Buying A Home
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Replace carpeting or offer a credit?
We plan on listing in the near future, but I'm not sure what we should do with our carpeting. It's OK and only 4 years-old, but definitely doesn't look new anymore (berber). Tearing it up and putting in new carpeting seems like a huge PITA, so I was thinking of offering a credit. Or would offering a credit bring too much attention to the carpeting? Would aggressively pricing our place be a better move? We plan on doing that anyways, but wonder if people would look past the less than perfect carpeting if they are getting a great deal. I just want our place to move as fast as possible!
DS born via c/s 11/08 and med-free GD VBAC DD 3/11!
Re: Replace carpeting or offer a credit?
We went through this when we listed our house. The carpet was the last thing left to update and we ran out of time as a move wasn't in our plans at the time. I asked our realtor and he said credits usually draw attention to the problem and open up another negotiating point that might not be there otherwise. Our house was all hardwoods on the first floor but the stairs and upstairs was all carpet. The carpet was also four different kinds. Not enough of a difference in color to really notice unless the door were open and you could see it all together. The carpet was also 10+ year old but not stained. We never got one comment on it.
We were priced aggressively and I think that worked in our favor. Good luck!
Our sellers replaced the carpet before listing. DH and I REALLY wish they had just offered us a credit. They, understandably, installed the cheapest beige carpet available at Lowes. We absolutely hate it but a) have a 1 year old and 2) try to be green and feel it is a waste to take freshly installed carpet out.
We saw a few places where people had put cheap laminate in rather than replacing the carpet. We honestly didn't even consider those houses.
We're just not stressing about what our LO does to the carpets and planning to replace them when he is older and/or they are completely unbearable to look at.
pinterest
This happened with us, too. Our realtor said that since we changed/upgraded the flooring in the rest of the house, not to bother replacing it or offering a credit. People would factor that into their offer and it could actually be a selling point because we left it up to the buyer to choose whatever carpet or flooring they like instead of us choosing something for them (that could be not as high end, not preferred color, etc.)
H and I HATE carpet. As a buyer I'd rather you either did nothing or offered a credit. If you did nothing, we would notice that there was carpet obviously and inquire about hard wood floors. If no hard wood floor underneath, then depending on how much house was carpeted we'd either move on or try to negotiate a credit to redo the floors.
ETA: A 4 year old carpet shouldn't be in too bad of shape and I'm much more able to tolerate that than a 20 year old carpet.
Talk with the realtor who is listing your house...ours encouraged us to replace our carpet (and with a decent carpet, not cheap carpet) because it was almost 100% sure a first time home buyer would be buying our place and they said they have a harder time being able to picture the new carpet and only see the old carpet. I don't know if that's true about all first time home buyers but our new carpet was definitely a selling point.
Also, talk with your Realtor about how the credit would work. When we bought our house we asked for a credit as they hid a lot of stains under furniture (luckily we caught it before closing). Everything was good and we would get a $2500 check from them at closing to put towards carpet. But for some reason it wasn't allowed (I'm assuming it was the type of loan or something) and they couldn't give us the money so they agreed that they would pay the carpet place $2500 (they ended up giving our Realty Company a check at closing and then the Realty Company turned around and gave us a check made out to the carpet company). I honestly don't know all the details but it ended up being a PITA because we closed on a Thursday and we had to get new carpet installed on Friday so it held up moving as we couldn't do it before. The reason I tell you this is ask your Realtor if there could be any issues with offering a credit because it may be more of a pain then to just replace the carpet.
I am not a fan of carpet. If the choices are a credit toward replacement or new carpet, as a buyer, I would rather be offered a credit. That way I could put the credit toward the flooring I prefer.
As a seller, I would probably do nothing and just price the house aggressively. Some buyers might not even think it's a problem, if it's only 4 years old, it might not be all that bad. If a buyer mentions the carpet being a problem, you can respond that you already factored that into your price. Offering a credit (and including info about the credit in the listing) will just call attention to it. Any buyers looking for a move-in-ready house might not event want to look at your place since you've already pointed out that some work/updates are needed. If it comes down to losing a deal because of the carpet, you could always offer a credit for new carpet at that point to seal the deal.
Mr. Sammy Dog
I think that just in terms of carpet or no carpet, you're going to get mixed responses as everyone has their personal preferences. As long as the carpet is in decent condition, I probably wouldn't mention it unless your buyer writes it into the conditions and then you can negotiate. Or, unless you get a lot of responses from the Open House that your carpet is ugly and old
Then you know that people are noticing. You don't want to ignore a problem but you don't want to give anything away either.
If I were your buyer, and the house was priced competitively and I didn't like your carpet, I would probably either offer less what I thought was a fair price for old carpeting or ask for a credit. Or if it was a really good price I would overlook the carpet.
First, I'd consider cleaning it. 4 years old isn't very old and if it is a good carpet, it may clean well.
Talk to your Realtor about strategy. Typically I suggest removing it and installing new if there is a question. Buyers often can't see past old carpet and there are often issues with odors. Also, many buyers these days are 'cash poor' while buying and may be using every penny they have to buy so it may not be in their budget to do new carpet right after buying. And in reality, doing it a year later is a huge pain so they may skip over a house that needs new carpet.
Generally speaking, I'd say replace it. But, if it can be cleaned, I'd start there. Talk to your Realtor for their best advice based on your market etc
Good luck!
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.
We did not replace our carpet- honestly it was to big of a PITA. Our house has original hardwoods under the carpet- they need to be refinished and I was going to have that done while we were living there... however the universe intervened and we had twins.
So we decide to clean the carpets, and be prepared to use a credit as a negotiation tool if needed. We did not put it in the listing- but we know approximately how much it would be to put midrange carpet in. And we priced our house aggressively.
Is cheap laminate worse than the "cheapest" carpet? I would have thought they were quite comparable...