How imp is new carpet/vinyl when selling property

Hello Experts,

I have never sold any property before and thinking to sell one. It is built in 2005 so Carpet clearly shows its age from few places.

Following are my questions:-

1.How important is to change the carpet when selling house with new paint (60% internal ) property?

2. Can it really be a deal breaker if I don't change? If Yes - How much?

3. If it is a deal breaker then should I change the whole house or just the area that is mainly affected?

4. From cost effective point of view what be the best option when selling:- a Carpet or Vinyl and rough estimate for 3 bed open plan living (Kitchen got dark tiles/slates).

Hope to get some opinion/advise abd suggestions.

 

@standtall @Gockie @sash @Trainee @BlueChip @hash_investor @RedHat @skater


And anyone else- all opinions welcome

 

What sort of area is it?

If it's an area over $500k then it might be worth spending $5k to freshen up. However you could also spent $3k and stage it to sell and hide most of the floor wear and tear with the staging furniture

Do you have any photos of the condition the house is in? There might be better areas to spend a bit of money to get more back on the sale.

 

@Westminster -The area is over $500K and the quote I got is around $3K.

I don't think staging can cover It bcoz the main damage is just before you go to back yard.. .

 

You may need to do it in the current Sydney market...depends where it is.

 

Carpet is pretty cheap. If I wanted the house I wouldn’t care either way. If the house was freshly painted, I would wonder why the carpet wasn’t replaced if obviously marked/dated and then start to think about the reasons why you would only paint and what the fresh paint could be hiding...

 

Thx @sash

 

Point taken but I was thinking more like who knows if the new owner may want to put tiles, top qualiry carpet or wooden floor so me spending $3K is kind of waste?!!

 

For an experienced property investor, probably not important because they'll use it as a reason to lowball you and/or they probably intend to rip it up and replace it anyway.

For an owner occupier very important because they perceive it as an extra cost. For this reason, don't cheap out, put something decent in there that an owner occupier would appreciate (an investor would likely appreciate this too).

 

Thx @neK

 

Been thinking about this myself. With the new depreciation rules an investor might prefer to do the reno themselves

 

If I was buying a place that had old, worn carpet, I would knock st least $10K off the offer to cover the cost and inconvenience.

But the bigger problem is that I would see the property was not well looked after, and would go looking for other faults. Even if I did not find any, I would have the impression that the property was NOT in good condition and offer accordingly.
Marg

 

IMHO, you are asking the wrong question.

Will you buy property with some carpet damage? Absolutely! I don't like paying much for my properties, so daggy carpet is no issue at all, however that's not really the question, is it?

If you want to sell the place & get the best price possible, then change the carpet & freshen up with a coat of paint. That is, of course, if you are local & you've got the skills to do a half decent paint job.

Most people, want something that is 'ready to go'. Something neat & tidy that can be occupied straight away. If it's looking tired & worn, they will perceive that there is money to be spent on the property, which may, or may not be the case. It has been my experience that people don't look too hard either, and just see the overall 'look' of the home.

For instance, we went to a couple of opens for properties near us. They were all asking in excess of $800k at the time and they were predominantly mid 1980's homes with original kitchens & sometimes, but not always updated bathrooms. Every surface freshly painted, including the tiles in the bathrooms & the kitchens, including the benchtops. There are some excellent products available now especially for this. Carpets either steam cleaned or 'not too expensive' fresh carpet laid. I like to hang around near the agent & listen to comments made by others. Not right up near him, but maybe in the next room, maybe taking a long time looking at the cabinets, etc. It can be very interesting hearing some of the comments.

Anyway, in many of the cases, there would be comments about the nice 'new' kitchen, when you could obviously see the brush strokes of the laminate paint, and/or recognise the finish of the benchtop paint (we've used it before, so know how it comes out).

Good use of 'smoke & mirrors' will get you a better price in any market. In a down market it might just be the property that sells, while others around don't. It's up to you to determine how much to do.

With the sales of your Sydney properties we made sure they were nicely tidied up. We've got others, though that we didn't bother doing anything to. Financially it wasn't worth it because they were too far away for us to do it ourselves & the cost of having someone else do it didn't really make it viable in the area.

 

Thanks everyone, I was out whole morning getting quotes and negotiating.

@skater the paint has been done with couple of coats in all main areas.

Just for the record property is in a very good condition and we have maintained well but carpet is kinda aged anyway we have mDe the decision and on Monday new carpet be laid.

We wanted to go with something light but as per the current demand/style couple of people I met suggested to go with bit dark greyish/molasses colour because of it's attractive qualities like easy to clean, durable etc. for investors and OO.

@Marg4000 -I want people to offer $20K more instead of knocking $10K off

 

I have never sold property in the past so keen to know - Will I be able to claim all these expenses once sold for tax purposes?

Is there a list of items that we can claim when sold?

 

@skater what is your opinion on light vs dark carpet, I am sure they have their pros and cons but to attract buyers which one is go to?

i came across article where ir shows that light carpet makes the place look big wide etc. Our open plan living is nice big and naturl light comes in and my Mrs wanted to go with light colour untill the professional carpet guys told that light walls , white ceiling will go well with dark carpet.. .


Edit :- I have read the following articles that made me more confuse lol
Carpet Colours : Brown Carpet, Beige Carpet, Black Carpet and more…


How To Choose The Right Carpet Colour For Your Walls

 

This is Molasses



First one from left was initially we decided to go with before we selected the Molasses

(you can see the existing old carpet color as well in one of the pics)

I still have time to chop and change the colour so i look for your valuable opinions. ..

@sash @Gockie @Marg4000 @Heinz57 @neK @standtall and all others

 

So you're going for polypropylene? Good, hard wearing properties etc.

Don't cheap out on the underlay.

What is the target market - investors or occupiers? What has your agent advised?

 

Well property is well situeated (close to public transport, schools) so investors and OOs both can have a go hence the delima..

We decided to do the whole house so not cheaping out lol

 

Any preference or opinion on the colour?