Someday I will figure out the difference between vintage and out of date. Also character. I like watching the house shows and sometimes want to educate some of those buyers, especially first timers. The owner adds the character. Not having stainless steel appliances means you can get new ones that you like. Vintage comes with old insulation, windows…
Region matters so much. In our old city being on the market less than 6 months was a fast sale, during the downturn when we wanted to move taking a couple of years was not uncommon for upscale for the area houses. Here I asked our realtors about counter surfaces et al when renovating and was told it didn’t matter- just choose what we wanted. We did and it looks like we will be here long enough for the next owner to comment on how old everything is.
Mid century modern is so popular now that those old Tupperware containers with the ridged lids can be found for sale in vintage cookware shops. Yes, there are vintage cookware shops! Aprons from the 50s and 60s are very sought after. Who knew?
We built our “dream home” twenty some years ago. Discovered many compromises needed. Different things now available that weren’t back then. Sold it when we retired and relocated. No sense of loss. The new owners got tons of storage-closets et al and other nice features. Theirs to do with as they wish. Totally renovated (ie no permit work required except for window replacement) current house. Works for our stage in life- sure wish there was better storage, however but with only two of us it works.
We also built our home about 24 years ago. Any work we are doing now is so WE can enjoy it while we live here. A real estate agent friend told me I HAD to paint my custom woodwork white. Guess what? The next owner can do that because I love the light wood color on this custom molding. The same person told us we had to get stainless kitchen appliances and a stainless sink. Guess what? I wanted white…so if the next owner wants stainless…they can get stainless.
When the time comes to sell, lots of stuff will be tossed. We have started that process already. But we have 3600 sq ft of stuff. Even the bare minimum is really too much!
Re: books…my inlaws have a gazzilion books…and bookshelves. We have made it very clear that we don’t want either. I’m guessing the books will get donated to some library for a used book sale.
I’ve asked my kids to identify wall art they want…and it is being labeled accordingly. Everything not labeled for,them will be labeled donate to ____ charity…and we have a choice now.
Our plan is to downsize once DH stops working. We will take only the bare minimum with us…probably the things we had in the three room apartment we lived in before we bought our first house. They are nice pieces that we really like. Everything else…don’t need it!
What actually happens is that they don’t buy your house; they buy the house with the white trim and the stainless steel appliances, because it’s a total pain in the behind to paint trim and deal with picking out, paying for, and having appliances installed.
It’s fine to have what you like for living in the house, but you have to recognize that if the real estate agent is telling you this when you want to sell your house, it’s not to tell you you have bad taste.
Well, yeah, that’s fine. There are some things we’re going to do to this house to make it more sellable that isn’t going to happen until the day before we put it on the market (like new carpeting in some areas). Once we decide to sell the house, it undergoes a fundamental transformation from our nest to a product. I’m very good at making nests and creating products, and I know there’s a huge difference.
Plus we’ll probably move some of my artwork into storage because it’s pretty…wild, and I don’t want people focusing on that vs. the house.
Yep…when the time comes, we will do the same. But this butinsky real estate agent was insisting I needed to do these things…NOW. Quite frankly, it was none of her business as we were not listing our hose for sale with her…or anyone else. And we likely won’t be for at least five more years.
Since new appliances only last seven years, this should align with our house sale…and we will adjust accordingly.
Same with the wood trim. If white is “in” we will paint.
But trends do come and go!
Carpet will get replaced when the ca who throws up dies…or when we are ready to put house on the market…whichever happens first. Most of our house is hardwood.
Even if @thumper1 doesn’t paint the trim, or replaces appliances for stainless steel, there are other people like her that would like the house like it is! Not everyone likes stainless, or white walls, or carpeted floors; what you change for what the agent thinks are the masses, that one buyer that likes the house the way it is, will not be interested if the changes are made.
I understand clean, neat, good repair and freshly painted, but if I paid to change the carpet at this point, the next person that comes in will want to know why I put in builder grade carpet that they are now going to replace anyway. I would rather give an allowance to the new owner can put in the carpet they would like, in the color they would like. I actually have great high end carpet that the carpet cleaner is always amazed that it still looks great after 24 years; my bedroom eggplant carpet is another story!
My parents sold their 45 year old contemporary home of 45 years the first weekend; they had 3 offers within 48 hours! No staging, 45 years worth of stuff in the basement and a couple of rooms that were an estate sale waiting to happen. That said, the rest of the house was decorated by a well respected decorator; maybe not most people’s taste, but everything looked nice. The young couple that ended up with the house wanted the house so they could update it to their liking. My parents built this house and still had the original blue prints which they gave to the new owner who keep in contact with my parents.
My point is, what one person likes, the next will not; it is hard to guess what everyone will like. We will wait on the feedback from those that see the house and see if we hear the same concerns from all. The only somewhat cluttered areas are the basement and some closets which we are working on.
@snowball, a lot of what you are saying is completely market dependent. In some areas, yes, absolutely, you can get away with doing basically nothing, but in other markets, no, you will not sell OR will get significantly less for your house than if you had made some worthwhile changes. That’s really what everyone has been saying. You need to know your market or you will potentially spend unnecessarily or will leave a whole lot of money on the table.
Only stupid people would replace carpeting with new carpeting that doesn’t match the price point of the house.
I loathe carpeting, but there is some in the secondary bedrooms right now. If I were going to stay here for the rest of my life I’d replace it with hardwoods. Since I’m not, there’s no financial payback to upgrading those rooms to hardwoods (the majority of people don’t require hardwoods in the bedrooms at the house’s price point).
However, we’re not going to throw some apartment grade junk in there, either. It will be what people expect to see when they look at a house in our price range in a color that nobody will fall in love with, but nobody will hate, either. There are other parts of the house that make you fall in love. The carpet just needs to not be a negative.
Carpeting allowance is usually a bad idea, mostly because when I go look at a house that has a carpeting allowance, that’s basically code for we let this carpet get so gross that it needs to be replaced, but we don’t want to go through the hassle of doing it. And then I get to see the gross carpeting and wonder what else is gross? Like ductwork or hard to see deferred maintenance.
I am so grateful that we lived in a tear down house in an upscale suburb in a perfect location - didn’t matter what the house looked like (and I used to say it was tearing itself down). I went out direct to developers (after tracking the market for years) and all they cared about was lot size and location. The developer did send his brother to look inside the house to see if they could rent it if they needed to - DH thought everything was fine but I knew it was not saleable or rentable. We ended up selling $20K over desired price with a six month rent free post possession agreement. Whew.
So when we were buying, we were fine with out-of-date as long as we liked the looks and it was in decent shape. Theoretically we meant to renovate the kitchen but I decided I’d rather stay married - such a project would cause more dissension than having a lovely kitchen would resolve.
I walked away from a house that had nice new carpeting in the bedrooms. With allergies, I would have to rip it out and replace it with hardwood. Better to have a “carpet bonus” and be able to do what I needed to do.
