Questions about listing my house

[sandy6879]

DH and I came to the final decision over the weekend that we'll be listing the house for sale. We had a realtor come by last month and give us a market analysis and the price she'd list it at is fine by me. That being said, she had a few things that she recommended for improvements before we list. I'm fine with most of them - mostly cosmetic fix-ups - however she did recommend that if it was possible, to pull up our carpet in the living room and hallway (bedrooms are hardwood) and replace it with hardwood. As she states, chances of selling are a lot higher with the hardwood.

I agree with this, but $$ is a bit on the tight side right now and I'd rather not put down hardwood for a house I'm not even going to be living in. So. . . thoughts on this? Is it a "nice to have" or a definite thing to do?

BTW - we do have 3 dogs but there is no pet smell. I'm sure for people who don't have pets at all there is, but to the average person, the house smells fine. I've asked everyone who comes over and they all (including the brutally honest ones) agree.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

How old is the carpet?

What is your competition like?

It is true that hardwood is a selling point. How fast do you need to unload this house? That is the biggest factor here.

Feb is "go" and you need to have it sold by April for top dollar.

If you can sit on it or pull it off the market then you can afford to wait it out.

 

[sandy6879]

Carpet is at least 5 years old because that's how long we've lived here. It's in good condition, no stains, no pulls, and it's a neutral beige color. Competition houses have carpet/laminate/tile and a few listed do have hardwood - so it's not an all out "they all have it and we don't."

We don't HAVE to sell but we want to. If it came down to it, we could stay, we'd just need to refinance the mortgage since we have an ARM that'll be adjusting this year (I picked the ARM with the understanding that we did want to be out of this house before the ARM period was up). So, I guess if it took a little longer to sell, it'd be ok. We do want to know one way or the other by August which is why we're listing in February.

 

[phorsenuf]

I'm listing my house in March, maybe April. The carpets in the bedrooms could use replacing (borderline). I know there is hardwood underneath but I'm not tearing it up. I think what we are going to do is offer the house with XXX in escrow that the new owners can use to do things like that with.

I know when I was in RE buyers liked that kind of thing because then they get to do things to their tastes. Plus when most people buy a house they don't have the money to do those kinds of things.

I really don't have the time or energy to deal with it. I just want to sell and go.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It is an absolute must to get your house on the market in Feb.

You can always put down some new carpeting instead. I might be tempted to see how much that is if I were you.

Flooring is a big deal when it comes to selling. Old carpeting is not a good thing, fyi. It does turn buyers off.

 

[JMD]

Flooring is a big deal when it comes to selling. Old carpeting is not a good thing, fyi. It does turn buyers off.

Especially carpeting in a house with pets. My wife and I are both allergic to animals, so when we were looking at houses, we had to factor in the cost of replacing the carpet into what we were willing to pay for the house.

 

[sandy6879]

would it make more sense to put in a carpet allowance in the listing? Rather than put in new carpeting with the pets still being in the home - this was something DH and I tossed around as well.

 

[phorsenuf]

would it make more sense to put in a carpet allowance in the listing? Rather than put in new carpeting with the pets still being in the home - this was something DH and I tossed around as well.

Like I said upthread that's what we are doing. Then they can choose whatever they want.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

would it make more sense to put in a carpet allowance in the listing? Rather than put in new carpeting with the pets still being in the home - this was something DH and I tossed around as well.

Oh God no. Don't put that in the listing. It will make buyers think your pets peed all over the house.

When you get an offer you toss that in the negotiations.

 

[phorsenuf]

Oh God no. Don't put that in the listing. It will make buyers think your pets peed all over the house.

When you get an offer you toss that in the negotiations.

That's not necessarily true. Putting a carpet allowance in is not going to deter buyers.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

That's not necessarily true. Putting a carpet allowance in is not going to deter buyers.

Why do it up front unless the carpet is beat to death? That doesn't make sense to me.

Also it will cast a shadow on your house with pets. I know it would for me.

 

[phorsenuf]

I've been in many of houses that have been for sale and never knew they had pets.

OP- what does your agent think about an allowance?

 

[JMD]

Why do it up front unless the carpet is beat to death? That doesn't make sense to me.

Also it will cast a shadow on your house with pets. I know it would for me.

I agree. Plus there is always the possibility that the buyers may like the carpet and may not have a problem with pets. I wouldn't advertise that your willing to lower your asking price because of the carpet.

 

[C.Ann]

I've never met anyone who hasn't immediately replaced all carpeting after purchasing a home - prior to even moving in.. I would leave the carpets as is and definitely would not go through the expense of putting in hardwood floors.. If that's what the new owners want, they can do it on their own dime..

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I've been in many of houses that have been for sale and never knew they had pets.

OP- what does your agent think about an allowance?

We took all traces of our dogs out and buyers would not have known we had pets either.

Some houses we looked at had dog pee and poo stains. Ruined hardwood in alot of them. They couldn't hide the smell too well.

Lift up the scatter rugs and there was the black stained hardwood from pee.

I would leave the carpet allowance for negotiation but that is me.

 

[Linzybrooke]

First, find out how much it would cost to install the woodfloors. Then, send that estimate to your realtor and ask them how much they think you could make off of that. Basically, if you spend X to do the floors, what return can you expect from it. How much will it increase your homes value, and is it worth it? If it is only going to increase the value by a couple of hundred bucks, I would skip it, but it will really help the value and selling price of your home I would probably go ahead and replace them.

 

[mykidsand_i]

Although I don't believe that most people should pull up their carpets before selling to replace with wood- I do think that people with animals do need to realize that there is an allergy issue for some of your potential buyers. You can have the "cleanest carpet with no 'smells' in the world" but it will still affect people if they are allergic to pet dander. Pet dander cannot be 100% eliminated even by doing a carpet cleaning.
If a realtor suggested it, maybe she can smell the 'pet smell'...which is not a bad thing necessarily, but if she can smell it, then it may turn others off.
My parents have the cleanest house in the world, but every time we go there my hubby swells up in his eyes- because they have two dogs. They put the dogs out every time we go there, but no matter how clean everything is- my mom has actually been diagosed with obsessive compulsive cleaning disorder- people who have allergies can still get affected by pets that live in the home...

 

[sandy6879]

The realtor said that putting the hardwood wouldn't increase the amount we could sell the house for but would cut down on how long the house could be on the market. She did say we could leave it as is, but it wouldn't make the house stand out the way that a fully hardwood living area would.

I am in agreement with whoever said if the new owners want it, let them do it on their dime. We didn't replace the carpet when we moved in because it did look to be fairly new.

The hardwood in the bedrooms needs to be refinished but is in fairly good shape. The mess that it would be to refinish it makes me shudder (not to mention moving all the furniture out and then back in again and staying out of those rooms for a few days while the fumes/dust gets dealt with) so that's why I'm open to an allowance.

Our pets are pretty good. We steam clean the carpets every 2-3 months with an industrial thing we rent from Home Depot so they've held up pretty well. Only people are allergic can tell we have pets when they come in - otherwise, I've had people tell us that they would have never known.

 

[Disney Doll]

I would get the carpets you have professionally cleaned and leave them. They sound OK and if they are fairly neutral, thy shouldn't be a big issue. Heck, we bought our house with wall to wall 1970's olive green carpeting & panelling!

If someone looking is allergic to pet dander and the carpet issue comes up at the time of offer, then maybe make an adjustment of some sort for them to change the flooring.

 

[sandy6879]

Although I don't believe that most people should pull up their carpets before selling to replace with wood- I do think that people with animals do need to realize that there is an allergy issue for some of your potential buyers. You can have the "cleanest carpet with no 'smells' in the world" but it will still affect people if they are allergic to pet dander. Pet dander cannot be 100% eliminated even by doing a carpet cleaning.
If a realtor suggested it, maybe she can smell the 'pet smell'...which is not a bad thing necessarily, but if she can smell it, then it may turn others off.
My parents have the cleanest house in the world, but every time we go there my hubby swells up in his eyes- because they have two dogs. They put the dogs out every time we go there, but no matter how clean everything is- my mom has actually been diagosed with obsessive compulsive cleaning disorder- people who have allergies can still get affected by pets that live in the home...

This was an issue we had thought of when discussing the hardwood. The agent actually said she couldn't smell anything when I asked her - but she is a pet owner as well. Although, I would think that if someone was allergic to animals, it would be harder for them to find a house that had no pets vs all the ones out there that have them.