The garage looks okay with the house. Are you in the middle of prepping the house for sale? What did your agent recommend for prep work? It looks like the landscaping needs some attention.

Your current porch with the paired columns is charming- I see no return on investment by replacing it. I would put that money into much larger windows for the family room that have similar proportions to those in the existing home- probably two pair of windows. The current square windows with a half ellipse scream 90’s addition. Paint the front porch ceiling pale blue and the floor pale grey to provide some relief from the white vinyl.

Maybe remove the tree that is visually separating the buildings and could potentially damage either building foundations with its roots.

Actually the tree was removed. So that's good.

He agrees something needs to be done but is leaving it to me to figure it out I guess.

The current beams are actually deflecting toward the road so something has to be done. Most contractors are recommending to replace them with four columns since the cost would be way more to keep the same style. I agree with the windows. I wanted to avoid redoing the header which would be required if we did two double windows but that may be my only option. I did toy with the idea of a picture window that matches the length of the other houses windows.

I also was considering a palladium window to fit in the current space.

I am prepping it for sale.

Landscaping in front of the garage. Walk to front door. Porch is fine.

ETA: Porch looks fine, but if needs repair, yes you would have to do something.

A Palladian window will be even more anachronistic on your charming farmhouse. Far too fancy. Let’s imagine this was a barn added to the side of the home around the time it was built. It would have had simple wood windows and a vent in the gable end to let out heat. Do that. If you have vaulted ceilings use a window in the top of the gable like the main house.

Ok that sounds good. So a small vent maybe the size of the window on the third floor of the main house? And are you thinking two double windows or two separate singular windows?

Is the garage finished? Is the bare concrete wall going to be rendered?

Another vote for landscaping. Your driveway is cracked and there is missing edging in the center section. The large tree is blocking the view of the front door. Some nice shrubs would look good in front of the garage.

Two double windows likely the same size as the main house.

Ok, that makes sense.

The garage is not done. Previous construction company didn't finish the siding so I'm having that done. Also thinking about stucco on the foundation walls or a retaining wall to build up the dirt and plant shrubs.

The driveway is a bit if a mess. I have quotes to seal it or do a 1.5 inch top coat of asphalt. Still trying to decide if the additional 10k for the asphalt is worth it.

I think that if you are prepping to sell, this is not the time to take on architectural work. Of course, it will depend on where you live, however, I would take the agent with a grain of salt. It's very easy for an agent to recommend lots of investment (and trouble) on your part, with an unknown, and perhaps unknowable, benefit. I wouldn't do it if it were me.

I think the landscape is the thing that could spruce the place up the most. There are weed in driveway cracks (easy fix), grass growing over the driveway curb, garage front-facing concrete wall that needs painting, or covering with bushes, or some kind of treatment.

Lose the tree(s) as best you can (maybe already done, as stated in your comment).

Some flowers or fall color on the front porch.

That's it!!!

Now go tend to the cleaning and de-cluttering the inside.

I just read you are thinking of spending $10K on a stucco treatment. You need to be stopped from throwing money away.

Why don't you share about the market in your area. Where are you? What are homes selling for? What are the comparables like? Why didn't you post in the real estate section of this website?

All the trees on the front lawn will be removed as well. To open it up.

The only change needed is to paint the section on the front which looks like the exposed foundation of the garage. Then add bushes and flowers in front of that section that compliments the new paint color. Leave the rest alone.

Like a dark grey paint?

If you spend too much, you will never get it back. The buyers will want something totally different. Fix what is broke, like the porch supports. Weed and clean. Small amount of landscaping to cover up the garage concrete.

We had a real estate agent, big name in town, tell us we HAD to put shutters on our little house to sell it. We did not have the money and said no. Left with the kids so she could have an open house. Sold in less than three hours. Forty years later, the house still does not have shutters.

I would hate it if you cut the trees down. That is what I mean by everyone liking something different.

This is the driveway. It has a lot of weeds. It's a 900 foot loop driveway and I have a quote 3000 to seal or 13k to do a 1.5 inch top coat of asphalt. Any thoughts?

Match the shutters. They look blue. You may want to touch up the paint on them too.

Some other pictures of the porch

Roundup the drive.

Spray some weed and grass killer on the grass/weeds coming through the cracks. Tidy up the landscape by mowing, weedeating and throwing away debris/waste.

Yeah, blue is a great idea. I plan of painting the shutters as well. And was thinking about matching the front door with the shutters.

Ok, so just kill the weeds and seal the driveway? That works.

Just kill the weeds David!

How much is this house worth? What does the inside of the home look like? Where in the tarnation is this home? Canada? New York? Wealthy area, and this is a huge, old fixer? Or is this the largest home in a bad school district? What are the comparables in the neighborhood? What does your competition (all the similar-size homes in your neighborhood) look like? What does the inside of this house look like? How is the real estate market going where you live? What are the average number of days on the market in your neighborhood? Is it a buyer's market or a seller's market?

Why is this home so neglected-looking? If you have all this money to do all these fixes, then why haven't they been done while someone was living there?

I wouldn't remove the big pines in front either- that can be an attraction for many people, and if someone who buys the house don't want the trees, they can pay for the removal of them on their own.

BiG yes to cleaning up that driveway- I think just the 3 grand for the sealing would be sufficient to make the whole drive look fresh and nice. Again, if someone buys that wants a more serious asphalt layer, they can pay for that themselves.

Don't toss money at a lot of remodeling or changes to sell- see this a lot when people think of updating a kitchen for a sale when all that is needed/warrented is to fix any damages, then clean, clean, clean! Same goes for your yard- don't blow a lot of money making remodeling changes. Fix the porch beams that need fixing, make that garage wall look nicer. And clean, clean, clean your yard.

Ok, I am definitely going to clean and fix all the damage. Basically I'm closing on this house that was bought by a guy at auction two years ago but he thought he would just turn around and sell it so he did nothing to it. Now he's basically unloading it for about what he paid. It's in Carmel NY. It's the Mahopac school district so it is in a pretty good area. Houses this size look way nicer and are going for 800k. I don't think we will get that here. We ran into a title issue but once that's cleared we want to start work immediately. People are trying to move out of NYC now so the market has been pretty good.

Here's pictures of the inside

Am thinking about installing a half bath in this closet

This is the third floor and second floor

Another second floor room and the living room and upstairs bathroom

Living room kitchen and upstairs bathroom. The other bathroom is downstairs

This is one picture of the dining room and the three pictures are the inside of the addition above the garage

Am thinking about installing a four foot shower in that bathroom with a sliding glass door

What is your budget? How much did you pay for it?

Unless you are a contractor or have significant diy skills, a bathroom remodel can cost $30K to $50K. In these forums, we hear about that all the time. I'm asking what would be the point?

On the inside, I would paint ALL the walls and trim off-white (eggshell or flat paint on the walls, semi-gloss on the trim),

Kitchen: remove ceiling fan and paint ceiling the uniform off-white color.

If people are currently moving to your area and selling prices are rising, then do the minimal amount and get this house on the market.

No sliding glass doors in showers.

Need to kill and pull the weeds in the driveway and then use your weedwacker to edge the entire drive. You can’t just add a sealer over weeds even if they are dead. Dig and pull them up!

So you are just flipping a house. You have never lived in it. Spend what ever you want.

Hoping to keep it around 50k. Buying it for 410

I first want to say, that you have parceled and piecemealed out crucial information about your project. I, and probably many others who are available to offer advice on projects like this, are somewhat annoyed by the haphazard way that you revealed all of this information.

On the plus side, now you're going to get better advice.

It is highly unlikely that you can do most of the exterior modifications, plus a bathroom remodel for under $50,000. But that is a budget that would allow you to re-do the driveway (if only $3,000, sounds like a good deal to me in my hcola area); paint the exterior and interior (especially those areas with no paint like the front steps and the garage foundation).

Has the inspection from your purchase been made available to you yet? If so, I'd fix the items that you can.

The rest, I'd spend on landscape. For sure, with that budget, I'd take out the house-blocking trees and especially those trees in the middle of the 2 pieces of the house. That's your whole budget right there. Maybe plant some shrubs and clean up that grass. No bath remodels.

You might come out of this really well! Sounds like an interesting project.

Edited: Id take out all the unsightly ceiling fans. Not sure if you'll have money to upgrade lighting.

Your $50K will probably cover new paint inside and out, removing the trees, cleaning up the yard including removing the old broken concrete decorative items, weeding and sealing the driveway. Set aside $500 -$1000 for a thorough professional interior cleaning, changing out all the burned out light bulbs, and servicing the HVAC. There will not be any room in the budget for new showers or other changes that will match the quality of what is there now. The inspection report will allow you to decide priorities on fixing things. Many repairs have to take precedence over things we'd rather do.

Soft white paint inside and out. Shutters can be black, denim blue, cranberry, forest green, or other traditional colors that will photograph well.

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Ok, I understand. I was trying to just get to the point and didn't realize how helpful you all would be. I'm thankful for your consideration. My dad is an engineer and did the inspection. That being said the areas that need fixing are very obvious and I aim to do that. I have a price to take down three trees in front of the house for 1,000. The others I can handle with a chainsaw. I'll do the painting myself and have a contractor fixing the porch and putting new gutters. The contractor will also install new top cabinets in the kitchen to match the already replaced cabinets on the bottom. That's 5k. Also all the floors will be sanded and poly for about 3k.

Does everyone agree that the foundation that's exposed should be dark blue to match all the shutters?

I'm planning on sanding and painting the front door the same color as the shutters.

I was considering putting the key stone window trim above the front windows as well.

I will do a lot of the lawn maintenance myself.

I am planning on replacing some of the lighting. And do consider the fans to need replacing.

Does everyone agree that the columns can stay as they are? I need to see what happened to make them lean toward the road. If they can be salvaged I can save a lot of money there however I thought 10 inch pillars and a colonial railing and fence would add class to this house. The railing that's there is very water logged and they used siding that doesn't match the house.

I know that area well, grew up near there. I wouldn't remove all the trees, but certainly the one blocking the view of the front door. Painting the concrete blue will make it stand out, which is not what you want. I would plant shrubs. You want to create maximum curb appeal.

How long do you expect this project to take? I'm assuming fairly quickly based on the Covid situation.

Painting the inside white/cream will help a lot. Don't waste time on adding or changing bathrooms. Get it spotlessly clean and looking well maintained and not neglected.

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for your help. I really like the barn idea, installing two windows and a vent to make the addition stand out less. What are your thoughts on that?