If the property is a foreclosure, or priced under market value, it’s not as big of an issue.
However, if you don’t want to leave any money on the table, you’ll need to tackle this potential objection before it’s an issue in the minds of your potential buyers.
As with many things in life, first impressions matter.
Carpets show more damage than almost any part of your home. If the carpets are not stained and are newer, you can get away with simply getting a deep clean from a professional carpet cleaning company. If cleaning will not restore them, you’ll need to replace them.
Furthermore, carpets hold a lot of dirt and odor. It’s important that they look and smell clean for your showings.
Need more reasons for replacing your carpet before selling? We’ve outlined a number of key considerations, including the pros and cons, how to tell when it’s necessary, to help you make the right decision.
When selling your home, you’ll have to consider a huge number of important decisions that will significantly impact the final sale price. In particular, determining which pre-sale repairs and improvements to invest in can be a tricky thing to do. You need to be sure that the value a given project adds to your home comfortably outweighs the costs.
Summing up the reasons to replace carpet
There are several benefits to replacing the carpet. The first is home-buyer appeal. Potential buyers are either consciously or subconsciously affected by a home’s carpet. Usually, its a very conscious observation.
Secondly, home buyers want to know that once they commit financially and sign those papers, they won’t have to do anything to their house except move in.
Here are some general rules of thumb in weighing your decision to replace your carpet before selling. Do you have carpeting with:
- Visibly worn down in high-traffic areas?
- Overly stained areas?
- Frayed or ripping at the baseboards?
- Outdated or out of style?
- Is covered in or smells like mildew?
Few buyers can walk into a house and overlook worn-down, stained carpet. But when there’s new, plush carpet in your home, buyers can envision walking around their new home barefoot.
Sometimes, an outdated color is a red flag. A realtor once told me that after months of trying to convince a home seller to change out a clean but dated teal-cover carpet, the seller finally agreed to invest in a more neutral colored-carpet. Guess what? The home sold a week later.
The quality of your carpet should also reflect your listing price. If a buyer sees a high-priced house with carpet that needs replacing, many buyers will walk away.
Even though the cost of carpet replacement is a few thousand dollars (at most), the perceived value of the home drops much more than that.
Buyers could make offers many thousands of dollars under asking price after seeing your old carpet.
Even if you renovate the bathroom, update the kitchen, and add all new paint and windows, if you do nothing with the floors, buyers see the house as needing work.
Cost factors
Of course, the cost of new carpet is going to depend on the material type, whether you hire a professional carpet installer, and how many rooms you’re updating. But, in general, the first step is getting an estimate is determining how many square feet each room is.
To give you a refresher on calculating square footage, you multiply the length of the room by its width. Most experts advise you to purchase 5% more carpet than you need to account for waste. If you’re taking the DIY installation route, buy 10% more.
Once you know how much carpet you’ll need, multiply the square footage price of your new carpet by the amount of carpet you need. Other carpet replacement costs include the type of padding, repairing or replacing the subfloor, and upgrading to a stain-resistant carpet material.
All in all, the average total cost of a carpet replacement and installation is a drop in the bucket compared to today’s home values. But don’t take our word for it, ask your realtor what he or she thinks about the resale value of homes with new carpeting or flooring. And if you’re in the market for a tried and true realtor, give me a call and I can provide you with some sure-fire options here in the Douglas County and Elbert County areas.
-Don
