Thank you geoffrey_b.

That's what my gut has been telling me, but I'm no realtor, so I wasn't sure. I'll go talk to him about it right now.

The realtor's suggestions are for his/her convenience. Your assessment is spot on. New doorknobs and such are a waste. Discount and let the new owners choose.

I would do purging and cleaning, and possibly a fresh coat of paint if the walls and trim are not in good shape after cleaning. I agree that the realtor is giving bad advice on changing hardware and light fixtures - lipstick on a pig that would not add any value. Presuming that the target market for this house is someone who wants to update it and isn't looking for a "move in ready" home.

I didn't read your whole novel, but the list of things to do is nonsensical. How many real estate agents did you talk to? Definitely don't use this one.

AJCN, go with your gut. This realtor wants your dad/your family to make his/her job easier for him. Interview another realtor or two.

If he is an area with a lot of new construction that he will be competing against, I think that you just need to clean and purge and set a very realistic price. In our general area, there is a lot of new construction. I live in a planned community that is very desirable but completely built out. The homes that are updated are the ones that sell quickly. The ones that languish on the market haven't been touched since the day they were built, but once the price gets to the point where a buyer feels that they can update without pricing themselves out of the market, those houses will sell. In talking to the younger couple across the street who bought our neighbors updated home, they tell us that most of their contemporaries want new construction. as they do not have the time nor the inclination to update.

I agree with you too, but just check to see who pays for the stagers if they're used.

Your mention of Houston reminded me of the blogger Joni Webb at Cote de Texas. Last year she and her husband had to sell their long-time Houston house quickly, because of his health, to move into a condo. She wrote two blog posts about it. She and her husband basically sold very cheaply to a flipper.

https://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2019/03/cote-de-texas-weve-downsized.html

https://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2019/04/flipping-downsizing-part-two.html

She wrote in the first blog post,

One thing about selling the house that really stopped me in my tracks was hiring a realtor. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to have a chirpy millennium come into my home and point out all that would need to be discarded in order to “style” my house for selling it. I didn’t have the energy for that and neither did Ben.

The best solution was someone who would buy the house “as is” and flip it. You won’t make near the same money that you would if you go the conventional route with a realtor, but you won’t have Open Houses either. Plus, your house is sold right now, as opposed to next year.

Though I understand their need for speed because of her husband's health, part of her story appalled me, so many good things thrown out. I think there's a good middle ground to be found, especially if a family has adult kids living nearby to help, as you do.

Good luck to your family, and your father : ) .

The realtor might actually be giving good advice, based on your market and the buyer demographics for that neighborhood. Many younger buyers, especially those in the busy "family years," simply have no desire to renovate/update a house, and will pay more for one in that same neighborhood that is updated and current looking. Homeowners then blame the realtor for not pricing/marketing the house properly, rather than accept that the house is simply not appealing to the likely buyers.

However, before either taking the realtor's advice or ignoring it completely, I would schedule a consultation with a local stager, to see what they recommend. A stager will give you specific, key suggestions that will help the house sell, rather than saying "paint and update/replace everything." Fresh new paint colors in key living areas, a few new light fixtures, and focused staging can totally transform a house.

I am not a realtor but...

It depends on what your goal is. If it is a quick sale and higher price then you may want to consider some of the items the realtor suggested but I am not sure they will make a difference. I would have a few more realtors do an evaluation and give you feedback AND comps.

Based on the VERY limited comp info you gave, the top price in that areas for that type of house is $610K renovated. An un-renovated house with that vintage interior is going to attract mostly contractors aka "flippers" and probably sell for less than $450K. JMO but I am in the Boston market...

Every market is a different.

Open House above just said exactly what I was going to say.

I would recommend maybe a more middle of the road response. Maybe.

Take a look around with your most critical eye. Be brutally honest. Or heck, post some photos here if you've got either a thick skin and /or a desire for the God's honest truth. :)

There may well be a few things that are so garishly bad they need to be dealt with. Speaking for me personally, I'm getting old, have bought/sold several homes, and yet I still find myself with visceral reactions to some really bad/tacky stuff. I should know better, yet a badly-painted room leaves such a bad impression on me.

I once declined a house because they painted the dining room red, and painted it so badly there were brush marks on the ceiling. I do most of my own painting so it was probably only a ~$250 fix for me....but yet I chose another house so I wouldn't have to deal with that dining room.

Making a choice to buy a house involves evaluating a million variables. Perhaps you can increase your odds by making only a few improvements.

I agree with you and everyone else. Your realtor is way off target. Purge and clean, of course. But my guess is that plenty of buyers will look at a big house in a neighborhood with excellent schools and be delighted to try to score it for less than top dollar.

I’ve been in the market myself recently, and I can’t tell you how many older homes have been “upgraded” with paint colors and other finishes that I despise.

@zalco: Could you or someone else please tell me what you mean by “bring Sophie back?” I’ve been absent from this site for a long time, and I’m disappointed that the brilliant, irascible Sophie Wheeler is not posting any more.

Liz, last year she ran afoul of some posters over at Hot Topics and was removed, then conditionally (one strike and you're out) allowed to return, so chose not to. She started a FB group where she was participating there until she had a stroke late last year or earlier this year.

Good luck with your own house search : ) .

@beckysharp. Thanks for this info. I do hope she’s recovering.

I'm an appraiser. Here is what I would do. The middle of the road approach.

Take the list the realtor provided. Cost it out. Get the cost of each item and the cost to install. Make a total number. If it looks as if it will reap a reward for the effort, you might consider it. I doubt it will. You will have done all the work and the realtor reaps the reward of an easy sale.

One step that the realtor didn't suggest was the pre-sale inspection. Get a full home inspection done by a good home inspector. Address the red issues. It sounds as if your father has maintained the big, expensive items. You will need to highlight this on the listing. Mechanically sound with all outstanding mechanical items addressed. Make sure something like that is addressed in the listing verbiage.

I haven't seen the pictures, but a good coat of neutral paint with some limited staging furniture is my compromise solution. I wouldn't worry about hardware and light fixtures unless they are broken. Clean, yard sale, Habitat For Humanity truck, clean some more, cut back the bushes and get things smelling good.

In Houston, most people just want a house that hasn't flooded or is filled with mold. Make certain that the listing says never flooded.

Your dad is going to have a hard time with chucking a lifetime of memories and acquisitions to the curb. A sensitive, compassionate and competent realtor can make the difference between a good sale and a bad sale.

I think the realtor's advice is wrong.

While I agree that there is a market for move-in ready homes, the fixes that are being suggested really do nothing to update it so it just seems like money down the drain. It just seems like money and effort being spent for very limited gains.

Without knowing what the house is like, it's hard to imagine that new towel bars and faucets in an old bathroom are really going to make a difference.

Thank you all.

The realtor is the chirpy millennial variety

My Dad is pretty okay with chucking almost everything. He knows exactly which things he can’t part with, the porch swing is the most important item. We are all going to help him with the process.

Haha! I personally love chirpy millennials, but they frequently need an older and steadier hand to guide them a bit.

five yrs ago my parents went through this. Two realtors were consulted : two approaches. they took the best advice which is to PRICE the house so you get immediate interest . they had an estate sale prior to listing to clear what they were not taking with them. A realtor will seek the higher asking price if they so desire, and if they can talk you into it...and that's what one realtor attempted.....in your case contingent upon doing the laundry list of tasks. The folks listened carefully to realtor B about problems of overpricing, house sitting on market and then interest wanes. The goal is to price right, so interest comes immediately....and get an offer. My folks got an offer on day one. And on to next phase of senior living. It depends how complicated and overinvolved you want to make it for yourselves.....that is a lot of work....the alternative is a different price point , get an offer and move along.

AJCN, "We are all going to help him with the process." He's a lucky Dad, and I suspect your response to that would be "we're lucky to have him" : )

I myself don't buy houses for a living, but I used to work with people who were buying/looking for homes. I'm not a realtor, but a recently retired lender.

If you price the house to sell given it's not remodeled/updated (and what the realtor told you to do is not remodeling, and staging won't help either) you should be fine. However, most people seem to be unable to look past furnishings. Clearing out a house before putting it on the market is always the best way to go, with one exception only - if the furnishings are high end and tastefully appointed. I'd recommend clearing it out. If your dad was a smoker, the walls need to be primed with Kilz and painted, neutral color - that's a blank slate for the buyer. If the walls have a lot of marks on them, but no smokers, paint a neutral color. Hire the painters after the house is empty. Have the house cleaned. Those are the only things that you really need to do to make your home sell faster, and time can be money for a home that languishes on the market as you pay utilities, lawn care, property taxes, etc.

You might consider another realtor, as well ; - )

So this realtor claims by replacing towel bars, faucets, door knobs, and lights the home is going to sell for 10's of thousands more. What a fallacy.

We went through something similar when selling mothers house for her a few years ago. She was moving to an independent living apartment, really unable to care for her home or landscaping safely any longer.

None of us had ever lived in the house. We did as Homechef advised and had it inspected so we'd know what we were dealing with...but, please know, as we did, that anything documented in the inspection report will need to be disclosed to a potential buyer.

Lots of little things were brought to light that we took care of. A bathroom door that didn't lock. Need for more smoke alarms bedrooms wing and a CO2 detector added for reason of attached garage. Faulty side spray at kitchen sink. Hot water tank not strapped. Leak under guest bath tub drain.

We discovered both bathroom fans vented into the attic. That - we disclosed.

There were a couple of areas where exterior siding showed some rot, and that we fixed as it could have colored a VA loan - as it turned out, the buyers did use VA financing.

We took down dated curtains and left freshly washed windows bare. We purged (for weeks), moved her, hired professional housecleaning and listed without updating. We did not pay for staging. Rooms and their purpose were pretty straightforward, no areas where imaginative furniture would be needed to show how best used. It sold for asking price right away even though we were listing at a slow time of year. Oct 18, and closed with check in bank Dec 1.

I don't think changing door knobs or light fixtures would have made 2 cents worth of difference, much of the house needed updating. We had woodwork washed, and didn't even paint. We did not tackle the feminine wall paper present in almost every room ;0)

I would agree on a fresh coat of paint and very deep cleaning pay the extra to have a professional job done rather than family doing it. I am in the process of redoing things on my badly used 1952 brick ranch. I was surprised at the things that I had never noticed that just looked bad.

Look at the door knobs. Because of the age of mine some had a dipped coating. I have found that several had chips in that coating. If I want all the hardware to match I need to replace all. Will I go high end? No just something that is not trendy.

Another thing that I have noticed is that some of the light fixtures have through the years yellowed or simply are not bright enough for the area. People now want bright light in bathrooms and kitchens so changing out or adding light fixtures in bath and kitchen are something for you to look at but it needs to be done at night and are on my list. Off topic but I was dismayed when looking at bathroom lights for LEDs that the fixtures I found had integrated LED bulbs. No more changing the light bulb you would have to change the fixture.

Have you talked to at least three different realtors? I'd start there.

I would purge, clean, repair anything dangerous or leaky and price competitively. Buyers will know they aren't getting the latest trendy fixtures and can upgrade to their own taste or flip. Talk to a few more realtors and get other opinions. Best of luck.

I really appreciate all this advice. I'll be over there tomorrow to help him start the purging process, and then DB, SIL, DS, BIL, DH, and 2 strong teenage sons will all be on hand to help next weekend.

The plan right now is:

- go room by room and decide what he's bringing with him, and what items are going to family members, if they've already expressed a desire for certain items.

- everything else gets the following treatment:

-- box up all the books to donate to library. Any first editions, valuable books go to my house to sell to collectors.

-- take apart furniture and put in garage and porte-cochere to be picked up by favorite charitable organization that holds weekly auctions for their homeless ministry. Any truly valuable antiques go to my house to sell to collectors.

-- take down all art (he has some really nice prints). Valuable signed art goes to my house to sell to collectors or some will go to family members if they have expressed that they would like them.

-- throw away all old nasty linens, towels, mattresses and other soft items.

-- all antique toys from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s go to my house to sell to collectors.

-- layout all kitchen items: china, other dishes, cookware. Mom was a gourmet cook and she had some wonderful pots and pans that would cost a fortune today. Adult kids will take some of them. DD will take what he wants to new place. Truly valuable china, silver and crystal will go to my house to sell to collectors. All else will be donated.

Next weekend, charity organization will come pick up everything from the garage and porte-cochere. Family members will transport things they are being given back to their homes. Someone will transport books to the library. We will probably have to rent a u-haul or truck to take a bunch of stuff to the local dump, such as the mattresses which they take on certain days.

Schwoo! What am I forgetting?

sushipup,

I am trying to get my Dad to talk to a couple of other realtors. I think he will. He usually appreciates my help and advice and it a very open-minded person. He just tends to agree with and go with whatever the last person he talked to said!

I am about to create a new post. This is semi-related to the sale of his house, but it's an issues that may take us down a legal-related road. He has this lady that was living-in when my Mom was there and she has turned into kind of a squatter and could cause issues with the sale of the house. I'm going to post this separate; gotta handle it right in accordance to the law.

There will be plenty of buyers thrilled to be able to buy into such a desirable neighborhood at a low price. Those buyers won't care that the house needs updating because they are quite willing to make the tradeoff to get In to the neighborhood.

I would be tempted to put a for sale by owner sign in the yard when you start working on getting your dad moved, if you can handle the disruption. Tell potential buyers to show you an approval letter from a lender showing they can pay $440,000 and just see if someone wants to get first crack before it goes on the open market. Tell potential buyers they are getting a $10,000 discount and that should cover any of the issues discovered during the inspection and you won't be renegotiating price. Consider it an as-is sale and invite them to have an inspection done but state the price is as given and they are free to back out after receiving the inspection results. Otherwise you may get a buyer wanting the as-is price and then expecting the fixes too.

Be sure to let all your friends and neighbors know because they may know potential buyers who would like to buy direct from the original owner and get a good deal.

Life will be so much easier if you just clean out the house and price it to sell. If you don't get a buyer within a month, then consider whether you wish to do some new paint and other updates

Unless you can have the charity come at a certain time keep what the family members want inside the house and make ALL family members aware not to put anything that they want any where near the rest. I know it sounds obvious but almost always someone will put something near the loading area and when the loaders ask about it know one knows who put it there or why and it is gone. Even worse is a child who puts her favorite doll or other toy down. When this happens you are to blame not the person who lacked the brain power to not put it where it could be picked up nor watched what the child was doing.

If possible and it probably is not have the family one weekend and a second weekend for the charity pickup.

Lyndee Lee and maifleur01,

great advice, thanks!

throw away all old nasty linens, towels, mattresses and other soft items

Check with your local pet shelters to see if they are interested in old flat sheets, pillowcases, comforters/duvets, (non-knitted) blankets, and towels.

beckysharp, that's a great suggestion. Thanks! We will definately do that.

Fresh coat of paint everywhere, leave the hardware and light fixtures, staging might be worth it, and price appropriately.

Thanks Cavimum,

I think my Dad has decided to do purge-paint-clean-list. He added paint to the list. But other than that, no further updates. He will price it appropriately.

We all live in the same area, so all adult sibs, in-laws, strong teenage grandchildren are all going to help in this effort over the next couple of weeks. My SIL is a "toure-de-force" and is going to be really helpful.

My totally non-professional opinion is that he made the right decision. We were just in the market to buy and were dismayed at how many houses were quickly renovated to list at a higher price, because we did not like most of the finishes and would never have chosen them ourselves. We would have loved to have found a well-maintained home that allowed us to pick our own stuff. (This is actually where we landed for the most part, though they had redone the master bath and kids bath terribly.)

Best wishes to your family as you work through all of this. Sounds like you’re a special bunch of people.

We were just in the market to buy and were dismayed at how many houses were quickly renovated to list at a higher price, because we did not like most of the finishes and would never have chosen them ourselves. We would have loved to have found a well-maintained home that allowed us to pick our own stuff.

Exactly this.

Clean,lean, and have the house pre-inspected. Maybe,maybe a coat of paint if it is needed. & yeah, good staging for great photos. Some of the changes the realtor focused on sound foolish.

You bet you are on the wrong page. You need to get that woman out of the house he is trying to sell now, or else Dad is going to own two houses (one with a nonpaying occupant).

Commentators here might want to know that Dad has other stuff on his plate besides painting a new condo.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5727563/dd-has-a-squatter-living-in-his-house-and-he-s-selling-the-house

JudyG, I didn’t know she was still there til after I started this post. I thought she moved out months ago! As I was leaving the realtor meeting I heard water running upstairs and asked “Is someone here?” Anyway, we’re making progress with that. She has agreed, in writing, to move in 10 days, and my Dad is giving her a cash incentive to follow through. Now we are packing up what my Dad is taking. The moving truck is coming on day 10, then charity truck, then trips to dump, then cleaning, etc. He did an inspection and fixed the minor things that came up, so he’s good there. I’m so glad he’s not going to do the stupid “updates” the realtor recommended.

For goodness sakes, Dad is 81. I've purchased homes with the owner's clothes still in the closet, junk 4 feet deep in the basement, and nothing updated or fixed for 40 years. That Realtor isn't wrong IF you have endless funds (looking at about 20K minimum right there unless you guys do some work), and time to spend. You are almost at the end of June. The time is NOW to get it sold. Things slow down a bit after the 4th. IF you want very top HGTV showroom dollar, (and highest commission possible for the Realtor),, follow all that advice. But it doesn't sound like the expenditure of effort is worth it for your Dad.

Follow your gut. You are already willing to list under what the very top dollar is, from what you say, given the condition of the house. Do what you think is right and do not be dissuaded.