Selling: Replace Carpet, or Carpet Allowance?

[Bonita]

We have carpet on our stairs, and then in our two downstairs bedrooms.  The carpet isn't great and it would look a ton better if it was new.

We are getting our house ready to sell since we're relocating, and I'm curious - should we replace the carpet before we put it on the market, or should we just include a carpet allowance for the new buyers?

[sailorgray]

Allowance, definitely.

Have you had it professionally cleaned? I am horrified by our carpeting upstairs and on the steps and planned on doing an allowance, but our agent said to just have it pro cleaned and stretched.

[Bonita]

It was professionally cleaned when we moved in 4 years ago, the rooms have been really lightly used since then...the carpet just is a horrid color that doesn't really go with the rooms at all.

It's a light gray-ish color with a slight purple look to it...it doesn't look that nice We're going to start talking to realtors soon, so I suppose this will also be a question to ask then as well to see what they say. I was thinking allowance though as well, but I wasn't sure what other people's opinion on this was Thanks!

[sjh722]

Ask your agent.

A lot of lenders no longer allow allowances to be shown on closing statements. You could pay for it directly, but if your buyer's loan is FHA you'll all have to sign that there are no outside agreements. It gets messy.

[SusanBAnthony]

I would replace if there is a good safe neutral choice that will look good in the space.

I think it is hard enough to look past bad paint, but bad flooring is even harder for people, IMO. It is just one more thing for a buyer to have to imagine as different.

[sunshinedaydreams]

I would definitely talk to the realtor to see what they recommend based on the market and current inventory in your area. We just recently sold our place on the east coast, and we were up against a lot of short sales and foreclosures and not much else. Our relator suggested that we replace the carpets so that the place would show better and we would get top dollar for our place - especially since the only "comps" we could use weren't really comparable at all (most were run-down, trashed foreclosures). We ended up replacing with a mid-grade carpet from Empire. It made a huge difference in the way the place showed, and only cost around $2k for ~700 sq ft. It kinda hurt to put money into a place we were moving out of, but it sold in three days for $2k over list price, so we broke even on it.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Just go ahead and replace it. DH and I sold our old house last summer, and the carpet was BAD. We went ahead and replaced it because the house showed so much better with new carpet.

It ended up being pretty cheap because we had already moved out, so we didn't have to pay to move furniture. We did the $99 whole house installation from Lowes (they do charge extra for stairs). Then we bought carpet that they had in stock, which ended up saving us a ton of money.

[TBM]

As a buyer, I would prefer an allowance.


Our new place has all new flooring, and we are replacing most of it before we move in because we don't like carpet in the bedrooms (or anywhere with four little dogs...especially not light beige carpet) and none of the flooring is our taste. We are hoping to reuse the living room flooring in my studio, and hoping to find someone (maybe one of the other people from DH's work relocating at the same time as us) who can use three rooms of brand new carpet.

[stephm0188]

We replaced it. It made a huge difference in the overall look and feel of the house. The carpet was really the only thing "wrong" with the house. We were in a cookie cutter neighborhood and competition was steep. We didn't want to give a buyer any reason to choose the house down the street over ours.

[aimeedyan]

We were not allowed to offer an allowance.

Which totally sucked, because with our relocation schedule neither of us could get the carpet replaced before we moved. So it showed as it

Thankfully, we got lucky and found a buyer quickly but we willingly knocked the price down to make up for the carpet. So I guess we ultimately gave an allowance but weren't allowed to publicize it as such.

[whitemerlot]

Replace.

[sierramist03]

I'd just replace. As a buyer I would like an allowance but I know that can get complicated.

[april37]

First, see if you can get away with doing neither. When we sold our house, I thought the carpet was awful and I wanted to replace it or offer an allowance. Our agent said no one would notice and it wasn't an issue. He was right. Our house sold in one week. Our buyers may have considered the carpet when making their offer but it was never mentioned specifically. We did get it professionally cleaned prior to putting it on the market.

That said, I know you mentioned that the color was an issue. (For us it was condition, not color.) Of course, color is a lot more obvious. In which case I'd say replace. It's more work for you but it will probably end up saving you money because you can probably replace for less than the amount you'd offer for an allowance and you may get a higher sale price and /or a quicker sale. Like some of the others mentioned, lenders do not like to see allowances. We had to disguise money for repairs as cash back for closing costs.

[thiswillbe]

I'd replace it. We've had really great luck getting good carpet at low prices by using a local carpet remnant shop. Even though they are officially remnants, we didn't have any trouble getting a piece large enough to carpet a 900 sf basement and a run of stairs. It wouldn't hurt to explore that as an option. We did the basement and stairs with a decent carpet pad, new tack strips, etc. all for about $200.

[hbomdiggity]

Mar 4, 2013 21:07:56 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

I would replace if there is a good safe neutral choice that will look good in the space.

I think it is hard enough to look past bad paint, but bad flooring is even harder for people, IMO. It is just one more thing for a buyer to have to imagine as different.

I would replace. Even with an allowance, people are going to discount their purchase price because of it as well. I think you are best to replace even if it isnt top quality.

[Deleted]

Ugh, I know other posters are probably right with replacing, but I'm with TBM.  I'd be ripping all that brand new carpet right out of there to replace with any hard suface, so it would just be so wasteful (for me).  TBM, I'm glad to hear you're getting what you want

ETA: For me (I know I'm not normal), I'd be reducing my offer the same amount for any sort of W2W, new or old, because either one is going to be a negative for me.

[TBM]

Mar 5, 2013 15:31:36 GMT -5 @juno said:

Ugh, I know other posters are probably right with replacing, but I'm with TBM.  I'd be ripping all that brand new carpet right out of there to replace with any hard surface, so it would just be so wasteful (for me).  TBM, I'm glad to hear you're getting what you want

ETA: For me (I know I'm not normal), I'd be reducing my offer the same amount for any sort of W2W, new or old, because either one is going to be a negative for me.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what I do want, but we are leaving the bathroom, kitchen and the tile in the hall off the kitchen for now, and will replace the flooring in the living room, other hall and bedrooms. 

It all feels so wasteful to me though.  I would have rather had to replace old flooring past it's expiration date.  If we can't find someone we know who needs the carpet, we will donate it to a worthy cause.

[eliza22]

We are getting ready to list our house and just put in new carpet. We want to market our house as move- in ready and new carpet really freshens it up. Our REA agreed.

[Bonita]

Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback! Sounds like we will be replacing the carpet - I will definitely check out a local store for remnants because I think we could probably do that if it's available.

TBM/Juno - I also like hard surface flooring, and originally thought about putting in a hard surface flooring...but some people like carpet in bedrooms...We have 4 bedrooms total, and these are the only 2 that have carpet (and the only rooms in our house that have carpet besides the stairs).

We actually don't have much in these rooms, so it won't be too much of a pain to just get some new fresh looking carpet in there and be done with it.

Our stairs are the first thing you see when you walk in the house, so I think it will help make a good first impression.