Eh, I’m terribly prejudiced by my European upbringing. I’ll always take wood, parquet or tile over carpet. Easier to clean and I like walking on it better (I’m genetically no-shoes-in-the-house, which got me yelled at often by my shoes-in-the-house parents).
So I’m not a good random sample, I guess 
Paint, definitely rather a bit off-white than a bright-white. Based not so much on my own reactions as on the reactions of the friends I’ve taken house-shopping.
The vast majority of folks can not imagine what a house with a terrible carpet would look like if it were replaced - so they pass on the property. As a seller, you have to do that work for them.
I have a friend who was trying to sell a house during the height of the real estate craze in Boston a few years ago. They had a great house in a nice location with horrid black and white houndstooth carpet. Their relator advised the carpet allowance route, but no takers. After a few months they bit the bullet and replaced it with a neutral - the house sold within a week.
I’ll also second the no laminate advise - better to get a cheap, neutral berber carpet. I have Pergo floors and I detest them - they are impossible to keep clean. They show footprints for pities sake - like fingerprints on a mirror, but all over the floor. I’m looking for a new house right now, and Pergo anywhere would completely kill the deal.
Do you know what’s under the carpet? Hardwood floors probably sell the best–even if refinishing is needed.
If the “real” floors won’t do, I’d suggest new carpeting. The House Doctor, mentioned above, is fond of “natural” (vegetable) fibers. But any lightish neutral–with a good pad–is probably better than laminate. Laminate looks cheap. And inexpensive carpet needn’t look cheap. It may not last well. But the house will have sold by then.
From my extensive research–in viewing home makeover shows–I’d recommend against leaving the carpets & offering to pay for replacement. Many potential buyers get “turned off” immediately, even if a “fix” is fairly easy. Especially if there’s an odor factor.
New paint is key. But look into neutrals other than white or off white. Check the HGTV site for advice.
One question to British SDMB’ers. What’s up with those carpeted bathrooms?
No, every American I know prefers hard-wood too, its just that in a pinch its easier to lay down some cheap carpet. I personally prefer carpet over wood, but I recognize that I am in the odd 1%. I’m actually about the buy a condo where they guy put in hard-wood floors. Its a concrete building, so the floors had to be installed. First thing I do will be to lay down cheap Home Depot carpet, to keep the floors nice and fresh for whenever I’m ready to sell.
And yes, compared to other units in the building, I know that I paid more for his wood floors.
All those “flip that house” type shows seem to be favoring the wood floors. It costs a bit more, but they’re really “in” right now. If you can afford the downstroke, it’s probably going to be to your benefit to do it.
I’d skip the laminate floors as well. Every time that I’ve seen them, they look somewhat plastic. There are a lot of buyers who dislike them and they are a bit more expensive than carpet.
Like others have said, a light colored carpet would be a good improvement. What kind of shape are the kitchen and bathrooms in?
I would replace as well, and in order of preference I would do:
IOW, you can put me in the “doesn’t like laminate” camp.
Honestly, the carpet can be quite cheap as long as you put in a light neutral and get a decent padding. It won’t be to anyone’s particular taste, but it will let them see the room properly. Carpet is not meant to last forever anyway. Seeing clean carpet in a light neutral, generally the buyer will check off a tick in their mind that they don’t need to replace it right away and can deal with it in a while. Look at the weekly flyers from home improvement places like Menards, and they are bound to have something on sale that will fit.
We just bought a house. I swear I saw this same carpet in three of the other houses we looked at and it was in the Menards’ flyer a few weeks back. I think it goes on sale periodically. Personally I hate it, and I will replace it eventually with a real wood floor, but it was light and made what would other wise be a dark room much lighter. It is good enough. I don’t care that it is not high quality berber or some such. One of the marks against a house we passed up was dirty orange shag in the bedrooms. It was hard to see how the room would look with updated flooring, and knowing that I would have to replace the carpets before I felt comfortable living in that house was a turn off. Dated, stained, carpet speaks to me of unknown horrors lurking under the carpet. New but bland, I can live with a few years.
Do note what the floor under the carpet is. You might have a treasure like hardwood floors. Don’t be tempted to refinish them, but that will be of interest to potential buyers.
I pulled up the carpet in a corner to see and under the carpet/padding it’s a concrete slab.
Out of curiosity, why would anyone pay more than asking price?
Sounds like Mama Zappa entered that holiest of holies, the bidding war. Call it luck.
Wow, I had no idea there was such a hatred of laminate out there. I have it in my house now, and you have to know what to look for to be able to tell it’s not wood. I would guess that the average person who comes into my house has no clue it’s NOT wood (I didn’t, when I first looked at the house before we bought it.) And yes, I’ve lived in houses with hardwood, too. I guess I’m just not as picky about my flooring as some of you!
Please replace it. I know you probably don’t care about the buyer’s perspective, but we made the mistake of buying a house with the existing 70s avocado shag carpet still in it. We needed the house so we put up with it. The previous owners’ cat peed all over the dining room (and our cat homed right in on all the good parts and peed there too) and when we pulled up the carpet we found that some of the beautiful oak flooring was ruined by years of cat urine.
I don’t have dog in the laminate/wood/carpet fight. I think laminate could look really nice, but I think I would go with carpet if I didn’t want to go to the expense of putting down hardwood, especially in light of the laminate hatred in this thread. A light Berber would really be nice.
Yes, precisely. This was the Washington DC suburbs - for DC-area dopers, you may recall a couple years back where the market was utterly insane. More demand than supply, sellers’ market, houses routinely going for more than asking, people waiving inspections, houses remaining on the market for only a few days, etc. So we lucked out. Such a market is great for sellers obviously but sucks when you’ve sold your house and have to find a replacement! Escalator clauses work by saying “I’ll offer xx dollars, but if someone else offers xx + 500, then add 1000 to my offer up to a limit of xx + 15,000”. Sort of like eBay bidding - we had two such offers and offer one was “asking + 15,000” while offer two was “asking + 20,000”. So offer #2 topped the “asking + 15,000” by 1,000.
Sorry for the hijack!! The reason this is even remotely relevant to Sampiro’s thread is the point about seeing to the cosmetic aspects (carpet or other flooring dealt with, fresh paint) really paid off - the essentially identical house nearby (same street, same number of baths etc.) “languished” on the market by the standards of the then-marketplace because it had not been primped for sale. We were actually told by one prospective buyer, who had seen the neighbor’s place first, that ours showed much more nicely.
Another consideration, once you’ve decided on the floor/paint etc., is moving / re-arranging the furniture as appropriate to make the place look less cluttered. We literally moved out 1/3 of our furniture to a storage unit, for example. Some realtors tell you it’s better to show the house entirely empty; others feel it makes the rooms look smaller. Your realtor would be better able to advise you on what the local standards are.
Sampiro, I’ve spent hours reading some of your threads and it’s quite apparent that your family has genes that allow for feuds to be created over petty inconsequential issues (like carpeting for example) and to run to the eleventy-seventh generation.
If your sister is the Executrix, why are you selling the house? It’s her job. Aren’t you just getting yourself into trouble you don’t need?
As I type, workers are replacing the emerald green carpeting in my great room with a neutral beige carpet. The carpet is still in good shape, but it’s hopelessly out of fashion. (Take my advice: put in neutral flooring!)
When I bought my house 13 years ago, the owner had not replaced any of the old carpet or linoleum*. The house had sat on the market for 8 months with no interest. Acting on his new realtor’s advice, the owner actually put some time and money into the house and replaced all the carpet and linoleum with the cheapest neutral flooring they could find. They took down all the wallpaper and painted the walls white.
I can’t tell you what the house looked like before, but I can tell you that we were the first couple to tour the house after the changes and we put in an immediate bid.
My advice for anyone putting a house on the market: At a minimum, make each room as clean as possible. Paint and new carpet do wonders to make a room seem fresh.
Fir na tine, at a guess, because “I’m so busy and you have the time!,” among more complex reasons which, this being Sampiro’s family, may take several hours to digest properly.
I’m the one who’s supposed to have the time, in my family 
If they really, REALLY want the property, they’ll get into a bidding war with the other prospect.
We did our whole little house for about $1,400 and we only did mid-grade padding (due to our goofy-ass doors). It improves the look of the room 150%.
But if I’d had my druthers, it would have been cherry floors.
But most of all, DON’T install anything expensive, like wood floors. There’s no way you can get that money back out of the buyer. Getting rid of old stained gross carpets makes sense, but don’t try to “fix up” the house beyond that. If the buyer wants hardwood floors they can put them in themselves. You’re looking for the cheapest solution that doesn’t look like crap and doesn’t create any dealbreakers.
Not true. I’ve given a carpet allowance in 2 different homes we have sold. The selling price remained the same but at closing the buyers received a check for $ X,000 dollars to invest in new carpet, or whatever type of flooring they wanted to install.