I am in the process of selling my mother’s house. The downstairs carpet (LR/DR/hall) is emerald green- a color I have never particularly liked. The room is dark- its windows are relatively narrow- and the carpet makes it darker. In addition, the carpet has had a lot of damage over the years from pets, a leaky AC at one point (since replaced) and just general age (judging from the color and the fact it wasn’t new when my mother bought the place I’d judge it conservatively at 10 years old and wouldn’t be surprised if it was original when the house was built ca. 1984).
I have asked my sister (the estate’s executrix [and a royal pain-in-the-ass]) to give me the money (from my mother’s accounts) for painting, minor repairs and to replace the carpet with wood laminate flooring and I’ll repay it with my proceeds when the house sells. The reason for laminate: it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to place, a maple color would considerably brighten the room, and above all it looks a helluva lot better than the carpet would even if the carpet is steam cleaned (some stains and wear aren’t going to come out). My sister refuses, saying it’s a better idea NOT to replace the carpet but to let whoever buys it take it and out and do what they want with it.
Aw’ight, I’m considering using my own money and doing this anyway. My theory is that by spending under $1,000 I could probably add $2,000 or more to the price AND sell the house quicker because it would improve the looks that much: it would make the room lighter, brighter, more spacious looking, and it’s not ugly emerald green carpet in an already dark room. My sister says this won’t happen, especially since the real estate market has slumped nationwide.
I’m aware of the real estate slump, but houses sell fast in my mother’s neighborhood. It’s in a very desirable location less than a minute’s walk from almost 200 acres of city parks (including The Art Museum (which adjoins her back yard) and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is a 3-4 minute walk) and yet it’s one of the few neighborhoods in this area where single people can afford to buy houses (about 5 blocks away the houses more than double in value and then get progressively more expensive until it ends in a million dollar neighborhood a few miles from here). The house 2 doors down was sold by owner recently: he never signed with a realtor and he never advertised it other than with a For Sale By Owner sign and he sold it for full value within a month, and a townhouse across the street sold within a month of being listed last summer. I don’t think it’s going to be hard to sell and I want to sell it as quickly as possible and for as much as possible and I think I’ll sell it quicker and for more with wood flooring rather than ugly old carpet.
So, short OP long, do you think I’m right or she is? Should I replace the carpet with maple laminate or will it probably sell for as much and in the same time if I leave the ugly but servicable carpet? (She agrees that it needs interior painting and some minor repairs at least.)
I’d vote for replacing the carpet–given that the carpet is ugly and in need of replacing anyway. And given that your plan is not to replace it with other carpet, but to put in wood floors.
Once upon a time, in an unrelated housing market, my parents and I looked at a house with ugly brown shag carpet. The sellers offered us a credit towards replacing some of the carpet. We kept looking.
I wouldn’t count on the new floor increasing the value of the house (as in the amount of money someone pays you to acquire it), but I’d be surprised if it didn’t increase the curb appeal, which is probably more important in the present housing market.
Take this with an appropriate grain of salt–it’s not like I actually bring any specialized knowledge to the table.
Here’s a different spin: When selling my previous house, I offered buyers their choice of color in a builder grade carpet/pad with installation amounting to x$/sy. That way, they could upgrade and pay the difference, while still choosing their color.
Realtors will tell you definitely replace the carpet. If carpet is cheaper than the maple flooring you have in mind, I’d recommend sticking with the carpet.
The people who are in the business of selling houses almost always carpet them in light colors. This is because time and again that gets them the best results in selling the house.
As a buyer, logically, I would actually prefer the money so I could get decent quality carpet in a color to match my cats. But psychologically people cannot get over unappealling carpet and can’t visualize the house with different carpet. People shop for houses emotionally, and stained, smelly, unattractive carpet kills the buzz, while dark carpet makes the space look smaller.
I used to watch a program called the House Doctor on BBC America about an American woman who helped people in the UK stage their homes when they weren’t selling. Replacing ugly carpeting with wood floors (even inexpensive laminates) was one of the techniques she used. Apparently, people can’t visualize the room with different floor coverings or different wall coverings, so you need to present a neutral palette.
Replace the carpet with cheap light colored carpet with a relatively good pad under it. It’s cheaper than laminate and a lot of people don’t like laminate flooring. IMHO laminate flooring is like walking on a counter top, it echos and does not in any way seem like anything other than fake wood.
Selling a house is staging, staging, staging. It’s all about first impressions and emotion. Cheap beige carpet is the way to go.
Depending on your buyers, many people buy as much house as they can afford. After paying realtor fees, closing costs, inspection fees, ad nauseum, many buyers can’t afford to shell out a thousand dollars for new carpet. By doing it before the sale, you are presenting a home that has been well maintained, clean, and a neutral pallette for their furnishings.
Giving the buyers a “credit” is not giving them the cash to go out and buy their own carpet. It’s simply reducing their mortgaged amount by the whatever you’ve reduced your selling price to.
Replace the carpet. Only replace with laminate if it’s cheaper. In my experience, laminate is much more expensive than mid-grade carpet but YMMV.
I’d replace it too. Giving buyers a break on the price or giving them a carpet allowance is fine, but sometimes there’s not much time between closing the sale and a buyer needing to move in. The buyer might not have time to shop for carpet and get it installed before they need to move in.
Have you looked under the old carpet? Maybe there’s a nice, clean wood floor underneath.
Eureka and Harriet–He’s not considering maple flooring. He’s considering laminate flooring.
And please don’t do laminate. It can be a good choice for certain situations, but this doesn’t sound like one of them.
I’d say definitely replace the carpet.
Offering an allowance to replace the carpet might make sense logically, but the fact is that most people aren’t good at visualizing stuff like that. If the carpet makes the rooms seem dingy and run-down, then it will be a rare buyer who can imagine the room as fresh and bright.
I say replace the carpet. When I was selling my house, I had some faded, stained carpet. The house didn’t move. I changed it out with new, neutral beige carpet and it sold the same month.
Many people aren’t able to visualize new carpet, paint, etc. They have a hard enough time trying to see thier furniture in a place. If you take the visualization out of it, it’ll be attractive to more buyers.
We replaced our carpet - and painted, and took all the clutter out and put it into storage - and sold our house during the open house. And the market back then was a bit like the one now. Don’t give buyers a reason to reject the house.
Why isn’t it one of them? To me, the newer wood laminates look very much like “real” wood flooring, and they are much easier to care for and don’t get worn from pet damage, dropped objects, etc. like wood floors do. Having had houses with both, I prefer wood laminates over real wood. I’m curious what situations you don’t think wood laminates are appropriate for.
I agree with sinjin. Never in a million years would I buy a house with laminate flooring. A neutral carpet is something I could live with until I got my own favourite flooring installed.
I don’t like laminate either; I’d stick with carpet if you can’t do real wood. Dark green carpet is going to be so dominant in the room I think it really needs to go.
Thanks for all input. I’m glad to see that whether laminate or carpeting, the responses are overwhelmingly “get rid of the carpet”.
Does anybody have a general idea how much I should expect to pay for about 400 to 450 square feet of “not expensive but not cheap looking” carpet? There are a couple of small hallways (one to the kitchen and one the downstairs bath) but mostly it’s just squarish rooms/no odd angles. The foundation is concrete.
And any advice on whether to paint the walls off-white or another neutral color?
Definitely replace the carpet with carpet, not laminate flooring. While Pergo, et al has been the rage for a few years, many people hate it. Carpet is common and accepted.
I have done a lot of remodeling for people who flip houses, and believe me, many people absolutely detest laminate floors.
eta re painting. Any off white color is good, we use navaho or rainier white a lot. Keep in mind, if you use semi-gloss in rooms other than the kitchen or bath, flaws in walls will be more evident than using flat paint.
Definitely check with your realtor to get his/her take on the “replace before showing” vs. “offer an allowance for buyer to replace”, and also on whether laminate is appropriate for your area and style of house. Carpet is likely cheaper - laminate in our kitchen / dining room would have cost 3,000, and cheap carpet in our entire townhouse was less than that.
Basically, you want the place looking clean, bright, and not too dated.
An anecdote: We sold our townhouse (DC Metro area) back in 2002 during the early-to-middle stages of the housing insanity. At a time when it was standard for a buyer to come in with an offer above asking price, and often with escalator clauses. As in, we could have sold a dump and still made money. But on the advice of 2 realtors, we replaced pretty much all the carpet in the house (the kids’ bedrooms looked OK, and the original carpet was an upgrade anyway). I think we spent 1700 dollars - we did not go high-end; the carpet was just supposed to look good for selling, really. That, plus the whole-house repaint, added substantially to the curb appeal of the place. We sold the place in 3 days, for 16,000 over asking price (3 contracts, 2 with escalator clauses). By contrast, a neighbor’s townhouse, identical floorplan but no cosmetic changes, was on the market for several weeks (a rarity back then) and sold for 30,000 or more less than ours did.
See my other post for an esitmate on the carpet - I’d guess that price was for about 1000-1200 square feet, including stairs. We paid another 300ish for one additional room (10x12 or thereabouts).
Paint: definitely neutral color. Maybe more of a cream rather than institutional white (we also had the wood trim painted a brighter white, to make a little low-key contrast).
