Carpet vs hardwood for home sale?

[Ken Korona]

I'm planning on selling my home this spring. Currently I'm doing a lot of work to put it in as good shape as possible. The entire house has hardwood flooring (common 2 1/2 inch wide oak). Currently the living room, dining room, and master bedroom are carpeted over the hardwood. The carpet is in pretty skunky condition, not terribly worn, but very dirty. I've had carpet cleaners come in and it makes it a little better, but there's still a lot of stains.

So my question is what should I do with the flooring to improve saleability the most? I guess my choices are:

1. just get the carpet cleaned

1. install new carpet

2. remove the carpet and refinish the underlying hardwood flooring.

My wife in convinced that hardwood is far and away preferable to most buyers. Personally, I prefer carpet to hardwood flooring. I realize it is an individual thing, but are there any stats that say, for example, 75% of buyers prefer hardwood over carpeting?

The house is a contemporary ranch, located in central New Jersey, circa

1978, and has a full basement so these floors are not on a slab. Asking price will be somewhere in the range $450K - $550K.

Thanks

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Your wife is right. Have you watched any of the DIY home improvement shows? The How to Sell Your House shows? Hardwood flooring is in right now and lots of carpeting is being torn out.

The buyer may take your brand new carpet and toss it to have the hardwood floors instead. OTOH, they can always carpet over it if they desire or get area rugs of their choosing. Freshly done floors will be a bit selling point. Brighten up the rooms with a neutral color paint too. I forget the cable channel, but look for a show called "Sell This House" for some ideas that can make you a big payback for small investments.

[Art]

Hardwood.

[m Ransley]

Hardwood and white paint is the way to go.

[Grandpa Dan]

[Dr. Hardcrab]

I have always been told to NEVER spend money on selling a house. Do MINOR cosmetic improvements but NEVER major renovations. If you still think you need to, go with the hardwood floors....

[Marc]

A dirty and stained carpet will be seen as just another thing the buyer needs to do before they move in. Hardwood always seems to be a selling point. I'd refinish the floors.

[Marc]

Have you picked an agent out yet? Why not ask him/her? They should know what sells in your area in that price range. And they're motivated to sell. Of course, they don't care how much you put into it, but at least it's another data point.

[Dorot29701]

It is not always easier, trying to guess what will please buyers. Everyone is different. One trend around here is to set an asking price then offer a carpet replacement allowance. You may have to lift up the carpet so that prospective buyers can look at the hardwood themselves and judge whether it's good enough to repair. Hardwood is a big seller down here....be sure to get estimates on carpet replacement and repair/cleaning hardwood...before setting the amount of allowance you will give back to buyer.

[trader4]

"One trend around here is to set an asking price then offer a carpet replacement allowance. "

Trying to sell a house with carpet in poor shape IMO, is not a good idea even with a credit. Many buyers will devalue the home based on overall impression because of the way it looks more than the value of a reasonable carpet credit. You may find a buyer who will not, but it could take much longer

If the hardwood floors just need to be refinished, I would get the carpet out and do it pronto.

[me]

It is to me

Id buy a hardwood floor over carpeting any day

[RicodJour]

I prefer to use polyurethane on hardwood, but to each his own! ;)

An off-white or neutral paint for the walls would probably be more readily accepted by prospective buyers. True white is kind of harsh looking.

Hardwood floors are most certainly a premium flooring. Refinishing would also probably be less costly than all but the cheapest carpet.

R

[Banty]

Is that refinishing with sanding, staining, etc?

If so, I'd get inexpensive low-pile neutral-colored carpet, and state that the hardwood floors are under there.

I wouldn't be moving furniture out, being off the floors for days, putting up with all that, just for a sale.

Yeah, I know hardwood floors are the hot thing right now, but...

There are a lot of buyers most interested in things being move-in for a start, then get do what they want as time goes on. Mebbe they didn't WANT the floors to be honey-oak, they'll be staining it a darker color anyway.

Just do what you need to make the house move-in, and that's it.

And I think the HGTV shows are designed to sell designers and remodellers.

Banty

[HeyBub]

Rip up the skanky carpet. Don't re-carpet.

Give the buyer an option:

1. You will refinish the floors,
2. You will recarpet the house with the buyer's choice,
3. You will reduce your selling price by ,000 (or whatever) if the buyer takes it as-is.

Whether you re-finish the floors, leave the stained carpet, or put down new will be seen by a significant pool of prospects as a liability to overcome.

(Me, I'd take the price reduction, but others may have differing priorities.)

[Jeff]

Get an estimate from a floor refinisher. Add to the price of the house then offer prospective buyers choice of refinished floors or $$ toward new carpet. A small enticement often can make the difference.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If you have an interested buyer, yes, it can. OTOH, if the potential buyer is turned off by anything they see, they quickly lose interest and will not make an offer at all, but just move on to some other place. There is a TV show called "Sell This House" where they hold an open house and get commetns from hidden cameras. People snub the house and have no interest. Three days and a couple hundred bucks later, they are making offers at the asking price.

[trader4]

"Is that refinishing with sanding, staining, etc?

If so, I'd get inexpensive low-pile neutral-colored carpet, and state that the hardwood floors are under there. I wouldn't be moving furniture out, being off the floors for days, putting up with all that, just for a sale. "

Doesn't sound like all that much trouble to make a house look really good with hardwood floors. You want to get a high price and quick sals. Brand new hardwood floors are going to do a lot more to achieve that than some contractor grade carpet. And I would expect the carpet to cost more than the refinishing. Telling buyers there are wood floors underneath isn't going to do much. The buyers will figure they must be crap, otherwise you wouldn't be covering them up with new carpet. And there's no way for them to know the truth either, since they can't see the wood without ripping out the carpet.

[trader4]

"If you have an interested buyer, yes, it can. OTOH, if the potential buyer is turned off by anything they see, they quickly lose interest and will not make an offer at all, but just move on to some other place. There is a TV show called "Sell This House" where they hold an open house and get commetns from hidden cameras. People snub the house and have no interest. Three days and a couple hundred bucks later, they are making offers at the asking price.

-- Ed "

That's pretty much my thinking too. I would think trading old carpet for a refinished wood floor would be a tradeoff where the bucks spent, which aren't all that much, would be well worth it.

[John Willis]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 12:44:56 GMT, "Dr. Hardcrab" scribbled this interesting note:

Good advice, as far as it goes. How about this instead?

When selling a house, spend every dollar that will gain you, over and above the dollar spent, higher sales prices. When you hit the point where the next dollar you spend to fix up your home only results in one more dollar on the sales price, you need to stop.

-- John Willis [e-mail] (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[John Willis]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 08:56:07 -0500, Marc scribbled this interesting note:

Read Freakonomics. It has a very interesting analysis about Real Estate agents and how they may, or may not be motivated to sell you house for the highest amount possible.

-- John Willis [e-mail] (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)