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Preparing Our House to Sell?

3,857 Views | 34 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by aviationag
Quinn
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AG
My wife and I are planning to sell our house sometime in 2021 or 2022, so we have started the process of reviewing our home and thinking about what updates are necessary. The house was partially flipped before we bought it in 2015, but we know there are some things that could/should be done to increase the value and make our home easier to sell.

We are in East Dallas and are interested in having a realtor come take a look and give us their opinion on what we should update/improve and what we can skip. Since we are 9-24 months out from selling, we don't necessarily want to hire someone as our realtor to sell the house (but we obviously wouldn't rule this person out), so we would want to pay them an hourly or consultation fee.

My PMs are open if you are interested and want to shoot me a message.

General advice and discussion is also appreciated!
jopatura
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AG
We just sold our house in the Austin area. The only thing the realtor had us do was paint the exterior, power wash outside surfaces, and repaint trim & baseboards inside. But we were in kind of a basic neighborhood and no one is selling their houses completely remodeled. Even the ones that have kitchens and bathrooms done only sell for a small percentage higher (and definitely don't get a return if you don't enjoy it first). So it made it easy for us not to do a lot.
Texker
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AG
I'm sure others will chime in but just make sure the house is really clean. Also, we went through every closet and drawer and straightened up/organized. That exercise also helped to declutter which we pitched or donated. If there was stuff we wanted to keep we boxed it up and stored boxes out of sight.
mgreen
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Picture a model home. As a realtor, that is what I hope all my clients strive for. Remove the clutter. Remove the family photos. Landscaping and yard must pop.
evestor1
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Declutter. Have 25% of necessary items in house when you list.

Make sure it smells nice. Nothing is more off putting than a beautiful house that smells like cats and dogs and ramen noodles.
Quinn
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AG
Definitely going to send the cat away to my parents for awhile before selling.

Yard is good, but flower beds will be refreshed.

My wife wants to paint our outside brick white, but I'd rather hold off on doing that. Curious if it adds value or if it's just a personal preference thing.

There are a few other minor projects that were debating as well. Hard to know exactly what to do. Appreciate the comments so far.
aggie appraiser
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The two most cost effective things are clean the house like you have OCD and have the yard looking as nice as possible.
cjsag94
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AG
I've rarely seen a painted brick house I like, and I really think that is a temporary fad, that you can't really reverse back to its natural state when that look is out of favor.

So I wouldn't do that unless you are trying to hide something really ugly (which is kind of what if worry about if I showed up to a painted brick house).

It would definitely be a detector for me as a buyer.
schwack schwack
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AG
I generally like painted brick, but it will be a maintenance issue forever going forward so that's why I wouldn't do it.
Quinn
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aggie appraiser said:

The two most cost effective things are clean the house like you have OCD and have the yard looking as nice as possible.
The hard part with cleaning the house will be keeping it clean and organized with two kids under age 4. Not looking forward to that.
jopatura
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I wouldn't do painted brick on the outside without the house having a very specific look on the inside. We passed on a few houses that had clearly been started in that Joanna Gaines/farmhouse style, but they either burned out or ran out of money.
SteveBott
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AG
I would not paint brick. Spend the money on the inside depending on need.
BrianDemarais
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AG
A really great Realtor team that I work with has a podcast and did an episode on how to do a For Sale By Owner, might be worth a listen. Coincidentally, they are based out of East Dallas- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-we-live/id1512674737?i=1000484650452
Diggity
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AG
cjsag94 said:

So I wouldn't do that unless you are trying to hide something really ugly (which is kind of what if worry about if I showed up to a painted brick house).

It would definitely be a detector for me as a buyer.
yeah, they're trying to hide...ugly brick. Crazy!
Aggie@state.gov
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AG
read the Stunning Custom Home thread and then don't do any of those things.

that thread is crazy funny
aggie appraiser
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Quinn said:

aggie appraiser said:

The two most cost effective things are clean the house like you have OCD and have the yard looking as nice as possible.
The hard part with cleaning the house will be keeping it clean and organized with two kids under age 4. Not looking forward to that.

Send them to spend a week with grandma when you put it on the market and put most of the toys in storage
The Fife
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Quinn said:

My wife wants to paint our outside brick white, but I'd rather hold off on doing that. Curious if it adds value or if it's just a personal preference thing.
I've owned a house where some numnuts painted the brick, and it was repainted a couple more times after that. Never again. To me that's a dealbreaker.
Quinn
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AG
I knew I could count on y'all to back me up on not painting the brick.
ocag
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AG
Our house is painted brick and I love it. I'm in an older house in the metroplex where it's probably 60/40 painted vs unpainted. Ultimately it's a personal decision and I wouldn't do it unless your realtor felt it was important. There are lots of other things to give you a bigger bang for your buck that won't be as decisive. Get a good realtor who knows your market and listen to their advice.
NoahAg
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Never knew there was such hate for painted brick. I've not had a house with painted brick but I've seen plenty that look really good. I do think it has to be a certain style house though.
IWannaGoFast1
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AG
Don't paint, limewash! You can even get limewash in matched colors now.
SteveBott
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AG
Never heard of that. Can you post a link?
GrimesCoAg95
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AG
There are two problems with painted brick.

1. People wonder if it is painted because of structural issues.
2. The much bigger one is that is a quite divisive issue. People love it or hate it. You cut a large number of buyers out before they even go see it.
IWannaGoFast1
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AG

https://romabio.com/masonry/limewash/ageless-beauty/
The Fife
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GrimesCoAg95 said:

There are two problems with painted brick.

1. People wonder if it is painted because of structural issues.
2. The much bigger one is that is a quite divisive issue. People love it or hate it. You cut a large number of buyers out before they even go see it.
Problem #3, a maintenance free surface has been turned into one that requires maintenance. It's a bear to repaint because it's not anywhere near flat, and with the place I owned and a bunch of others I've seen it's prone to peeling off sometime down the road.
bam02
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AG
coleasterling said:

SteveBott said:

Never heard of that. Can you post a link?
Here's what we used. The application process is a lot of work, but very easy. If you feel like you messed up somewhere just wash it off with a hose within the first hour or so. It will come off (somewhat difficult) with a 110V pressure washer for a couple days. After that, it gets A LOT more difficult to remove.

https://romabio.com/masonry/limewash/ageless-beauty/


Wow that looks like a great option. Always loved the smear coat look.
Whitetail
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AG
or curry smell
AggieIce
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AG
Painted brick is cheap and completely transforms curb appeal (if done right)
IWannaGoFast1
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AG
Rice and Fries
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coleasterling said:

bam02 said:

coleasterling said:

SteveBott said:

Never heard of that. Can you post a link?
Here's what we used. The application process is a lot of work, but very easy. If you feel like you messed up somewhere just wash it off with a hose within the first hour or so. It will come off (somewhat difficult) with a 110V pressure washer for a couple days. After that, it gets A LOT more difficult to remove.

https://romabio.com/masonry/limewash/ageless-beauty/


Wow that looks like a great option. Always loved the smear coat look.
I'll see if I can't get the wife to take some decent pictures of our before and after.
Would love to see some.
2wealfth Man
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AG
We are closing on a house next week that we just sold. We put almost all our budgeted money into an interior repaint, outdoor power wash and thorough house cleaning. There were also some electrical and plumbing items that needed attention. I refreshed the landscaping myself. We had a chipped bathtub refinished as well.

Using light colors on the walls and trim really brightened up the house and made everything look so much bigger. One other minor thing (I thought at the time) was I repainted the garage. We got more dang comments about that garage from prospective buyers than I would have ever dreamed of.
aviationag
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AG
I live in Uptown Dallas. On Monday, I listed my townhouse, with rooftop deck, with an Aggie realtor who does a flat fee listing; got an offer today after the second showing. I did touch up paint inside and on the deck; power-washed the garage door and back and today did some additional touch ups (hours before I got the offer.)

One thing my agent told me about resurfacing the deck was to wait; buyers want the house to look like their home so that is something they will want to choose. I'm thrilled to have an offer right now; will see if this goes through.

Next - is to, sadly, get my College Station house on the market. It is in an incredible location and I would keep it if I thought I would move back permanently but that is unlikely. Still makes me sad to lose it but logic has to prevail.

flyingaggie12
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AG
Congrats!
dubi
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So where is your CS house? Curious what you consider an incredible location.
aviationag
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My house in College Station is in a gated community off of Lincoln - you can walk out of the Aloft Hotel parking lot across the street into our neighborhood. Love the house and love the neighborhood but I simply don't live there and don't come to CS enough to justify keeping it.
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