Daily Real Estate News | Thursday, August 03, 2017
- Home shoppers can get hung up on cosmetic issues of a home, even though often times the problems are relatively inexpensive to fix.
- “Cosmetic issues are a big problem for a lot of home buyers,” Linda Sanderfoot, a real estate professional with Coldwell Banker in Neenah, Wis., told realtor.com® in a recent article.
- Buyers can easily get distracted by flaws or minor repairs, like the carpet or dated light fixtures. They may even let a sale fall apart because of it.
- Realtor.com® recently featured several potential home features that may jeopardize a deal, but really shouldn’t.
- Ugly kitchen cabinets
- Sure, the average kitchen remodel could set you back up to $62,158, according to Remodeling magazine. But most kitchens don’t require a full renovation. “As long as the cabinets aren’t 20 or 30 years old, repainting and adding new handles is relatively cheap and can change the entire look of the room,” says Sanderfoot. Refinishing an existing cabinet will cost about $1,400 to $3,500, according to HomeAdvisor, a home services marketplace.
- Wallpaper
- Wallpaper covering the rooms may make some buyers want to run. But removing and hanging wallpaper is a relatively easy DIY job. Or, hiring a contractor for professional wallpaper installation costs about $500 per room, according to HomeAdvisor.
- Tacky paint colors
- Bubble-gum pink, anyone? Try to help buyers overlook distracting colorful walls. Have them imagine it painted a color to make the room even look larger, like gray or a cool blue. After all, paint tends to be an easy fix, either as a do-it-yourself job or done professionally. Professional painters typically cost from $380 to $790 for a 120-square foot room.
- Carpet
- “Buyers always focus on old or dirty carpeting,” says Sanderfoot. But a good cleaning can bring new life to worn carpet. Shampoo vacuums cost $90 to $200, a professional-grade carpet cleaner can cost $400, or you can rent one from a hardware store for about $25 to $30 per day. Professional carpet cleaning companies tend to charge a minimum of $75 to $109, according to CostHelper.com. For home purchasers who just can’t get past the carpet, they may want to budget for installing new carpet at about $2 to $5 per square foot for middle-grade carpet material, according to HomeAdvisor (often 1,200 square foot of new carpet will cost about $2,400 to $6,000).
- View more common home shopper distractors at realtor.com®.