@mathmom Maybe they thought they might need those shop vac! 
During the boom times of 2000-2007, you could sell a soggy piece of toast for 500k if it had a street address associated with it. It was crazy.
LOL, MOfD! So true.
Probably in many places that was true,@MotherOfDragons. But this home was outside of Rochester which used to be the home of Xerox and Kodak…until it wasn’t. No jobs. Too many unsold properties. Was not a good market at the time.
The real estate market around here never went crazy. And it also didn’t plummet the way it did in boom areas. That’s something, I guess.
When it boomed here, my selling neighborhood, pre-2008 it was a matter of inventory. Not just a fat economy. Much lower than usual number of homes for sale. That drove prices up, fast sales, a low ‘number of days on market.’
Update from the OP… Our broker (very aware of the local market) did a walk through.
*Whereas on the phone, she concurred with giving solid consideration to painting the wood trim, upon inspection, she thought that wood “worked” in our house. Her advice was to leave as is. (Husband happy). We will paint baseboards a glossier version of the wall color to make them disappear.
*Of the many paint samples we had, she loved Revere Pewter (We love the color too, so that’s a win).
We will refinish floors (but she thought unnecessary).
She shuddered at the teal carpet on the stairs; no surprises there.
*She did not recommend as radical a redo for the 1st floor bath as we had imagined. She recommended painting the wood vanity white, new granite or other (light) natural stone top, new lavatory and toilet. Made similar suggestion for 2nd floor “kid’s bath.”
So far she’s saving us time and money, but that stopped at the master bath.
*There she’s recommending removing (or scaling down) the tiled surround for the Jacuzzi bathtub, getting rid of some “awful” pink tile accents. This will allow us to enlarge the shower even more than we had initially proposed. We had planned to replace toilet (she was ambivalent) vanity and lavatories (she concurred). Also recommended was getting rid of (rather than replacing) a built-in make-up vanity, thinking that adding space (to fill with a chair, potted plant, etc) would have a more positive impact.
*Walk-out basement… This had been partially finished. My husband had more ambitious plans for this space (think media room), but realtor thought a more modest treatment, mostly paint, complete the ceiling install and improve stairs would be better. She imagined leaving the wall of mirrors (my kid’s former dance space) and keeping ping-pong table and air hockey table for staging.
*The only other thing she wanted us to consider was a new front door (or spiffing up the one we have).
There’s a big home show this weekend that she recommends we attend for ideas.
She focused less on major repairs and upgrades (except for master bath – and she loves our current kitchen) and more on staging ideas.
She also recommended painting first. That makes everything look so different that some of the other decisions will be easier.
A friend just sold her 1 level condo in 3 1/2 days. We are in the Bay Area. She had it listed on a Thursday evening and had multiple offers on Tuesday. Contract signed Tuesday. She just happened to host our book club meeting that night and it was nicely staged.
Another friend listed her house last fall, one iffy offer and she took it off the market in December. I saw photos of her house online and it wasn’t staged. All her antiques were there and it appealed to her one iffy offer, a lady in her 80’s who wanted to buy it for her ‘friend’. Seriously, her agent should have told her to remove her antiques to attract a wider audience.
Resale is not as easy as because it is a 30 year old house first of all you have to remodel your house because now-a-days people want a luxurious house to live and comfort. And also want fully modernized. It’s good to properly renovate so that in future the people not suffer from any problems. And remodeling would provide you great advantages like for homeowner they provide rental income, offer a private living unit for family members and increase property values and for renters they offers affordable rent in single family neighborhoods such as privacy, quieter environment and less traffic congestion.because it it provides provide rental income, Can be a quick return investment, etc. Recently, one of my friends remodel totally because she had a great planning for the future and also fully renovate her bathroom and bedroom so that in future there should be no problems for citizens also so she installed a walk in bathtub, also to get the extra advantage later. So it’s a great idea to remodel fully and you will definitely get your return on investment.And also submit your home pictures to websites like bankrate.com, moneycrashers, thisoldhouse, oldhouses, etc. So you can get better benefits
Are you a home owner? Your other posts read like you are a HS student.
I do not agree with you. Some folks would be happier to buy a not remodeled home, for a tad less…and make the changes themselves.
Do you KNOW the costs of fully remodeling a house…and the resale advantages that come with these costs? A home owner is very unlikely to recoup 100% of the costs of remodeling.
And why are you talking about renters? These folks want to SELL their house…not rent it.
I would not click on the link in sonamayer post.
Almost no one is going to want a walk-in tub unless they specifically need it. That could be a serious showstopper for me.
Glad OP was happy with the agent’s recommendations.
@lookingforward I’ll certainly be happy if the realtor turns out to be correct in her projections. This involves somewhat of a leap of faith.
When we sold properties, we did speak with an agent and made changes that in our mind were reasonably-priced and to us were very cost effective. This included re-carpeting the entire home and painting the home, as well as repairing a cabinet that the tenant’s dog destroyed. Both properties sold on or before the 1st open house. Expensive, extensive changes are best implemented by the buyers, IMHO. Both properties could be lived in immediately upon purchase, even if the buyers wanted to re-do the bathroom or anything else.
@jasmom I would recommend you do NOT go to that homeshow. You will be overwhelmed with choices and you’ll see all these amazing, gorgeous, super cool things that will fill your head with (expensive) ideas.
I’d say go to the homeshow for ideas on your new house, not the one you’re selling And take me with you, I love going to them 
I also save painting for the dead last thing I do. One, if you don’t your walls will inevitably get scuffed from other projects, and Two, most people equate new with the smell of fresh paint, and they like new in a house (ok, I know people will come out of the woodwork saying they hate the smell of fresh paint, but IN GENERAL the smell of fresh paint helps to sell a house).
@MotherOfDragons I think we’re committed to the home show, but I will definitely keep your cautions in mind!! In particular, I bet our real fun will be finding upgrades we’ll crave for our retirement house.
And come on along!!!
The last home show I went too - probably 15 yrs ago - I filled out a vendor card to win a free heating oil fill up and I won. Worth about $600 at the time!
@Consolation I subscribed to that Laurel Home Blog you recommended and I’m enjoying it. Love her take on design.
Just had a meeting with a realtor this wknd re getting ready to sell our 30 year old house. We did a walk through and ended up with quite a list. He felt it reasonable to spend $15,000 or so to update/freshen house so that it will sell quickly and at listing price. Suggestions included:
painting entire interior
replacing living room carpet with hardwood - it is the first room you see upon entry
replacing dated lighting
replacing almond kitchen appliances with stainless steel
He also recommended removing kitchen vertical blinds completely and just leaving the windows bare, and removing a few pieces of furniture. His example was to make sure each room had enough open space for a couple and their realtor to easily move about.
I happen to think my house looks pretty nice, but I guess it is dated compared to what someone half my age would choose!
So much depends on how quickly homes in your area are moving. We bought our home even though the owners didn’t change the dated almond appliances in the kitchen (which were NOT included in the sale–no washer, dryer, fridge or any other appliance was included & the ones at the open house were dreadful). We wanted the house and willingly bid list price and got it after the one and only open house.
If houses are “hot” in your area, I’m just wondering how much you benefit from replacing appliances from almond to stainless steel (which not everyone likes anyway). I’d also question whether it’s worthwhile to replace good carpet with hardwood floor and get a quote on how much that would cost vs. add value to the home. Around here, replacing carpet with hardwood is quite expensive and there are quite a few people who PREFER carpet over hardwood.