Our first house had wallpaper everywhere. Flocked stuff in the living room, moire striped looking stuff in the dining room. Vinyl sort of like oil cloth…big huge flowers…in the main bathroom. But my favorite was in the powder room. It was white with black people toilets on it…a May West Toilet, a Nepoleaon toilet, a George Washington toilet, you get the idea. It was hilarious.
We took it ALL down, and I confess that in the bathrooms we put up other very simple, small print wallpapers.
Wallpaper? I hate it. But at a certain point in your life you just have to do exactly what you want. That’s why I painted my bathroom a deep shocking high gloss scarlett. I love it. Resale schemsale. What’s it going to do knock a few hundred off? I’m not selling anytime soon and at this point in my life I can afford the luxury.
I’ve bought and sold 8 houses (and counting!). Location, condition and price are what sell homes. If the house is full of wallpaper, the condition column takes a hit because it has to be removed. You can balance it with a more attractive price.
Location can trump everything, however. A fantastic location will sell a house every time, wallpaper or not. Having it be in perfect sellable condition just makes it sell faster and for more money because it increases the pool of potential buyers.
Our plan for this current house in 2 years is to spend about 10k to get it in top, sellable condition (it will be 20 years old when we sell). Move out, refinish all the wood floors, completely repaint the interior(including the ceilings), update lighting fixtures and faucets, new tankless water heater, and stage it with combination of rented and our own furniture and art. There will be no wallpaper anywhere in the house, and we expect to get top dollar for it.
People love to walk into a house and have that weird combination of immediately feeling at home there and also feeling like the house is clean and turnkey. Additionally, in our neighborhood we will be competing with brand new homes (which are not the same build quality, but most people don’t notice build quality until they’ve lived in the house for a while). A house that feels (and smells) new is going to compete better than one that feels a little “tired” and “lived in” if your competition is new homes.
Unless you’re flippers; then “mold is gold” and “wallpaper is a moneymaker” are your mottos ;).
I am sitting outside right now while all my wallpaper is coming off in preparation for the sale of our home this summer. We are removing everything and painting a neutral color. As MotherofDragons said above, we want to expand the number of buyers by spending money on updates. Also, we are competing against brand new homes, but they are built in open fields, with no mature trees, and very small lots. So, I hope our strategy works.
“Our plan for this current house in 2 years is to spend about 10k to get it in top, sellable condition (it will be 20 years old when we sell). Move out, refinish all the wood floors, completely repaint the interior(including the ceilings), update lighting fixtures and faucets, new tankless water heater, and stage it with combination of rented and our own furniture and art.”
@MotherOfDragons - For 10K, you must either being doing a lot of that work (especially the painting) yourself, or labor is cheap where you live.
I’m getting my house ready to sell and doing the same things, plus updating counters and some items in the bathrooms. It cost me over 7500 (not including the cost of paint) just to have my front porch, dining room, great room, laundry, and trim in the kitchen painted. And fixtures and faucets add up quickly. I’m already over 10K with a lot to go :((
^^I’m doing a lot of the work myself. I’ve got some serious skills in that area, even though I hate using them. The floor will be professionally redone-at 3500 sq ft of hardwoods, that’s beyond my abilities.
The rest-the light fixtures and the faucets, yeah, no problem for me to do.
Labor IS cheap, here, though. Depending on what the flooring comes back as, I’ll contract out some of the painting like the ceiling and the trim-my neck hates that part.
