# Question about Prepping a House for Sale



## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

DH and I are preparing to put our city house on the market (hopefully by April). Neither of us has ever sold a house before. I'm planning on painting the living area (not sure about the unfinished basement) and putting new carpet in the bedrooms. We have wood floors in the living room, dining room and hall. They look fairly worn. 

I have 2 questions for those of you experienced in selling houses. 1. Is there a product I can use to make the floors look better or should I just bite the bullet and have them professionally refinished? 2. Should I go ahead and paint the unfinished basement (right now it is a yellow-gold color kind of like Dijon mustard). I'm looking to get the house ready as inexpensively as possible. Any advice would be appreciated.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Inexpensive would be sell as is. Take the cost of work off the price. If selling for full price as move-in ready, fix everything you would want if you were moving in. Most people want move in ready but there are those who want a bargain and do the work themselves either to save money or to build equity, also ending up having exactly what they want. I don't redo floors, they just get scruffed up in the mean time, I just clean real good with Murphys soap. Get an estimate to show cost and show to potential buyer, then it can be done after you move out, before they move in at there decision. If you move out and house is empty for a spell, you can do it then to help sell if it comes up with potential buyers, or it looks real bad. Buyers overlook many things in a staged house done right where empty, may look bad....James


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Your realtor can probably give the best advice about what improvements to make or not make to be attractive to buyers in the area. 

If it was me, I would not refinish the wood floors. I would give them a good cleaning, maybe wax and buff.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Some of the best things you can do are pretty inexpensive. 
a. Remove all unnecessary junk and clutter so rooms look bigger and more open. 
b. Give the place a fresh coat of paint, white really brightens things up.
c. Special attention to bathrooms and kitchen; clean, clean, clean !
d. Clean up the yard, trim trees and bushes, cut grass, trim weeds, etc. so things look nice.
e. Consider buying an inexpensive rug or carpet remnant to cover the worn wood floors.
f. Make sure the place smells good for a showing. Open windows to air out, bake cookies, scented candles, air freshener in bathroom, no trash in containers, etc.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

For the floors, I'd just oil them, to make the worn through finish look better. I use Howard's Feed and Wax for that... Use it a day or two before you expect a looker.

I'd not paint the basement, but that's me... Let the new owner pick the color they want, because they may not want to finish the basement either, and could care less.

Why spend time and money unless you know what a buyer is looking for?


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## SLFarmMI (Feb 21, 2013)

Thanks everyone for the good advice. I think I am going to just clean and shine up the floors really well and invest in a couple nice area rugs. I'm going to hold off on painting the basement unless the realtor says that is an absolute must do.


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## gundog10 (Dec 9, 2014)

All the advice above is good. But, i'll add my .02. Prior to retiring my DW and I moved around lot and have bought and sold alot of homes. There things to consider before you decide to put your home on the market AND Please do not listen to your realtor when they say "oh, we can sell this house within xxx days" "nonsense" They want you in contract and will smoose you to get you to sign. Now, how bad do you need to sell, how fast are similar home in similar condition in your local area selling for and for how much. Not what they are listed for but what did they sell for? Zillo is your friend. How much equity do you have in your home, how much do you Really need to get out of the home? How soon are you planning on moving? Yes, we all want every cent we can get, but the reality is it takes money to make money. Based on the above will determine how much effort you need to put into your home prior to selling. If you don't know, most reality companies we have dealt with have contractors who will do whatever work you want done and the bill will be attached to escrow and paid out when the home is sold. So you will not need to shell out any monies up front. Just ask an agent prior to sighing. If this is not an option, Call another realtor. When there are alot of homes on the market and the homes are taking along time to sell, your home will need to have a real wow factor to sell before all the others. When the prospective buyer pulls up, the front and sides of your home needs to be clean and neat. Your front door needs to be nice and when they open the door theyneed to see a clean spotless interior. If you want top dollar for your home and homes are not selling well and your wood floors are worn and dingy and can't be brought back to a wow factor,,, well. One last thing to consider, if a person is serious about buying a home and visit your home and are not wowed the first time, they more times then not will not be back. I hope this helps.


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