| Hey, that's great, because that's exactly what I've got. Even I would
| rather have fancier cabinets, but only a little.
I'm happy to have made your day. :)
I remember in the 60s there was a big thing with
ribbon stripe mahogany. In the 80s it was red oak.
In the 90s it was maple, or cherry for high end. But
now it seems like anything goes. HD seems to carry
the dark stained junk wood, red oak and white. But
painted cabinets of all colors seem to be in vogue.
Even things like avocado.
We're putting our home on the market. Our real estate agent is really good
and sells numerous homes in this part of Houston. She says we could put the
house on the market at X dollars, and probably sell it rather quickly, since
it's a nice house in good shape. It also has a larger lot than the
surrounding homes and all sorts of recent upgrades to AC/Heating, Water
Heater, Fence, Hardwood floors throughout, etc. The bathrooms and kitchen
were updated before we purchased the home in 2005. The updates were good,
but they didn't do all the granite counter-tops that everyone (except us)
likes these days. We don't particularly like granite and decided to leave
the counters alone until we did a remodel, that we are not going to do now.
So, our real estate agent says we could sell relatively quickly at X dollars
by only making some cosmetic (paint, etc.) changes. Or, we could make X +
$$$ if we put in granite counter-tops in the kitchen and all bathrooms for
around 10K.
We have our mother-in-law living with us now and the construction would be a
huge disruption for her. Also, the original listing price that the agent
says we can get, without putting in granite, is about what I have been
expecting to get. If we do the granite, we can get a lot more than the 10K
we'll be putting in.
However, and don't take this the wrong way please, we don't really need a
lot of money out of the house. We have a lot of equity and our house will
sell for a LOT more than what we paid for it in 2005. The real estate prices
for existing homes in Houston (in our area, never flooded) have stayed up
there, even with the downturn in the oil/gas biz.
Put in the granite for 10K?
(By the way, this is the documented quoted price from the counter-top guy
from yesterday.)
-----------------
what is ($$$$ - $10k)*(1-selling cost %)?
The bathrooms and kitchen were updated before we purchased the home in 2005. The updates were good, but they didn't do all the granite counter-tops that everyone (except us) likes these days. We don't particularly like granite and decided to leave the counters alone until we did a remodel, that we are not going to do now.
By all means do some simple things such as fresh paint to make it look
good. Do not forget the outside of the house for looks.
Don't spend much on things that are not needed like the Granet tops.
As somneone mentioned, look at putting it up for sale yourself. I am
sure you are under contract for 6 to 12 months to the realitor, but if
not sold by then, sell it yourself.
Several years ago I went through some of this. Was living in a house,
dad passed and had his house to deal with, and also bought a house. The
house we bought and dads house went thgough a realitor. Bad mistake.
Had a difficult time with the sales. Cecided to sell the house we were
in. PUt up a sign and advertised in the paper for 2 weeks. Sold the
house without any problems.
MOST buyers - around here anyway - expect a bargain when they buy
private. They know you are saving the real estate fee. It is often
beneficial to pay a good broker. Uding the guy that will shave half
a percent off his fee isn't always the best idea.. You want a broker
that will "bust his buns" for you and sell it as quickly as possible
for as good a price as he can get for you - jusy like using a "buyer's
agent" can often get you a bettewr house for a better price with less
hassle than just going looking for houses yourself.
if anyone fixes up their home for sale you should pick neutral colors that most buyers will like
if you pick brite bold colors it can distract from a sale.
most people try to buy the most house they can afford, that leaves them little money to fix up the home.
i suggest watching flip or flop.......
they buy run down houses, invest big bucks, get back their investment plus lots more.
when i inherited my moms home it was in poor condition. real estate agent reported it as 85K at best and probably less. i sunk 10K in the home and sold it for 120K
Had a similar experience many years ago selling my father's condo in
Florida after he died.
Listed it with the highly recommended realtor who handled most of the
sales in the huge retirement condo village where the property was. It
was a nice unit and priced right but the useless agent brought me only
one bottom-feeder offer in the six months he had the listing.
Subsequently, I went to Florida to inspect the property and bumped into
the president of the building where the condo was. He said he could
probably send me a buyer and I told him if he did, I'd slip him the same
commission a sales agent would have received. Of course selling real
estate without a license was illegal at the time-- but what the hey...
As things turned out, he did, I did, deal done. Five weeks start to finish!
--
The more is given, the less the people will work for themselves and the
less they work, the more their poverty will increase.
On 6/3/2016 10:54 AM, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
Real estate is all about perception.
You, your junk, and your dirty carpeting have to move out.
Then clean and paint until it looks as close to new as possible.
Remove all mold and stains from showers, toilets and sinks.
It has to look spotless!
really good and sells numerous homes in this part of Houston. She says
we could put the house on the market at X dollars, and probably sell it
rather quickly, since it's a nice house in good shape.
Sorry, I missed the question... a good agent is worth a lot, but I'm
not a big fan of driving around town looking at houses someone else
picks out for me.
Last house I bought, I just got the list of houses that fit my
requirements, checked them out on my own and then told the agent which
ones I wanted to see. That saved me and agent a LOT of time, and it was
the easiest commission the agent ever made.
If an agent won't do this, you don't want to deal with them. If a
house sells to someone they sent the list to, all they have to do is
show proof of sending it to the listing agent and they'll get at least
part of the commission.
On Fri, 3 Jun 2016 07:54:36 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
That's $10K IF you don't run into other problems - and then the new
buyer says " I LOVE the house, but that granite has to go - I want
(whatever color yours isn't) quartz countertops" - and the granite
doesn't get you as much as you expected. I'd sell the house basically
"as is". Freshen up paint "if required". If the paint is in good
condition and no damage to the walls, don't waste too much money on
painting. Most buyers will want to paint their colors anyway - and a
lot of buyers seeing fresh paint will wonder "what did it look like
before they painted" - a coat of paint can hide a multitude of sins.
Being on a "larger lot than normal" may meen the new buyer will want
to put on an addition or do major renos.
And there is always the option of saying new countertops are optional
at whatever price you can negotiate. SOME people would be happy to pay
a bit more not to have to deal with the contractor themselves.
On 2016-06-03 9:53 PM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:
Yep, we took possession of our house on a Friday, and pulled orange shag
carpet off the living/dining area, moved in Saturday, had the floors
sanded/refinished on the Tuesday absolutely beautiful oak hardwood.
Then the painting started..... The housing market here in Toronto,
Canada is absolutely crazy, Clare probably has an idea, after nearly 20
years, we have made a ton of money on it, and can't afford to move, it
makes no sense, and we do not need anything bigger.
at retirement sell it and move to cambridge, guelph, or Fergus and you
can live well off the profit. Move to Drayton or Listowel and have
even more money available - or Wingham, Bluevale/ Lucknow area and
even more - and be within 20 minutes or so of the lake.
On Fri, 3 Jun 2016 07:54:36 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in
IMO, selling fast is always better than selling to squeeze out every
penny.
--
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and having to visit 10 different news stands to pickup each one.
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