Selling My House, Need Advice.

Terry Hansen · 07-21-2006, 11:11 AM

I'm looking for some advice on selling our home. We purchased our home 4 years ago and would like to upgrade to a newer home and better neighbourhood.

First thing I would like to point out is the city we live in is one of the hottest home markets in the country right now. Prices are escalating and it is definitely a sellers market. We should have no trouble selling our home.

My question is this, what sort of things can we do to maximize our profits (given the current market conditions)? We have done some interior painting but some of our house is outdated. We want to sell quick so we don't want to do any major renovations or work, and given the hot market is there any point to doing any work to our house in order to sell?

Jeff Ulmer · 07-21-2006, 12:01 PM

As long as the house is uncluttered and clean and the yard is reasonably neat for presentation, I wouldn't worry about doing anything major unless repairs are necessary.

Leaving some of the outdated stuff around will let potential buyers use their imagination and chose their own ideas for improvements.

Terry Hansen · 07-21-2006, 12:56 PM

We do have a rotten window which I was going to replace, but a couple people I've spoken to said to leave it unless we were going to replace all the windows.

What about flooring? We have some ancient, discolored vinyl flooring we were wondering about replacing.

Jeff Ulmer · 07-21-2006, 01:11 PM

I would leave the window. I doubt replacing it would affect the resale value. The new owners can decide to replace it, or replace all the windows.

As for flooring, this is something I would also leave, although others may disagree. While it may improve the appearance to replace it, you should consider that your choice in a replacement is unlikely to be what your buyer would want, so this gives them the option of choosing their own style. Replacing flooring is not as simple as just pulling up the old and sticking in new. Done properly this may include a whole new subfloor to get things leveled, and the new owner may prefer tile or some other covering, so new lino won't increase their perceived value. The cost may not be recovered, especially if you are looking for a quick sale.

Another thing to consider is that depending on the age of the flooring, it may need to be removed professionally because it could contain asbestos.

Terry Hansen · 07-21-2006, 01:55 PM

Thanks for the replys Jeff.

One more question. When we painted our main floor last year, I was going to replace the trim and paint the doors as they are old and I got paint on the trim in spots. Should I do this or leave it?

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Mort Corey · 07-21-2006, 02:13 PM

If the paint spots on the trim is obvious, I'd repaint. A buyer might be concerned that if you did a half way job on one thing then perhaps there are other (and maybe more important) maintenance items that were not done properly.

Mort

mylan · 07-21-2006, 02:33 PM

See if you can scratch it off first. This works better if the trim is oil based paint but should still work due to the trim being a higher gloss.

Philip Hamm · 07-21-2006, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry Hansen

First thing I would like to point out is the city we live in is one of the hottest home markets in the country right now. Prices are escalating and it is definitely a sellers market. We should have no trouble selling our home.

Are you absolutely sure of this? Things have changed a LOT in the house market in the last 6 months or so.

My advice: Find a good realtor using personal references.

Terry Hansen · 07-21-2006, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Are you absolutely sure of this? Things have changed a LOT in the house market in the last 6 months or so.

Oh ya, I'm sure. From May to June prices rose nearly 6%.
Clicky

We are going to try and go the sell it yourself route. My neighbour just sold his house that way.

Jeff Ulmer · 07-21-2006, 06:43 PM

Even if you are going to sell by owner, I would have the home appraised by at least three realtors, which should show you what kind of competition you have with comparables, and give you a realistic range for pricing the home. Realise that some appraisals will be undervalued because the realtor wants to flip the home quickly, while others will be unrealistically high in order to get you to sign on with the agent (who will then ask you to drop the price to a sellable price after you've signed the contracts).