Preparing Your Home for Sale – Refresh or Remodel?

The dilemma every seller faces is what to do to prepare their home for sale.  The answer to that question may lie, in part, on the age of your home.  Year to date 69% of the 1538 homes reported sold in MLS were built before 1992.  The reason that year is important is because that’s when the 4 star minimum energy rating was introduced.  Before then, paneling was frequently used as a substitute for sheetrock and insulation! Energy ratings have now improved to 5 star and with AHFC offering a buyer $10,000 if they purchase a builder’s home with a 5 star-plus rating.       

Forty-six percent  of housing stock in the MOA was built prior to l980 which makes the median age of a house 42 years old. There were  32,171 homes built in the 1970’s and 31,171 in the l980’s.  So there is a good chance you own one of these homes and the question becomes refresh or remodel?  And  whatever I do “Will it give me added value when it is time to sell?”  

This is the reason why when you walk through Home Depot you can understand why its stock has increased by 52% in the last five years.  Lowe’s has done even better.  Its stock has increased by 65%. They know the age of your home—even without AI!   We are all there trying to figure out how to make our aging house market ready. 

So what should a seller do?  Refresh?  Remodel?  Or perhaps just a deep clean and throw out all those old magazines, books and knickknacks from your Mediterranean cruise 20 years ago.  Home Depot and Lowe’s can’t sell you good housekeeping but sometimes that is just as important because it shows that the seller has cared about his home for the past several decades.  Refreshing is defined as repainting the interior and exterior.  Replacing carpeting.  Replacing vanity and dining room light fixtures which are the jewelry of the home.  Best said “Refreshing is a short-term solution that works for now’.  

Remodeling a home is to look at the home from a new perspective.  For homes built in the l970’s and 80’s it usually starts with opening up that u shaped kitchen and replacing white appliances, quartz counter tops, and getting rid of that old vinyl flooring which is separating at the seams.  Moving walls, doors/window or replacing fixed finishes like cabinets, countertops, tile and fireplace, can all be part of a remodel.  Many times this requires moving plumbing and electrical fixtures.  These items are very expensive when bringing them up to today’s code.  

Refreshing your home for sale is the best and least expensive way to prepare your home for sale. Try not to change the type of flooring.  Replace carpet with carpeting. Perhaps, add a better pad which is what a lot of home builders do as an upgrade.  Paint out the blue and pink children’s bedrooms.  Select a neutral color for the living area and paint the trim, doors and ceiling the same neutral white, beige or very light grey.  Remodeling costs more on a price per square  than new construction because first it’s the cost of the tear out.  It’s also a  ‘one off’ for labor unless you have a remodeler with their own crew.  Subs would rather work for a builder with multiple sites than a private party. 

And don’t overspend.  Keep your price points in the same range as your neighbor’s recent sale.  You do not want to be the most expensive remodel, or even refreshing, on your block. And as for added value? Taking the time to make your home market ready will save you interest and time on the market.   Bottom line:  Let your new buyer do the remodel and make it their home.   

At a recent class for realtors that I and my friend Stacy Dean, ASID, from Grayling Construction,  gave when asking that question, there was an over whelming raising of hands by realtors for ‘refreshing’.