Dave Ramsey says: Rehabbing your house for sale can pay off

When prospective buyers walk in and see and smell new carpet and fresh paint, they dont have to strain their imaginations looking past everything. When you force potential buyers to look past things, it usually ends up costing you money.

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Dear Dave,

My husband and I recently inherited my parents home. Its in a small, rural town with little industry, and weve been told that the place would be worth $85,000 if its cleaned up, compared to $75,000 as-is. Should we spend about $10,000 to really clean it up, replace a few things and make it presentable to sell it faster?

Terri

Dear Terri,

Its really up to you guys, because both options whether youre sitting on the house or rehabbing it are going to take time and emotional energy. From a real estate persons perspective, houses always sell better when theyre shined up and looking nice. When prospective buyers walk in and see and smell new carpet and fresh paint, they dont have to strain their imaginations looking past everything. When you force potential buyers to look past things, it usually ends up costing you money.

In most cases, if you spend $10,000, you gain more than what you put into the house. Honestly, I think one of the numbers youve given me is wrong either the $85,000, the $75,000 or the $10,000 you think it will take to fix up the place. In other words, if you spend $10,000 on a project like this, youll usually gain $20,000 when youre talking about stuff like a thorough cleaning, new carpet and flooring, fresh paint and basics like that. My guess is if the place is worth $85,000 fixed up, itll probably bring about $65,000 as-is.

If its me, Im going to clean the place and fix it up. Ive done hundreds, if not thousands, of these kinds of deals, and I cant stand trying to sell something thats dumpy, grungy and out of shape.

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Dave Ramsey says: Rehabbing your house for sale can pay off