My wife and I agree that, prior to listing our home, replacing the worn and mismatched carpeting throughout the home is necessary. We agree on the need for replacement but then part ways, as one wants higher end carpet to impress buyers while the other wants just decent carpeting and pad while not breaking the bank. We’ll be carpeting about 3226 square feet (includes 720 sf in basement recreation room). We live in a “middle class” area (retirees, few college profs, folks that work for a living, etc).
Am interested in 1) What carpet grade contractors put into their mid-class spec homes? 2) Thoughts on putting in a laminate “wood” floor in living room (or family room) rather than carpet? 3) What goes through a home buyer’s mind regarding carpet? It’s quite a shopping list but any feedback will darn sure be appreciated.
Replies
I'd say decent carpeting and pad in a neutral color.
I would not put in the laminate, stick with carpet.
Home buyer's will either like the color carpet or not. If they like the color, they'll think, great the carpet is in great shape no need to address that before we move in. If they don't like the color they might think "well it's in good shape I can deal with it later" or "yuck, I'm tearing out all the carpet and put in "X"". THEY can then put in wood floors, laminate, different grade and color of carpet, whatever they want.
Every dollar you put in now you won't get much beneficial use out of it, so why spend the bucks. If it's worn out by all means replace it. You do want to make a good impression to the potential buyer.
That's my thought.
How about just offering a carpet allowance? Regardless of what you put in, the new owners will likely rip it out.
I you haven't done so already, get your realtor involved with staging your house to sell. Most of them are really good at advising you on ways to get the biggest bang for your buck.
Homeowners never see their house from the perspective of a potential buyer, and often do things that appeal to them instead of the broadest possible buyer base.
Well I'm glad you asked
see we just went through major (for us) fix up to put our house on the market. Siding, (LP), painting, refinish the wood floor and then carpet in 2 rooms.
Then we decided to stay put. Oh well. At least we get to live in a "finished" home.
Our thinking was to put in a mid grade carpet. Neutral color. One of the rooms we redid was the master BR. We had an upgraded carpet there. So the midgrade was a downgrade. But our thinking was that if the buyers did not like it they would tear it out. Now or down the road.
I was surprised at how cheap the carpet was. I don't think we got a "good deal" on the tear out and replace labor but that was OK.
If I had known that we were going to stay we would have given serious thought to putting in more wood floor
I would not do an allowance. Buyer not in construction can't see the finished product. Our neighbor got dinged 20k for replacing about 5k of LP siding. Everyone always thinks worst case. And then adds on.
Edited 5/7/2007 5:33 pm ET by Scrapr
We bought our current house less than a year ago. Every time we saw pergo laminate in a house we wondered what they were trying to cover up. Like there was a problem with the hardwood floors, and rather than fix that they threw down cheapo laminate.
I would not replace the carpet. I would go to a carpet store and get a sample book in the price range you were considering, put in in the house with a note to realtors that there would be an allowance given to redo the whole house with "this" quality carpet.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt