I am sure it's a stupid question to ask but I hate reading how people have just updated their kitchen and bathrooms and such cosmetic stuff to their homes. All I care about is if the foundation is good, wiring up to code, my yard/land won't turn into a lake when it rains, age of the roof, septic, well and what ever makes a firm home. I do not like new modern looks of homes and I plans to make my home very me on the inside. I can look past the bold colors of rooms and I don't want a pool which seems every house has. In about a month we will finally get to see our new home and spend the next few months checking out our top three chose cities to see if we want to live forever in the area or not. If we decide not to live forever in the area we will just stay in housing and wait until DH gets out of the Navy and we can go buy our little plot of land for the truck n camper. Okay thanks for letting me vent on this. But really why do all the upgrades if you are selling? I be take and let me get out of there.
I can only guess that it's because they want their house to look like the newest, freshest, like it's not someplace that they didn't care about. They want it to sell fast, and they know that new buyers don't want to have to buy and instantly remodel. They want it move-in ready.
What Lindina said. The market for sales was (still is) horrible here. We have a rental we'd love to unload, so we had the kitchen re-done. It still didn't sell (the market), so we put it back on the rental market. Every single time we've had a tenant move out, it is re-rented within a week. Spending the money on that kitchen has saved us a LOT in potential lost rent.
I think a lot of it comes from HGTV/marketing and the real estate industry itself... TV is producing shows that paint this grand picture of, for example, spending $10K on a kitchen and it increasing the value of your home by $20K. (unrealistic for most markets if you ask me) Real estate agents are all of the mindset of staging and updating a home and push you for that if you are trying to sell. I think that plays into their presenting of homes to prospective buyers as well... sometimes they dont listen to what you want and decided instead what you should have. I'm sure what you want is out there, it just may take more time to find it. Be creative in looking!~
I think the majority of people go into a home and want it to look fresh, new, and move-in ready. They don't want to get their hands dirty if they don't have to. I also think, as another poster said, that HGTV paints a skewed picture of the housing market in a lot of instances. There are some good shows like "Propery Virgins" who really let people see that they have to think of their budget and buy a fixer upper and MAKE it their own. As for me, personally, I've been renting all my married life (married right out of highschool), and I'm like you. Does it have a roof? Good plumbing? Decent wiring (I got shocked in a rental getting out of the bathtub one time...)? Decent foundation? Good enough for me. I'll do what I want on the inside. I've often complained to DH that we live in our own home now (bc the landlord wont fix anything...if anything breaks it's all on us), but we don't get to paint or do ANYTHING to the inside so it's a rental prison if you will. However, you can't get a loan for a house to save your life! ARGH! lol
I have a few friends who are realtors. They have all verified that it is true that the nicer a house looks, the faster it sells. Still, in the end, there is a buyer for every house, if the price is right. If the price is high, it doesn't sell no matter how nice it looks, it sits until the price is lowered. Handsome and I were looking at houses years ago, and every house that needed too much work, we passed on. He said that he doesn't want to come home from a 13-15 hour day of work to have to do repairs or remodeling to a house. If it is more than paint, he wouldn't want it. I on the other hand would like to make repairs and remodel only IF the repairs and remodeling didn't cost too much money or require us to have to leave our house why the remodeling was completed.
On our street there are four houses that have been sitting for over a year. Nobody even came to the auction for one of them. I think everyone comes and looks at how much work needs to be done and just thinks it is too much. If we were younger and could afford it, I would buy them and remodel them to resale. I can understand wanting a ready to move into home. Moving is bad enough without having to remodel. When the day comes that we move to the country, I want to do several things to my dear father in law's home. He has lived alone for a long time and things have run down in places. He hasn't painted inside for years. Nothing major other than building a front porch but I want to do a little work before we actually move in. Hopefully that won't be for a long time. I love my father in law and he is very healthy for 85!
I too could care less! I mean I want a good home that is stable and solid. But, if it's blue or pink or purple I don't care! I would like wood floors, and the most crazy thing is all the houses have "new carpet", I HATE carpet. I have told a few realtors I HATE carpet if I buy this house, will you come pick up the carpet, I'll give it away! and they always look shocked and like, don't you want it, it's brand new....all the more reason I HATE it! Like I want my kids breathing in all those gasses that new carpet expels for years! A good thing, the house next door is up for sale and I WANT it! They don't want to update it, so are lowering the price. Praise the lord! lol haha Cause I like it just how it is! I like very kitchy 40's style-a little country chic thrown in. The house is perfect, been for sale for over a year because people don't want "older" or dated homes. Blah!
I want a sound house with 'good bones' like you said but we are a budget conscious family and the chances of us spending $10,000 to reno a kitchen are slim so if the house doesn't come nice then it isn't going to be nice. Point being- I want a move in ready house so that out of pocket expenses are minimized and we can focus on fun things like painting bedrooms, raising chickens and planting gardens.
I have to admit that we are in the process of repainting and recarpeting our old house to get it ready to sell. Our realtor said that houses that look fresh and sharp are selling much quicker and for better prices than ones that look worn. I really hope it is worth it because it is a pain.
Most people shopping for a home are spending every bit of cash they have to get into the mortgage. They have no cash reserves left to spend on remodling, painting and such for the first months or year after moving in. Cleaning up a home and re-doing things that are quite popular upgrades can help sell a house. Painting a home out with crisp clean paint is a great way to compete with other homes in the same price point. Replacing an old counter top with some thing new helps in a kitchen that is old. IF you have a newer kitchen you would likely need to spend more than just cleanup money and may leave that for the new owner. Example, 40 year old kitchen where the pattern is worn of the formica, needs a new counter top. Fresh paint, new counter and sink and faucet and fresh caulk everywhere can make a kitchen bearable where it was not before. Cutting out the nasty warped moldy board under the sink and installing a freshly painted piece of plywood with nice caulk joints can make a old kitchen or bathroom a great deal better without spending much money. replacing old carpet is a good idea, and most are moving away to solid floors. We had a house that I had totally repainted and was in good condition. We had an old privacy fence that was rotting on the bottom and had funguses growing on it. I finally convinced DH it had to be replaced to sell and we did so ourselves with the neighbors help for 500 dollars. It immediately made a difference. We got more showings and interest. To bring a company in to do the same fence job would have been 1800 dollars. The fence was an asset because we had the perfect dog owner location with a wooded park across the street and shade trees in the back yard and a small a 6x10 foot building with heat and a/c and dog door. Tearing the fence down would have negated those benefits, but the ugly fence had negative visual and practical impacts. It was large and ugly and no longer served as a secure dog fence. I am sure people would think, If we buy this place we need 2K right away for the fence. A wealthy woman with dogs bought the place as a second home/home for her daughter.
