I was on a listing appointment with a home owner today and as they were taking me through the home they asked me if they should replace the 1960's carpeting.  The typical response of a real estate agent would be "Yes, let's replace that old carpeting with a soft neutral carpet.  However, my answer was a little different especially in the current market.  I asked the owner if they minded if I removed one of their furnace registers and they said that would be fine.  Once I removed the heating register we quickly found some very nice hardwood flooring underneath that old carpeting.  My immediate response went like this "I don't think we will be needing new carpeting and you may have just saved between $3,000 to $5,000 because the hardwood looks like new".  

The reality is that many real estate agents have bought into the notion that in order to successfully sell a home in this market the home must have all new carpeting, all new stainless appliances and granite or solid surface counter tops.  The current housing market is challenging but the reality is that there are many cases where the home owner should simply focus on some decluttering of the home and making the home feel clean, nice and neat.   This approach can pay bigger dividends than spending thousands of dollars on expensive upgrades because spending thousands of dollars doesn't guarantee you will always see a higher sales price.  Certainly there are cases where making the upgrades pays off but before you do this you should evaluate the competing homes in your price range.  When a home owner hires The Sam Miller Team to sell their home one of the first things we do is review all of the competing homes so that we know which homes will be our stiffest competition.  This enables us to be able to determine exactly what we will need to do to be competitive.  

If you are serious about selling your home in the current housing market give us a call at (740) 397-7800 and we will give you realistic recommendations that can help you reduce the selling time and we will get your home SOLD for you.