To those of you who buy, fix, and sell. On a project with a 5-7
week time frame, do you llst the home as soon as you purchase it,
and market it as “under renovation” or wait until it is completely
finished??
thanks
Somewhere in between for us. I firmly believe that it has to look like a house before anyone can see it. Otherwise people get stuck with that mental image that it’s a dump. For example: someone comes while you have the bathroom down to joists because it’s rotten and needs replacing. What sticks is that part of the bathroom was rotten, not that you’ve made it brand new.
At the very least complete the exterior before you list it. That way any “drive by’s” at least have an idea of where the house is going. You can also put the house on MLS and put a “Do not show before” date on it. Just make sure you’re ready on that date.
thanks for your input. makes sense
I’d get it to the point where it’s nice and clean, before showing it. One contractor said it the best, “buyers/renters have no imagination”.
Think of it this way, it’s this lack of imagination that allows you to pay the price of a dump, and get full retail when done.
GIve to an example what happened once.
I often rehab for rentals, but I don’t show it till its over 90% done. Once, I scheduled carpets to be laid on a Friday before my weekend open house. I already took off the old carpets. A problem came up, and it was re-scheduled for the following week. Meanwhile, the open house went ahead.
One radiator had a leaky valve thru the years, and the water created an ugly black spot under the carpeting. It would have been covered up nicely, and had it been recarpeted on time. I normally get oo’s and ahh’s on how nice new carpet feels and looks.
I usually get 20 to 30 lookers for a weekend open house and just about every single person who came by asked about the black spot, or asked it be repaired before recarpeting. I wasn’t about to sand down the floor because of a delay in the carpeting.
Had another open house the following weekend, and I got my usuall “oo’s and ahh’s”. I usually have half a dozen people interested in a weekend showing with 20 to 30 people coming by. I had no interest the first weekend with the black spot, and the usual “good interest” the second weekend.
Nowadays, for a dollar or two a square yard, I have the carpet place remove the old carpets and padding, and this would not occur. Some places even do it for free. But under the same circumstances, I would’ve just taken names the first weekend, tell people to drive by if they want to, and ask them to come by the next.
Showing the place with that ugly black spot was a total waste of a weekend.