Need some advice about selling our house Updated!

Water Heater= replace it or offer $!,000+ towards purchase of new one.
Carpet and Paint= Offer $ towards painting and carpet to their taste
Blinds: can you remove the broken ones? If not replace. That would be so unattractive, it would turn buyers off.

Hard to say about the wood floors without seeing how much damage is there.

Have you discussed with a realtor?

It's going to depend on how extensive the damage is and what the market is like in your area. I would consult with a local real estate agent. We're currently working on the punch list ours gave us to accomplish before listing the old house.

Ours will be listed as-is so we're mostly dealing with safety issues/stuff that would derail financing - we fixed a couple of electrical and plumbing issues, tore off the rotting deck, cleaning up landscraping (basic not fancy) and will have it pressure washed.

Honestly, get together with a good realtor. Someone skilled can walk through your house and say "Do this, don't bother with that." I know that a real estate company in my area offers short-term, no-interest loans for home improvements. Sellers use the cash to make improvements and then the loan is paid off after closing. You might look and see if a company in your area offers the same.

We sold our "raising kids" house two years ago because we had no business rattling around in a house that size. We had an AMAZING realtor who coordinated the work, got the house staged, got the property listed, and sold within five weeks (that included us moving out!). We replaced all floors, painted most of the interior, and had a landscaping refresh. We didn't use the loan program, but thought it was a great option for people!

.  I would not do a thing until I had talked with 3 agents and gotten their feedback.  Based on the market where you live, there is a chance that you might not need to do much more than really clean the house/windows well, declutter and stage it a bit.   As auntkelly said, ask questions about why they are making recommendations and also ask how much that money spent will affect the sale price.  It's unusual to get 100% back of what you spend, so you need to know where the money is going to do the most good.   

You will also want to consider the time and effort it involves, especially with your DH beginning cancer treatments soon.   You are both going to be mentally and physically affected by his health journey, so add as little stress to that as possible.  



Absolutely they buy houses like that.  It's a good way for young people to get into a neighborhood they might not be able to afford, then fix up as they go.  As long as your house is livable you should be able to find a buyer.

I just recently sold my house and bought a smaller home in another state.  Mine needed to have a lot of the downstairs gutted due to a water leak that I did not discover until black mold had developed.  The area where it was leaking was filled with boxes for my intended move so I didn’t see anything until the bottom boxes had absorbed enough water to crumple, making the stack of boxes lean over.  That is when I learned there was this tiny pinhole water leak.

My realtor suggested we update a few things on the house while the repairs from the water leak were being completed.  I didn’t have any money for any updates.  He then told me about companies that will loan you money to fix your home up for sale if you have the equity.  They are temporarily added to the ownership and then they pay for all upgrades. They get reimbursed during escrow once the home sells.  It worked flawlessly.  My insurance covered the most minimal items from the water damage, and this company paid for everything else. I had everything the realtor wanted done without having to spend a penny of my own money up front.  I had a great deal of equity in the house, having lived there for 44 years.  I didn’t know there were companies like this, so I was extremely thankful for my realtor’s knowledge and connections.

My advice, obviously, is call your realtor and have them give you a list of what they feel are essential repairs that would affect the salability of your home.  We got all of the repairs finished and the listing went live just in time for that first open house on a Saturday morning, and by Sunday night, I had 3 offers that had been preapproved by my realtor’s finance department.

Since you have been in your home for so many years, you could use your equity for the repairs like I did.

ETA, I had very thoroughly cleaned my wooden blinds in preparation for the sale.  Yes, I knew they were dated, but I thought any window covering was better than none.  But the realtor disagreed and had the painters dispose of all of them.  And he was right.  The buyers didn’t ask for window coverings on their small list of asks.  I did end up crediting them for some landscaping around the pool.  I had been slowly updating it, but it wasn’t finished.  The landscaping and replacing the dishwasher were the only things on their list so I just gave them a credit to finish the things on their own.

Also, I had 99% of the house packed up into pods and removed from the property, making every cupboard and drawer clean and empty.  My realtor paid for a staging company to come in with minimal furniture to create a homey look.

We just bought a house in August. You can sell anything if it’s priced right.

When we were looking (first week of June), houses were going FAST. The good ones were on the market for mere hours. We literally were standing in 3 separate houses when they went under contract. The #1 thing that I was looking for was maintenance. Was the house maintained? What was the age of the roof? The furnace? The air con unit? How clean was the house?

We bought a house with a 25 year old furnace, but we knew that. There were other things about the house that made it attractive to us. It had 2 primary suites, a large 2 car garage and another separate workshop. It had a studio space for myself and good sized bedrooms. The updates to the house were well done and obviously top quality. The yard is fenced for the dog. The kitchen is original, but has been updated. And I’m designing a new one that will be exactly how I want it.

I would pull the blinds down. The only blinds that it had were in the primary bedroom and bath and on the back door. The blinds in the primary BR/BA are the new cellular shades, but the ones on the back door are a very dark brown. I strongly suspect they had the dark wood blinds throughout the house and just took them down. The floors are a darker color, the walls are brown, and their furniture was brown. It must have been so dark!

Either deep clean the house yourself or have someone do it. As in pull out furniture, scrub the corners, the showers, etc. Get rid of clutter and sell the furniture that you no longer need. At least touch up the paint in the most visible areas. Even paying a cleaner should cost less than $1,000 and the sale of the extra furniture should cover that.

Add a rug over the wood flooring damage if you can. If you are in the Minneapolis area, I have a HUGE tan rug that you are welcome to borrow.

I wouldn’t replace the hot water heater. Ours are often done through the city and they are guaranteed for x number of years. They always go out before that. My aunt is on her third freebie. The water is extremely alkaline here. 

Talk to your realtor about offering money for replacement of some items. You may not need to. We weren’t offered anything for the furnace and didn’t ask, nor did we ask for money for the missing window coverings. We did ask for money when the inspection found that the chimneys were cracked and unsafe. But we fixed all the other little details ourselves, including a plumbing leak and an electrical issue.

Talk to a realtor. The market makes a huge difference for what needs to be done.

We sold our home several years ago in an OK market. It was in a desirable neighborhood for schools. Our realtor had us do a bunch of updated cosmetic things like a more modern chandelier and we took a good offer. The buyer wanted us to do a couple of minor things after the inspection. We said no. If you want the house, that’s the deal. They took it.

You’re in a good spot having the home paid for. Clean up, as up as best you can. Take down broken blinds, family photos, knick-knacks, personal art, etc. Get rid of clutter and any extra furniture to make the rooms look bigger. If you stage the house right it will sell.

When DH was still actively selling, you could only give credits towards closing costs. For instance, if the house needs a need roof and windows, you couldn't give a credit for a new roof/windows at closing if it would cost more than the closing costs. If a buyer is paying cash, this wouldn't apply. Maybe things have changed or this doesn't apply in your state. Like others have said, interview a few realtors that you trust.

I dont think you have to do anything cosmetic.

As far as windows and other functional items, you can either replace them or be prepared to give a buyer a credit so they can replace them.

Contact the window manufacturer. Some companies have a lifetime warranty and might replace them for free. We've had two of ours replaced. (milgard maybe?)
Sand and refinish the floors.
Repaint with a neutral color. 
Just remove the blinds and get easy to install rods and drapes. 
Just have the carpets cleaned.
Unless the base boards are damaged, just clean them.


Everything is negotiable during escrow. Example - Carpet in a house we sold needed to be replaced, so we gave the buyers back $1000 or whatever it was during escrow.  A Realtor can help you figure out what needs to be done before listing.

ETA - Regarding paint. You might just leave the paint. We bought our current house one bedroom was dark blue and the other had four different colored walls - pink, yellow, green and blue - like they couldn't decided what to do.

to me it depends on if it's a buyer's markets or seller's market.  if it is a buyer's market, you may be at the mercy of the buyer if they want stuff done if they will buy your house.  if you have stiff market competition out there, you may have to provide allowances for some repairs or improvements if you will not do the work yourself.  on the other hand, if it is a seller's market and there might be multiple offers, you may get away with doing little or nothing to the property and buyers will still climb over each other to buy it.  our area is a buyer's market most of the time so people get top dollar for selling as-is. the houses listed in our area is either completely remodeled or as-is.  some sellers won't spend the time and money for a partial remodel if they can get a lot anyway for doing nothing.

talk to you agent to see what type of market you are in.  i wouldn't do some of the fixes you outlined (floors, carpet) if the buyers will remodel the house anyway.  roof yes, water heater maybe. windows are not cheap and what you choose may not be what the buyers want.  

DH and I just did the buy/sell thing less than two months ago. Having our realtor come walk the house first was a godsend, as she knew exactly what would need to be repaired/replaced. I would also recommend having someone come look at your HVAC and roof to make sure you are up to city code. I'd done replacements on both before we chose to sell, and my realtor was so relieved, as out of date code violations often catch people by surprise. Another thing to remember is that you can offer repair allowances for anything you don't want to repair/replace yourself.

As a seller, besides having done the code and appliance upgrades (which I think was a huge selling point), we also had to replace the baseboard since the damage was termite-caused. We didn't have window moisture, but our realtor did tell us that "between pane moisture" is a common inspection item. We opted to replace carpets and countertops. Our realtor said we could very easily have done the allowances on them since the market is moving fast here, but we chose to do them.