Renovate or Not Before Selling?
Hi, I have a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath apt. in the heart of Carroll Gardens that I am thinking of putting on the market. The kitchen and bathrooms are dated and need to be renovated. In this market do you think I am better off spending $50,000 renovating them and combining the small living room…
Hi, I have a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath apt. in the heart of Carroll Gardens that I am thinking of putting on the market. The kitchen and bathrooms are dated and need to be renovated. In this market do you think I am better off spending $50,000 renovating them and combining the small living room and dining room into a bigger space or leaving it “as is” and pricing it accordingly. In other words will I make more than my renovation costs back or is it more hassle than it is worth. Also, what are some thoughts on ball park prices for this type of Co-op now. Two years ago it would have gone for about $650,000 I think but I don’t know now. Thanks in advance for any advice.
And start going to open houses for similar coop apts in your neighborhood. See for yourself what your competition looks like.
Case study:
We know people with a well-located North Park Slope 2BR 1BA coop apt that had a kitchen with 25 year old ugly kitchen cabinets and countertops but brand new stainless appliances and they couldn’t sell at a good bit LESS than $600K. This was in the last few months. They invested in new cabinets and countertops, just relisted for $20K higher than their previous asking price and sold immediately.
People can give their personal opinions but you need to take a professional approach and talk to a broker and get the comps – find out what is really truly selling or not selling in the price range you want to list your property at and what condition the apts are in.
I agree 100% with the spruce school. Much better to spend a week or two really getting your hands dirty by thoroughly cleaning, painting, making minor repairs, upgrading simple hardware, de-cluttering etc… At most this should cost a few thousand depending on how much work you do yourself. In addition I believe you’ll be investing good karma and a sense of closure to the old apartment you’re sending off! Sounds silly but I think people are sensitive to the sense of pride in a place and it gives you confidence in your pricing and negotiating.
I myself am in the process of buying a small 2 bed/1 bath brownstone floor-thru in Carroll Grdns. I found it late last year after 1 1/2 years of looking – very seriously from last spring to fall. It’s unrenovated but had great bones, good light, a wonderful location and a lovely feel. I could see past the work which needed doing – that I’ll live with for a year while I plan the renovation.
I was always thoroughly put off by the generic fix-up especially the granite counter/cheap stainless steel appliance in place after place. Worse was being expected to pay a premium for someone else’s mediocre taste, corner cutting and lack of imagination. In the end I was just looking for places that were unrenovated but in perfectly decent livable condition – and priced accordingly. If the seller had spent $20-$40K on a Home Depot kitchen/bathroom makeover and wanted $30-$50K more I wouldn’t dream of making an offer.
Sure some people want a renovated place – but unless you’d done it very well for yourself and lived with it, it doesn’t really fool most savvy buyers today. They can find somewhere else that has been well renovated – or if they really want, they can buy one of the flood of new construction.
From the sounds of it – I’m not alone. I totally agree that the granite counter/cheap stainless steel appliance kitchen is the avocado suite of the day. In this day and age with so many accessible and aspirational design resources like apartmenttherapy.com, remodelista.com, Dwell magazine etc… crap just doesn’t cut it.
Save your money! Invest some time, energy, creativity and love into your place (do research on apartmenttherapy.com). Use some of the money you might have spent on a renovation on pricing aggressively with a little extra room for negotiation – I think those are the biggest selling factor these days. I’m sure you’ll end up ahead of where you’d be if you’d done a renovation.
hopefully this helps: it’s a post that deals with this very issue:
http://theapplepeeled.com/sellers/should-you-renovate-before-you-list-or-sell-as-is/
Don’t renovate! Don’t cater to people (like the poster above, who actually seems proud of it) who’d tear out the new stuff. What a f&oing waste of resources.
Apartment Therapy had a post on very low end kitchen re-dos (in the $hundreds); they’d look good to anyone except the high-enders. And you can’t please those types.
Hmmmmmm I like the never touched look myself but in my experience most buyers cannot see past what is in front of them. They will go for newly renovated every time — and then often do their own renovation designed to make everything look as bland as the Pottery Barn catalog as well. That said, I’d just go for the cheap tune-ups like paint.
Like a lot of others here, I think you would be surprised what you can do for a few thousand dollars. One thing you might do is ensure that all the fixtures in the bathroom work well. that may involve spending money on faucets and toilet. Maybe make sure the walls are patched and relatively smooth, then repaint. In the kitchen I’d make sure that it’s at least functional.
I also think that at your price point you aren’t going to make back the cost of a reno, plus you’d be subjecting yourself to months of work while you live there…then you won’t get to enjoy the fruits of your labors.
I am a buyer. Having looked at dozens of places over the past two years, it is readily apparent which units had a renovation for the owners’ sake, or those simply redone to sell. “Home depot cabinets”, cheap laminate flooring, very basic lighting and plumbing fixtures. All in all a real turn off. I agree with those that feel that a basic sprucing up is called for. Let the buyer renovate. Price accordingly – don’t forget, a $50,000 deduction gets a $3000 “rebate” – that much less in broker’s commission. I would also provide the potential buyer with some helpful and honest tips: my neighbor was able to skim coat for $x, refinish the floors for $y. Here are some contractors, etc.
Don’t renovate! Get that hot potato off the market now!
Time is ticking. FHA and MBS programs are expiring this month and the next. Don’t create something you have to get back. Keep it now. It’s an apartment for crying out loud. The buyers can afford to renovate to their taste. Nobody’s falling for the granite top / sub zero headfake anymore.
***Bid half off peak comps***