture or location, I might have taken the chance. But when you're looking at cookie-cutter townhouses in the suburbs that are within a few thousand of each other, why even bother?

I'm also shocked at some of the pictures I see on realtor.com. These people knew their realtor would be photographing their home, yet they made no attempt to declutter or clean up? Scary. If I liked the house I'd buy it anyway, but might offer a lower price if I knew I'd have to replace carpets, repaint, etc.

I'm doing some real work to my house this year (updating kitchen and baths because they haven't been done in the house's 35 years) but when I'm ready to list next spring, I'll be moving some stuff to storage to stage it properly. I'll also have new flooring and fresh paint, and hire a maid if need be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:10 here. I will also say that when we were looking for a new place, I noticed stuff like TONS of kids' fingerprints all over the windows and glass doors, and smudge and scuff marks along various places, and even though I *knew* that was cosmetic stuff, the thought I had was this: Really, this is the best they could make it look when they KNOW it's showing today? What kind of care do they put into this place when it isn't showing? So even though it was minor cosmetic stuff, it made me question their "usual" standard of care for the home.

NP here. This is very interesting to me, because we are people who are extremely meticulous about taking proper care of our house on all the things that matter--e.g. we inspect the furnace/AC every year, get our gutters cleaned every few months, repaint the siding every few years, replace our furnace filters every month, even had our dryer ents cleaned, etc., etc. Yet on a day-to-day basis we are messy! Neither DH nor I is a neat person, and with kids, well, we just let the interior of the house go--there are definitely scuff marks on walls, pencil marks where children have run rampant and we haven't cleaned the off yet , etc. The funny thing is that we are insanely responsible about everything structural/important in the house, we're just not into interior cleanliness.

I don't doubt this at all - but I'm guessing that when you're ready to show your house to sell it, you'd wife off the scuffs and pencil marks.

[Anonymous]

When we bought our house during the "boom" I could not beleive the way people would show their house. We walked into one master bedroom and there were seriouls ylike 5 pairs of dirty panties on the floor.

Please if you are going to sell your house pick up your underwear!

[Anonymous]

I know OP has her answer, but I just wanted to chime in to say we put our house on the market after doing all the things our realtor and her stager asked us to do (decluttering, caulking, painting over strong colors, neutralizing decor, taking out all our pictures, emptying all closets) It was at least two weekends of solid work and I was chomping at the bit to just get on the market. I even almost begged her to just list us after finishing 50% of her list.

She didn't, and we listed Saturday (less than a week ago) and our house had an offer on Sunday night, and we were under contract by noon Monday. And I live in a a standard tract style neighborhood, nothing really unusual about my home architecture, etc. We got top dollar too. The realtor is actually nervous about our home appraising for the price the buyers are paying!

I am so glad we did all that work - - our open house on Sunday had 14 families through it, and it was all positive feedback about how nice and welcoming the house was.

[Anonymous]

14:48 again... just wanted to add that you do want to get moving quickly if you want to take advantage of the bump in home prices due to the tax deduction that expires April 30. I think you have to have a contract dated no later than 4/30/10 and close by 6/30/10 to get the tax credit of $8K or whatever the buyer gets for either new home buyer or rollover buyer.

The thinking is, that once that incentive is gone, the boosting effect on prices will drop.