Should I sell my home "as is", or fix it up?
That's an important question. Fortunately, it's also a question that's often easy to answer, because the market helpfully answers it for you. But you may not always like the answer.
Are you selling in a seller's market? Then the inexpensive cosmetic fixes that bring you extra dollars without emptying your bank account will be enough. These basics include professional cleaning, painting, a landscape tune-up and either cleaning or replacing the floor coverings. Staging is another big low-cost moneymaker for sellers.
But what if you're selling in a market that isn't being nice to sellers? Maybe a shaky economy sidelines most buyers, and the few hardy souls still buying are "cherry-picking" homes, buying only the best 20 percent or so and leaving the rest to wither on the tree.
Then you'll need more game, a lot more game. Not only will more game bring you more bucks at closing. More game will mean the difference between closing and not closing. More game will mean the difference between finding a buyer who wants to stay in contract, and one who's always bolting for the nearest escape hatch. It's the difference between a manageable transaction and month after month of miserable frustration.
Here are a few examples of how the market will tell you whether and how much to fix your home.
Say you've got an old roof that doesn't leak—yet. In a seller's market, do nothing or, better yet, pay a few hundred bucks to have your roof "tuned-up", complete with one-year warranty. Buyer's market? Bite the bullet and replace the roof. Don't make it even easier for buyers to walk away from your house and buy one of the six others for sale on your block.
Foundation problems? In a seller's market, buyers will swallow hard and make you a great offer. In a buyer's market, they'll run away screaming. Solution? Either fix the foundation—usually not cost prohibitive if your house was built before World War II—or have a repair estimate ready to hand them. For buyers, the unanswered questions are always the scariest. Again, don't make buying your competition's house a no-brainer.
Old furnace or water heater? In a seller's market, just make sure they're professionally inspected. In a buyer's market, buyers worry more about cold showers and carbon monoxide poisoning. A new furnace or water heater just isn't that expensive, compared to the sales price of your house, and compared to the inconvenience of having strangers troop through your house month after month while you're in the shower.
There's another big reason to fix the small things in a bad market. Stay on the market long enough and sure, you'll get offers, but they'll be from marauding bottom-feeders looking for a bargain, not a house. And if you bite, they'll grind on you all the way to closing, if you make it that far.
We still haven't talked about the gray areas: what to do when the market is neither good nor bad, and the fixes that sometimes are worth it and sometimes not.
Important question, easy answer: "it depends".