That's the way I feel. And I've heard a story about one family that redid the whole kitchen to make the house look good. The new owners ripped it all out and put in a second new kitchen.
If I bought a house that had been remodeled, I would live with whatever they did, even if I didn't like it much, because I couldn't bear to spend all that money to rip out good stuff just so I could have something a little better. (and maybe not even that, because I might change my mind.)
I hear people getting their house prepared to sell. Very little repair is done as these homes were not severely neglected. Reduction of clutter and paint seem to be on the top of the list. Most buyers will leave if they find a leaky/damaged roof, musty/mold/pet smell, un kept lawn, dirty house, broken windows, etc. Of course you can do absolutely nothing in preparation and keep lowering the price until it sells. A real estate person will provide free and useful tips that is geared to your area and he/she wants your house to sell quickly and generally at a high price. A fixer-upper can be attractive to first-time buyers or a construction company. Homes are not selling well in most of the United States at this time, it is a buyers market. Good luck!
Your goal is to sell the house at or near the asking price, in as short a time as possible. Fix anything that is broken or rotted. It's partially a matter of first impressions, or comparisons between this house and others. You should want your house to be the best of those being sold in the same price range, and so you have to walk a line between leaving a bad impression and over-improving your house. If you put obstacles in the way of the sale, within a few weeks the agent will want to reduce the price or offer other incentives to buyers in order to recreate interest in the house.
Buyers assume that an owner has made efforts to fix anything broken; visible damage leads to the conclusion that there is a lot of hidden damage -- even if the visible problems are minor. Most homeowners know implicitly that a repair project often uncovers further problems and repairs rarely come in under estimate. You don't want potential buyers walking through and thinking, "I'll have to replace those cabinets, that countertop, that refrigerator" or "Those watermarks on the ceiling tile mean that the roof also leaks. That's a major expense that will have to come off the offering price."
The broken ceiling tile needs to be replaced -- if the new ones are obvious, the whole ceiling should be replaced. If the roof leaks, fix it and make sure the new shingles blend in with the old. Check around outdoor moldings, especially around the garage door. The bottom of the door trim is likely to be rotten and should be replaced. The impression you want to leave with the potential buyer is that the present owner is fastidious and doesn't get behind in getting repairs accomplished.
If possible, move out before putting the house on the market, then repaint and stage the house. It's a lot easier to make repairs at this time, with no furniture in the way.
Three suggestions for your friends: (1) Get your own home inspection by a qualified inspector, who will probably find things you hadn't thought about. Don't argue with his/her report, because a potential buyer is going to get similar information. (2) Walk through the house with a still camera and take pictures of every room. Instead of looking at the house, look at the pictures, really closely. The pictures are going to show you things that need repairs or replacing, that you otherwise would just walk by. (3) Find a few other houses like this one that are on the market, and walk through them. This house has to look better than any of them.
Selling fast and at a good price requires an investment in marketing the house -- especially in this market.
The way the commission generally works, the agent gets a quarter of that amount. It's divided between the listing agent, selling broker, selling agent/broker. I might not be perfectly correct, but that's the general idea. The agent would walk away with a few hundred dollars.
Then, how about this? Down the street from my house, a developer built a small new sub-division of 6 houses that sold for $1mil+. The lots, while very nice, are certainly not unique, not waterfront, etc. Well, the last house he had built was close to completion. It had completed roof, windows, siding, stone work around entrance, etc. Inside, it was waiting for selection of flooring, bath/kitchen fixtures, etc.
So, I drive by a few months later and the house looked like it had been blown apart. Roof, windows, siding, doors, porch, etc ALL GONE. I honestly thought they must have built it on a sink hole or something and had to tear it down. I asked a neighbor what was going on and he told me that it was sold and the new buyer was remodeling it. Almost a year later, and it's totally different and still not finished. They turned it into a cold grey stucco monstrosity that doesn't fit in with any of the other 5 houses. It now includes great features like what appears to be a balcony off the Master suite with see-through glass instead of railings. That could be nice, but why would you have the MB balcony face the street? LOL
Yes and DPB is right. With the type of flat percentage compensation plan real estate agents have, the goal is to get the deal done quickly and with the least effort. If you do the math, having someone put
10% of the selling price in upgrades into a house, doesn't make that much difference in their cut to make it worth while. But if those upgrades make the house sell quickly, that is of great benefit.
Also, here's another factor. Let's say the agent tells the prospective seller that they should do major renovation before putting it on the market. In that situation, if the seller takes the advice, they are likely NOT going to list the house right away. Instead, they are going to do the work, then list it. That could take months and during that time, another agent, buyer, etc could come along and the first agent loses the deal.
I agree with you there. It might even be worth the 10G to the owner just to sell fast. I can see that, no problem. I was just saying, the commission difference is probably not as much for the agent as one might think.
Lots and lots of people with lots of money, no brains or taste. Load of properties around us are million-plus, nice older ranches on the water. Many of them have been torn down and replaced by McMansions - three story monsters up to the property line. All look as if window/door/trim choices were one of everythin in the catalog. Butt ugly. Just recently, the neighborhood association was up in arms because someone wanted to get rid of restrictions for docking boats on the channel - someone wanted to dock a NINETY FOOT BOAT. NIMBY! 40' is pretty high-end :o) Of course, it could be an ancient fishing trawler - one sank in the channel couple of years ago :o)
I'm selling a row house in that general area. I think how much updating/repairing needed depends in part on what the neighbors have done. One thing I discovered when I started reading the listings of other houses in my neighborhood was that the descriptions were almost cookie cutter - "new kitchen, freshly painted, new carpet or refinished floors". I pretty much had to do that to be competitive... or I'd have had to list at a lot less. It also depends on the type of neighborhood and what type of people they expect to buy the house. Many people moving to my neighborhood are just starting out and don't have the money to do that type of upgrades. Plus most would be moving from an apt or a smaller house and not have the money to live in the old house while fixing a new one (and most likely need the money from the sale of #1 to buy #2). OTOH, the neighborhood I moved to is a step above that and more desirable in general, so the owners there don't do as much because buyers are interested in the location. This may be where talking to agents would help the most - telling them what the "norm" is in that neighborhood and what buyers are likely to expect or be attracted to.
I recently sold my mother's house and one thing I learned doing that (and talking to others) is that buyers will want a discount for any perceived imperfection, even if the seller has already taken them into consideration when setting the price.
Suggestions for the friends. Talk to other agents and see if they get the same recommendations over and over. Go to open houses in the surrounding areas and see what the competition is doing. Subscribe to some of the online real estate websites that will let them monitor houses being listed in the area so they can see what's being advertised. Maybe find a more home selling specific audience to ask. One that I've found helpful is the HGTV.com's message boards. The friends could post a link there to photos of the house and get other people's reactions and free (for what it's worth ) advice. I've seen people get some really helpful input there, and often for things that don't require a lot of money, like what color to paint a room, or ideas on curb appeal.
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