what difference does house presentation make to sale price?

[secretspirit]

We're thinking of selling our house and upgrading to a 3 bedroom. The trouble is that 2 rooms upstairs are missing carpet and the carpet in other areas is in very bad condition and a horrible colour. I think we'd be best off replacing the lot with something cheap, neutral and presentable before putting the house on the market but my mother in law says people don't care about things like that, they only worry about it being clean, and it would be a waste of money.

Surely the house will fetch more money (more than the cost of buying the carpets) if it's finished and looks attractive. All the other rooms are presentable and we have a lovely kitchen and living room with wood and tiled floors.

Who is right - me or the mother in law???? Thanks

[andy hughes]

I think you are. It's true that re-decorating before a sale is pointless - people are only seing the room with their taste in it, rather than yours. Thatsaid, bare floors or tatty carpet imply that you haven't looke dafter the house, and people may wonder if there are any 'hidden' problems, so get something cheap and cheerful to round of the overall good appearence - I think that will represent a sound investment.

[Hgrove]

I think you are right in that the only buyer who will be interested in a house without carpets or with tatty carpet is the buyer looking for a "renovation" project, who therefore is looking for something rock bottom cheap to do up from scratch.

[spudqueen]

We had a house which had dreadful carpet. We waited until we moved out and put down new very cheap carpet with no underlay (to make it as cheap as possible) and you wouldn't believe how much better it looked. (We were moving area and into rented ).

[stevie21]

She's your mother in law - she's programmed to be wrong. Put the carpets in.

[magicdice]

you're right. cheap carpets, crappy but cheap underlay, nice neutral colours, it'll be well worth the money spent on it

[Hgrove]

There was an article in the Observer yesterday (6th March) in the Property section which may be of interest to you.  If you go to the Observer/Guardian website, click on archive search, and input the author, Jane Hardy, or title:  Pack up your clutter - and then clean, clean, clean.  It should come up. 

[cassimer]

Ask your estate agent. They want it to sell for as much as possible, so will give an honest and informed view of what you should be doing. But failng that, i would redo it. Buyers say they look beyond decoration but in reality its much harder to do.

[stoo_pid]

If this helps at all, we've been looking at quite a few houses recently & to us, basic preparation really does make a difference.  If we were looking to buy your property & there were rooms with tatty / horrible colour / no carpets 2 things would immediately spring to mind:

1. We would have to spend money, and even more importantly, time & energy getting new carpets in before we move any furniture in.  At the very least we would use that as a negotiating tool to knock your asking price even further down.
2. We would assume that if you couldn't be bothered to even put down some basic inexpensive carpeting when you're selling the house then other more important structural jobs are likely to have been ignored or bodged...

[Hermia]

I reckon it depends where the house is.

When we sold my grandad's house it sold straight away despite the fact that it needed rewiring and had no central heating/double glazing and hadn't been redecorated in a zillion years. But it was next to the best school in the area. But, I guess if the area was less great and there were other houses for sale it might help if the house was spruced up.

Have you asked the estate agent for advice? I find they usually do give you good advice about whether to do stuff or not.

[secretspirit]

Thanks a lot for all the answers. I've decided that the mother in law is wrong as usual! The rest of our house is too nice to be let down by the fact that we never got around to sorting the carpets and just replacing them would make such a difference because it's already clean and tidy everywhere. I know that it would put me off if there were no carpets so if we do sell we'll go for it (if we don't we'll just buy better quality ones!).

[ian.miller]

Plus you are in a buyers market, so they will pass up your place for the next one at the same price that has been presented nicely.

[Cornish Boy]

Agree with most...get new carpet...show off the house...BUT...done all that and survey...showed wood worm in roof, so check roof...seems all ok just spray and will solve the problem...many things in selling apart from carpets and they all take your money...plus you not safe until contracts EXCHANGED...

[GWR71]

We are in the process of selling our house, and before putting it on the market we redecorated and laid new carpet. The total cost was about �500, but our estate agent reckons it's gained us anything up to �15,000 on the selling price of the house.

You have to bear in mind that while some prospective buyers *can* ignore the existing decoration and see the true potential of a house, many others can't, and will reject houses with tatty or missing carpets or shocking pink walls or other decoration abominations.

Equally, some buyers, especially first-time ones, will be stretching to afford a house and hence won't be in a position to redecorate immediately; such people will often look more favourably on a house recently decorated in tasteful neutral colours because it's something they can happily live with until they can afford to redecorate.

The brutal truth, as ian.miller says, is that it's now a buyers' market and those buyers are being picky. At best, missing or unpleasant carpeting or other issues with decoration will be levers that a canny buyer will use to knock thousands off the price of your house; at worst, people will simply ignore your house altogether and make offers on other, better-presented houses.

[SC00BY]

Both of you are right!!I had house for sale with 2 dodgy bedrooms! waited for months, had loads of viewers but no offers. Decided to put plain carpet down and have all the walls painted cream and bingo, sold.

But...the house i'm buying has quite tatty decor, I can see past that however! If you are after a quicker sale then replace the carpets!!

[nykkieberry]

New carpets will increase the saleabilty of your house if not the value; you may make not make a profit if you fit them, but you will definitely widen your market. We viewed a house on Friday that had dirty and worn carpets throughout. It completely put us off because a/ the whole house would need recarpeting at considerable cost to make it inhabitable, which we could not afford immediately b/ the shoddy carpets gave the house a neglected, run down feel and we wondered what other, more important areas, had been neglected throughout the house, c/ the carpets distracted from the actual potential of the rooms. We walked away as we couldn't be bothered with the financial commitment and hassle of replacing the carpets. No doubt the house will get a buyer, but it may take longer and the market will be narrowed down to those with the spare cash and inclination to start redoing the house. I would also think that the buyer will expect a substantial reduction in the purchase price, which probably doesn't reflect the actual cost of deep cleaning and replacing existing carpet. Good luck with the sale!

[secretspirit]

Thanks again for the replies. We picked a nice neutral carpet and new vinyl flooring for the bathroom and it's only costing �600 total so I think it will be worth the investment even if we do go. I thought that was really good for looped pile 40% wool carpets and it will make the house a lot more desirable. Having said that, once it's all in we might not want to go!