Selling my house...question about floors

[FreshTressa]

We are selling our house and it is an older home...1966.

It has hardwoods throughout...bedrooms and everything.

BUT...the hardwoods are original and have never been refinished and are in pretty bad shape.

Should we leave them as is to show the house, or put cheap carpet over them??

 

[Bob Slydell]

Leave them as is (assuming you don't have time to refinish them). Throwing down cheap carpeting won't work -- homeowners are smart enough to look underneath the carpeting to see the condition of the wood floors underneath. As long the the floors only need refinishing and not replacing, it's still a selling feature.

 

[EthansMom]

You could put in your listing "original hardwood floors" and, if you can/want, you could offer the buyers a credit toward refinishing the floors. Most folks would love to have hardwood floors that have never been refinished. It's relatively simple to have someone come in and refinish the floors, but can only be done a few times before they have to be replaced.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I agree with the others.

Cheap Carpeting = yuck

Hardwood floors that can be refinished =

 

[Servants of Evan]

And depending on the carpeting -- the price may not be that different than paying to have them refinished. Get a quote, you may be surprised.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Tune into a show called Designed to Sell if you haven't seen it already. It's amazing to see some relatively simple changes you can make to your home when selling that can substantially increase your profit.

I have a home like yours and I might be tempted to refinish the floors if I was selling, it's a nice feature of any home.

 

[Sylvester McBean]

we buffed ours. when most people walk into a house they're looking at things they would change. if they don't like hardwood, they'll merely think that it would be easy to carpet over. if you carpet it and they hate it, then they're thinking about the ugly carpet and the effort to tear it up. when we sold our last house, it was as neutral as possible. new eggshell paint on everything.

 

[SC Minnie]

On the home selling show on A&E and HGTV they suggest pulling up carpet if you have hardwood and leaving as is unless it is totally stained etc.

I would clean them and use them as an asset in the listing.


Good luck!

 

[eclectics]

Another NO vote for the carpet. Most people prefer the wood floors anyway. Take the money you would have spent on cheap carpeting and hire someone to give the wood a good once over and polish.

 

[mygyky]

Leave the floors. Definite selling feature. We purchased an mid 60s home last March and redid the floors. Incredible how they turned out and so glad they weren't covered with carpet and nail holes or staples. Definitely leave them and get a quote. You could take that amount off the price at negotiation time.

 

[ceiligh1]

I would leave the floors as is. I just moved from redmond last spring. In our area you have to do very little to a house to get it to sell as long as it is clean and priced right. Plus hardwood is difficult to come by in homes these days. Good luck.

 

[safetymom]

When I sold my home I had hardwood floors in pretty good condition. She tore it all up and put in Pergo. Sometimes you just can't please people.

 

[dizagain]

We sold our house last fall and we had very light pine floors that were scuffed and weathered looking. We actually LIKED the old look, and even though the realtor suggested we get them re-finished we didn't. We had a freshly painted, great condition home with all new kitchen appliances - we weren't about to spend another thousand dollars!!! I think the new people actually replaced the floors, but I'm not sure...we didn't have to give them an allowance, either, but we might have given one if asked. Definitely NO to a carpet cover-up!

 

[FreshTressa]

Thanks guys....now the question is whether or not to refinish!!

 

[dg39]

I was telling a friend that after the work that we're having done now in the house is finished, I want to refinish the wood floors in my dd's rooms. They too are the original floors and the house is approx.40 yrs. old. She told me she bought REGUVINATE from QVC for her floors. All she did was tell me how wonderful they look. She went on and on about it. Its a liquid that you put on with an applicator, also from QVC,it dries in around45 minutes and the floors look great.Her floors are old also, and she was going to either have them done or put rugs down. She tried this first and now will not do anything else to her floors. It's real cheap, something like 20.00 a bottle and 1 bottle covers an average size room. Its worth a try. She did say, they don't come out brand new looking, but, they're so much better then they looked before and she's not embarrassed by them when company goes over.
'

 

[marydmjj]

I would suggest not covering them with carpet and refinishing them before putting the house on the market. The chance you take with leaving the floors is the buyers may come back and want x amount of dollars to refinish the floor based on a high-end quote they get. If you take care of it first, you control the cost. It may not matter if your home is priced to sell quickly, but if you want to get the most money out of your house, you don't want something like easily refinished hardwoods to get in the way.