Best ROI fixes/updates?

[Big A]

We are likely looking to sell our house next spring, and want to of course get top dollar. The house needed a little work when we bought it, due to the previous owners complete lack of maintenance, which we've been slowly updating and upgrading.

The kitchen has been updated with granite and a tile backsplash, painted cabinets and new hardware, so we are good there. We've got new tile and wood floors downstairs, but the entire upstairs is untouched, original bathrooms, well used carpet, and several sets of blinds are broken and/or stained.

Would it make sense to update these things, or not really move the needle enough to cover the expense?

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[lincolnboy]

Just look at the houses for sale around you. Give you price range on your house

[GeorgeG.]

I hear the wife always talking to her sellers/buyers about bathrooms/kitchens being a big deal. Also, carpet. Even though buyer agents mention carpet allowance, etc., that first appearance when you walk in makes a big difference. I'd say definitely replace the blinds that look bad.

IMO, the key thing to upgrading yourself before selling is that you have to have good taste and a general idea of current styling and décor. Don't make the decision to upgrade yourself and then buy the cheapest shit you can find. Cheap shit looks like cheap shit even if it's new and shiny. You're taste might not be what the next buyers are looking for which could come back to bite you in the butt. That's where a good agent should be able to help.

[Big A]

I hear the wife always talking to her sellers/buyers about bathrooms/kitchens being a big deal. Also, carpet. Even though buyer agents mention carpet allowance, etc., that first appearance when you walk in makes a big difference. I'd say definitely replace the blinds that look bad.

IMO, the key thing to upgrading yourself before selling is that you have to have good taste and a general idea of current styling and décor. Don't make the decision to upgrade yourself and then buy the cheapest shit you can find. Cheap shit looks like cheap shit even if it's new and shiny. You're taste might not be what the next buyers are looking for which could come back to bite you in the butt. That's where a good agent should be able to help.

I hear you, incidentally my challenge just the opposite, in reigning in my wife. She has expensive tastes, and doesn't fully get the ROI piece. That was also my thoughts on replacing the carpet, I'll probably scale back slightly though, and not get the top of the line. I also do think that redoing the upstairs bathrooms could be worth it, but I don't know that I want to commit to the stress. Time is money, and paying a crew to do it for me wouldn't net much if any profit I don't think.

[Ruffdaddy]

Replace those blinds with Roman shades! Easy and classy looking...No need for curtains either.

Sounds like you've got most of it covered though.

[ceyko]

Any house I have that I'll likely sell - keep it neutral. Last house I sold - 3 things I did that I think helped sell it (You already address another, with the kitchen which seems to be #1)

1. New Carpet
2. New tile
3. Pressure washed the driveway

IMHO, if you have ragged carpet or tile - that's what the buyer sees throughout the whole house. Intentionally or not it's going to make a mental impact. Carpet is a cheap risk too.

[Baron Von Crowder]

even the cheapest carpet is still "new looking" to a buyer. They are going to spend an hour or so total in your hours before closing, if they go to the inspection.

Bathrooms and kitchens are really the only place money comes back, in reguards to renovations.

[Rick Modena]

I'm going through this as we speak, my house is new ('15) but I replace the carpet with nice wood flooring in the living/master BR and repainted the entire interior, the carpet in the remaining rooms are in good condition. Inspection and appraisal went very well.
Though looking at other houses, the things you mentioned need to be addressed, new carpet is new carpet, regardless if its top of the line or builder grade, things that don't work come across as things that need to be addressed. As a buyer we want to move in without doing a boat load of things.
Also keep everything neat while selling, go look at a model home and that's what your home needs to look like, not perfect, but neat...

[Big A]

Also keep everything neat while selling, go look at a model home and that's what your home needs to look like, not perfect, but neat...

My thought here was to go ahead and pack all closets, pictures, and "clutter," and rent a storage unit for the month or 3 that it takes to sell, then we are at least half way done when it comes to the final packing. The less to square away before a showing the better.

[Baron Von Crowder]

My thought here was to go ahead and pack all closets, pictures, and "clutter," and rent a storage unit for the month or 3 that it takes to sell, then we are at least half way done when it comes to the final packing. The less to square away before a showing the better.

My realtor (cool dude, car guy, also crew chief for an scca team) told us that de-cluttering would be good, but there's great debate as to pulling down pictures and whatnot. Some buyers like to see it as a nice, homey feeling house when they look at it.

[BradM]

My thought here was to go ahead and pack all closets, pictures, and "clutter," and rent a storage unit for the month or 3 that it takes to sell, then we are at least half way done when it comes to the final packing. The less to square away before a showing the better.

We rented a unit and cleared out clutter. We were in our last house for 13 years. It's crazy how much bullshit we acquired. The shit is still in storage, we moved into our new house in January which is twice the size of our old house and I don't want to bring that crap here.

[lincolnboy]

We are in process in selling(already have a buyer) our house and to top it off, dealing with tornado damage to fix!!

[ceyko]

My thought here was to go ahead and pack all closets, pictures, and "clutter," and rent a storage unit for the month or 3 that it takes to sell, then we are at least half way done when it comes to the final packing. The less to square away before a showing the better.

Yeah - staging is huge, but just part of the process. We considered it just part of the moving process and allowed us to pack a bunch of crap. We started with 1 climate controlled unit. Then decided to keep on packing and ended up with 2 units. Pack smartly (unit and house) and it makes life easier when doing the final move.

To add....the storage units allowed us to hire someone to do the big move. Basically once sold we could pack all the rest - except essentials. Then day before our movers came I loaded and moved all stuff NEEDED for the new (to us) house. We had 90% prepacked in boxes. The rest (furniture, large tables, gun safe, toolboxes, smoker...etc) the movers packed and moved. They loaded a 24' truck, one of their f-150s, my Titan w/ 12' enclosed an SUV and a mustang full of stuff - moved it to Van Alstyne (45 minute drive) and put everything in the rooms we wanted and reassembled everything. It was a 14 hour day for them and ran us 700 - I think I paid 850 or 900 w/tip about 9 years ago.

Then after we settled in for a day or two - I did runs to the storage unit with truck and trailer for the rest that was lower priority and closed out the storage units. Without the storage units it would've been 2-3 runs and priced us out of having that help. Them moving us saved us a day or two of effort and exhaustion with 1.5 y/o kids. Then the staging aspect with the units....and emptying on our timeline ....it just all helped a ton.

[Big A]

Replace those blinds with Roman shades! Easy and classy looking...No need for curtains either.

I looked them up, and maybe it's the styles I am seeing, but these look kind of cheap. Anything my wife would like will probably run over budget anyway. I do appreciate the suggestion, but I think replacing the few blinds that need help will be the better route.

Yeah - staging is huge, but just part of the process. We considered it just part of the moving process and allowed us to pack a bunch of crap. We started with 1 climate controlled unit. Then decided to keep on packing and ended up with 2 units. Pack smartly (unit and house) and it makes life easier when doing the final move.

To add....the storage units allowed us to hire someone to do the big move. Basically once sold we could pack all the rest - except essentials. Then day before our movers came I loaded and moved all stuff NEEDED for the new (to us) house. We had 90% prepacked in boxes. The rest (furniture, large tables, gun safe, toolboxes, smoker...etc) the movers packed and moved. They loaded a 24' truck, one of their f-150s, my Titan w/ 12' enclosed an SUV and a mustang full of stuff - moved it to Van Alstyne (45 minute drive) and put everything in the rooms we wanted and reassembled everything. It was a 14 hour day for them and ran us 700 - I think I paid 850 or 900 w/tip about 9 years ago.

Then after we settled in for a day or two - I did runs to the storage unit with truck and trailer for the rest that was lower priority and closed out the storage units. Without the storage units it would've been 2-3 runs and priced us out of having that help. Them moving us saved us a day or two of effort and exhaustion with 1.5 y/o kids. Then the staging aspect with the units....and emptying on our timeline ....it just all helped a ton.

Fortunately this is our third move, so we've already tossed a bunch of the crap that people tend to amass in early adulthood, so there's not really a ton of true clutter. This sounds like our plan, the only other complication is that we'll likely be moving to a rental for a period, so we'll be staging way non-essentials (decorations/furniture) to sit for the next year or so, then comes the boxes we'll unpack at the rental, and lastly the immediate essentials and plants to go in the X4/trailer. The only other tweak is that I plan to use the "new" garage as storage to save the extra trips on the back end.

[Ruffdaddy]

I looked them up, and maybe it's the styles I am seeing, but these look kind of cheap. Anything my wife would like will probably run over budget anyway. I do appreciate the suggestion, but I think replacing the few blinds that need help will be the better route.




Fortunately this is our third move, so we've already tossed a bunch of the crap that people tend to amass in early adulthood, so there's not really a ton of true clutter. This sounds like our plan, the only other complication is that we'll likely be moving to a rental for a period, so we'll be staging way non-essentials (decorations/furniture) to sit for the next year or so, then comes the boxes we'll unpack at the rental, and lastly the immediate essentials and plants to go in the X4/trailer. The only other tweak is that I plan to use the "new" garage as storage to save the extra trips on the back end.

Hah...we (my wife) bought the shades over blinds for the exact same reason...she thought blinds look cheap. It just show how different preference can be...but I wish the shades were the cheaper option.

We've also sold 3 houses in the past 6 years and have always had a picture collage with full closets. It's never made a difference as our houses have never taken more than a week to sell. Maybe we just dont hold much clutter so it's a different story...but theres some recent data points there. Im sure your family looks like stock photos anyways so why go theough the pain of patching all the hanger holes and such before the final move out...

And I'm guessing you're building custom if you are waiting a year for the new house? Is this for a new job or just a more desirable location?