Best way to finance home improvements

[cindycindy]

Yes, IL, house has been on the market for 5 months; supposedly it's a seller's market here, but we're not seeing it. I think if we would be making a concession of $10,000, it would just be taken off the proceeds to us at closing. We have an offer on a smaller place (with a contingency based on the sale of our current house that expires in August), that upon inspection needed $3,000 worth of work. If all goes through, we as buyers get that $3,000 at closing. I'm in NY State; don't know if it works differently elsewhere.

[rosarugosa]

My sister gave the buyers of her condo $1000 towards replacement floors, so I think this is pretty common.

[ToomuchStuff]

Why do you need to move? Would you be fine if you did the improvements and the house didn't sell? (can you pay back the loan)
I agree on having the realtor give you a ballpark, before and after, but they aren't a contractor (you need prices from them as well). Won't do you any good if the realtor tells you it will sell for x (which it still may not), after doing y and you then find out a contractor says y will cost you 4x what you thought.
Do you have a list of other houses in your area, both sold and not sold? Why did or didn't they sell? (area dying, bad schools, etc) That might have a greater effect then you realize.

[cindycindy]

Too much stuff, we live in a hot re market about 2 hours from a major east coast city where most of the buyers are either young people buying for a weekend home or to turn home to Airbnb or older people who no longer need to work in the city. Houses have sold for as high as $425 when perfect to around $380 with some updates. There's two houses in our neighborhood for sale. One is asking $425 and the other $378. We paid $145 for house in 1996 and would be happy to sell for 290m. We put a contingency offer (upon sale of our place) on a smaller place that would be less work for us but we don't HAVE to sell. When we first decided to sell, zillow had estimated our price at $380 so we figured , great, we have a lot of wiggle room. We're not greedy; we didn't do much on cosmetics but did maintain infrastructure items. Bring a simple liver, I never even watched HGTV,pinktoe, but you're right. It's the same thing with every show. Open concept, wood thoughout, island kitchen. I don't trust my own judgement. Things that I think look ugly 70's are now desirable mid century. We Installed white high quality tile in the 90's. Buyers hate them because they're square (not rectangle). Don't even get me started on the phrase "subway tiles". Another hgtv favorite. Anyway, thanks for reading my rant. We have to do something if we want to sell eventually (even if we stay put a few more years). And , gardnr, I agree that the funds on the retirement account should be off limits. I just remember the first house we bought (not this one). It was dated but it had good bones. When we bought a house, it was expected that we would do some work on it. I'm talking late 80's here. I guess hgtv and the home improvement industry have the good consumers well trained. Rant over
If I could figure out how to post a photo of my kitchen, it would be great to get some sane opinions.

[Gardnr]

I Yi Yi! NO...do not touch retirement accounts. You'll never get that compounding back. Count that money as untouchable except for it's intent!

Consider: No updates. You're not doing it for you so why do it at all? When/if you put it on the market, call it a fixer upper.

You won't get 100% of your investment out of "upgrades". What you upgrade to now, may be "out" when you put on the market. (granite is on it's way out). I think it's very risky to assume you know what a future buyer will want unless you're flipping it in the here and now.

That's my 2 cents.

[pinkytoe]

Sold our house as a FSBO and bought in another state this past year. Learned a lot about real estate and human behavior in the process. I think people have been mesmerized by HGTV shows and have high expectations. If I hear the phrase "open concept" one more time, I might gag. Both where we moved from and to, it is a seller's market and any home under $400K is sold within a few days. It seems that those that have not been updated mostly go for a reduced price to flippers or investors. They put some lipstick on them and turn into rentals. In Austin, they completely remodel and resell as a luxury home. When we sold ours in Austin, we gave the buyers a $3000 credit at closing (there is actually a line for that on form) since we bascially sold it "as is". I think how you choose to finance a remodel (or if) would be based on your income situation and age. A small home equity loan makes the most sense to me if you must do anything at all.

[Teacher Terry]

If the inside needs painting do that along with clutter removal, pack away family photos, thorough cleaning, make sure the curb appeal is good. These things will go a long way. We have bought and sold quite a few homes. People have trouble seeing themselves in your home if there are family photos. When we sell I pack a bunch of stuff before listing and put the boxes in the garage.

[Tybee]

If the inside needs painting do that along with clutter removal, pack away family photos, thorough cleaning, make sure the curb appeal is good. These things will go a long way. We have bought and sold quite a few homes. People have trouble seeing themselves in your home if there are family photos. When we sell I pack a bunch of stuff before listing and put the boxes in the garage.

Great advice, Terry!

I actually rented a storage locker with my last house in Illinois and moved at least half of my stuff out--no boxes anywhere, light on the furniture, then repainted interior walls (3 kids and 3 dogs, lived there 4 years) and staged it so it had the charm of those tv houses--bought Dansk dishes, a linen comforter, etc. etc., and changed my one Marimekko wallpaper to a neutral grasscloth. But you honestly couldn't tell any kids lived there, and we had already bought the next house, so I shipped everybody to the new house and spent 5 days in overdrive.

That one sold in three days.

Oh, I also price aggressively, as in very, very appealing--I want to sell the house as quickly as possible as holding on to it costs me more than I would get shooting high and hoping to get lower. I sold last 3 houses this way; one of my SC houses was closed in 6 weeks from day we put it on the market. It wasn't worth screwing around waiting to see if someone bit at the higher price. But your circumstances may be very different.

When I worked for a realtor, her motto was first offer, best offer.

I am a big advocate of painting everything--I think the smell is subliminal makes people think it is a new house or something. I used Benjamin Moore white dove in last two mid century modern houses and it looked fantastic. Good color.

[Teacher Terry]

Tybee, you have this moving and selling thing down to a science) The last few times we moved out before selling because with 4 dogs it would have been too hard. Our first offer has always been the best too.

[cindycindy]

I heard that also, tt, re first offer is where you'll end up We did pack most of our stuff to decilutter and depersonalize. I love living so spartan like. My husband has emotional attachment to stuff, so if nothing else, this exercise has served a purpose because we have really downsized his stuff.