We store stuff in our garage so, to me, having a functioning garage door is a security issue. We live in an urban area. I'd fix it. You could always look into getting a salvaged door - our garage door was purchased this way for $120- solid wood with a window in a vintage style that matches the age of our house.

Original chestnut molding - sounds nice!

As for your issues...when I see a house with a large repair that needs to be made I immediately start processing price vs. repair. I.e. has the cost of the repair been factored into the price? Its hard to find comparables that have your or similar updates and say no large repairs (how do you get the exact info you need?) or a similar 1 large repair needed so you can judge your pricing, but that sort of info in a flyer would make me feel more reassured as a buyer. If you think your price, the condition of the house, includes the roof repair, make that known somehow.

Generally I would think hot water is more important than garaging your car.

Is the detached garage an extra garage? A car door or a regular human walk in door with door knob? If there is an attached garage and the detached is additional storage I wouldn't worry about it, people may not need the extra storage. If its the main garage, it depends on which door. If its the car door then its fairly important. If the car door is in good working condition with an opener then the walk in door is less important (is there a button to hit to close the car door on the outside if you use that door as an exit?)

You might want to do some internet research on your furnace. Maybe get it inspected. If the inspector says yes fine, no issues, show people the inspection.

How do you know your hot water heater needs to be replaced? Is it dripping? Usually there is little warning when a tank needs replacement (many times it just tears open), but sometimes a house owner gets lucky and has warning signs via a small leak. If the signs are there, replace the tank.

If the hot water tank does not need immediate replacement, I'd do the garage door. It is a curb appeal feature as well as a concern for a good lock to prevent a break-in. Why does it need replacing? Can it be painted instead? Or, is there more damage?

I would do the garage door (which should be function-able or someone will hurt themselves), the hot water heater if it needs it, and I would get a few roofers out to give estimates. You might not need the whole roof done and it doesn't cost anything for estimates.

If you guys are handy you can do the water heater & garage door yourselves.

To add to roselvr's point about the smaller issues, if you wait until they turn up at an inspection, you'll probably have to hire a licensed pro to do the work. If you do it now, you can DIY.

We bought this house with a "credit" toward resurfacing the pool. It was a way for the seller to acknowledge the problem, but not actually repair it. They used the price of marcite to determine the credit. We went with PebbleTech instead, at twice the price. I am glad we had an allowance and could choose our own material. That might be a way to "sell" the new-owner-gets-to-do-the-roof issue.

Is your roof actually leaking? Or are shingles missing? If not, I wouldn't assume you'd have to replace the roof. An old roof that isn't leaking is not defective. If there are shingles loose or missing, I'd look into repair work for those spots. Even with two layers of shingles, repair work can be done that will give the roof 5-7 more years of life.
I know because this was done to the house we're buying by a roofer who is guaranteeing the roof for 5 years, even with the 2 layers of shingles underneath his repairs.

If such repairs are necessary for your roof, get a roofer who will give you a warranty for the repairs for X amount of time (transferrable to the buyers). This should allay any fears your buyer may have about having to replace the roof immediately.

The way our agent put it, the buyer is buying an old house, not a new house. They can't expect brand new everything. They should expect that what is there is not defective, unless otherwise disclosed. If you make necessary repairs, you've fixed the defect.

If the buyers want a whole new roof when the existing roof isn't actually defective, it's not fair to expect you to foot the entire bill. If the idea of repair work isn't satisfactory to your buyer, depending on your market and the traffic you're getting and how much of a hurry you're in to sell, I'd think about offering a partial credit for roof replacement. How much would depend on how long you've lived in the house.

If you do have roofers come out to look at your roof, I wouldn't ask for estimates for a new roof. I'd ask them what repairs they could do to extend the life of the current roof and will they guarantee their work.

I think if you want to sell the house you should fix the roof. That was the #1 concern of home buyers that I heard on HGTV last night. And they're right, I doubt I would buy a house if I thought I'd have to fix the roof soon. Even if I was given an allowance at closing. It's a dirty process with dumpsters in the yard and picking nails out of the lawn. I can see the other posters situation with the pool, she wanted to get a better type of liner so she upgraded with the allowance she was given. I would do that with interior things like appliances or floor coverings. Not a roof, though.

My appraiser finally came.. now I can finish what I wanted to originally post.

New kitchen
Updated bath
New fence and driveway gate
New amp
Refinished hardwoods

The updates you did are ones that most people around here have also done, except us. With kitchens & baths they've used the cheapest builders grade and let the house "mechanics" slide. They focused on some rooms, leaving paneling in others & from what I now hear, some of the bathrooms, while they look great in photos, in person they are cramped.

Since the last time we were listed (1999) we've put in central AC, roof, furnace, upgraded electric, hot water heater, driveway, paver walkway plus removed paneling from all of the rooms, did new flooring in some spots, counters & both toilets.

What we did not do was replace the kitchen cabinets, they are wood, honey maple stained & in great shape. They are very hard to photograph though lol - in the main bathroom, which is 10 x 9, there is paneling on the walls, the tub surround could also use to be replaced but with the new toilet, counter top (painted the vanity) and flooring, the bathroom looks decent and is fine until the next owner comes in and does their thing.

After walking houses myself and seeing remodeling done to the owners tastes, I passed on a lot of houses. I talked to a lot of people, other buyers that had just bought so that I had a clue as to what people were looking for & what was out there.

I talked to our buyer the other day, he told me that while the houses looked great in photos and said they had say central AC, the AC unit was old, or people couldn't tell them how old the furnace was or most of the mechanics of the house.

When I hand buyers the flier I made, their face lights up when they see the ages of everything, so I am hopeful that if this deal does fall through by the end of this week that one of the other buyers will come back.

If you can look at your competition, do so. Ask your agent to give you the MLS sheets of your competition to see what they have. You might be able to get away with not doing the roof but you might have to.

The way our agent put it, the buyer is buying an old house, not a new house. They can't expect brand new everything. They should expect that what is there is not defective, unless otherwise disclosed. If you make necessary repairs, you've fixed the defect.

If the buyers want a whole new roof when the existing roof isn't actually defective, it's not fair to expect you to foot the entire bill. If the idea of repair work isn't satisfactory to your buyer, depending on your market and the traffic you're getting and how much of a hurry you're in to sell, I'd think about offering a partial credit for roof replacement. How much would depend on how long you've lived in the house.

If you do have roofers come out to look at your roof, I wouldn't ask for estimates for a new roof. I'd ask them what repairs they could do to extend the life of the current roof and will they guarantee their work.

I would get estimates for repairs and a roof.
The last time we were listed, our deal fell through due to the roof, which was not leaking at the time. The buyer wanted a new roof and wanted us to pay the whole thing, hubby offered 1/2. We ended up getting another 5 years out of that roof

Depending on what area the house will be listed in, some buyers are brutal. The roof might kill the deal, like our last one.

Thanks very much for all the helpful replies here.

I decided to go ahead and order the hot water heater, which is coming tomorrow. Our current one is 12 years old and due for replacement. I renewed a service plan with Keyspan Energy, and the discount on the water heater plus a free tune-up of the furnace was worth renewing the service contract (also transferrable to the new owner). Not sure if they'll provide some type of paperwork assuring furnace is in good working order, but will ask, as I could show this to the potential buyer(s).

Great ideas about the roof. Made couple of calls today to get estimates about repairs, and will ask whether they can guarantee the work in writing for X number of years and transfer it to the new owner.

The garage: It's a single car garage, at the end of a long drive to the back of the house. It's visible from the street, and the old heavy wood door works, but, there was a hole about four inches high at the bottom, and we patched it up with a piece of wood, and painted the whole door white awhile ago. It just looks like what it is: a patched working door. One of the big box stores is having a good sale on garage doors, which ends today, so we may do this as well, unless you all think we're overdoing it? Also, our current door can lock, but admit it's a PITA to function.

From what I gather here, our main focus has got to be the roof. We'll see what creative things we can do there to either extend its life or barring that, somehow negotiate that into the pricing of the house. Thanks again!

With the roof, be prepared to ask about the type of shingles used if you do have to do a whole roof. In my area the roofs have black marks (picture here) on them, it looks like a plane dumped fuel on it. I ended up making a post (link below) on one of the boards here and found it was actually algae. If anyone wants the direct link to the algae page, click here

Apparently, the shingle companies are now making shingles that are algae proof. If it is a problem in your area, and price is not much higher, I would spend the money on it.

The garage: It's a single car garage, at the end of a long drive to the back of the house. It's visible from the street, and the old heavy wood door works, but, there was a hole about four inches high at the bottom, and we patched it up with a piece of wood, and painted the whole door white awhile ago. It just looks like what it is: a patched working door. One of the big box stores is having a good sale on garage doors, which ends today, so we may do this as well, unless you all think we're overdoing it? Also, our current door can lock, but admit it's a PITA to function.

Do you have a handy man in the area? I would price it out so that you know what the job is worth. We did this with our main bathroom, got estimates until my agent told us not to do it. It was nice to have everything ready in case we had to do it. Most handy men get busy this time of the year, so it will be one less step and they could come out prepared to do the job. What we also do with 2 guys we use, my hubby will disassemble and they will do the work, so it's less time they need to spend here and can usually fit us in quicker.

Here is a link that might be useful: Algae post

I would concentrate on the mechanical items, such as the hot water heater.
I would not do the door, we just bought a house, that had decent working garage doors, but we wanted a carraige house look for the doors and installed new ones that we liked, same thing with the kitchen and bath, it was all very nice but just not our style, so we gutted and remodeled both. If the house is priced right, it will sell and the new owners will remodel to thier taste.

Thanks for the replies.

Have a slightly off-topic question: I'm having a 40-gallon hot water heater (gas) installed tomorrow. Is 40 gallons enough for what we have: one bathroom, a dishwasher, four people, and with the thought that one day there will likely be a second shower or bath installed in the house? It's just $100 difference or so between a 40- and a 50-gallon, but we're thinking 50 might not be necessary and kind of big for the space where the water heater is currently.

40 gal is average and when I sold my house I replaced a 50 gal with a 40gal. Plumber said it would be just fine and I didn't want to spend the xtra money as the WH just broke and I hadn't budgeted on that.

I'll stick with the 40-gallon tank then.

Edinct, funny but we were eyeing those carriage doors. They're great, aren't they?

Thanks all....