There are a huge number of things to consider when staging your home before putting it on the market. Staging a home for sale is more of an art than a science. One of the big considerations is whether to replace the carpeting in your home.
Is it worth it to replace the carpet when selling a house? The answer to the question is a definite maybe. Before you go to the expense of replacing the carpet, there are some considerations to be made.
• Get some professional advice
• What is the condition of the carpet?
• Does the carpet fit with current trends?
• How does the carpet affect the first impression a prospective buyer gets from your home?
The decisions and things to be done to stage a home for sale properly can seem endless. They can also be expensive. Replacing all the carpet in a home can be a huge expense that may or may not pay off in a higher price for the home. Deciding on whether to replace, clean, or ignore the carpet in your home should be made with some understanding and forethought.
Don’t Make Rash Decisions
Don’t assume that you need to replace the carpet in your home just because you are putting the house on the market. Many times, total replacement is not necessary. Before you start making decisions, there are some steps you can take to decide if the replacement is necessary.
Get Professional Advice
Talk to professionals, especially your real estate agent. They know what is selling in your area. They are in and out of hundreds of homes. These professionals understand what buyers are seeking in a home. Ask your real estate agent their opinion on the condition, style, and colors of your carpet. Remember it is in their interest to give you sound advice. If they can’t sell your home, they don’t get paid.
How does your carpet look and smell?
Take an unbiased look at your carpet. Are there noticeable wear spots in high traffic areas? Is the carpet fraying along edges next to baseboards or at transitions in doorways between rooms? Are their visible stains on the carpet?
All these things can leave a negative image of your home with prospective buyers. Such things can also impact your listing price. Prospective buyers want to see themselves living in your home. Dirty, stained, or worn carpets can be a negative image as the prospective buyer imagines themselves relaxing in the home in sock feet as they watch TV.
If you live with pets, the smells that your carpet holds from your pets can be a big factor in the decision to replace the carpets. Pet odors can be a huge turn off too many buyers. You may not notice the odors due to your nose becoming familiar and accustomed to the smell. You can bet that anyone else entering your home will notice any odor in the carpet immediately.
Are you in Style?
Most prospective buyers are looking for the latest style or trend in colors and textures. If your carpet is more than a few years old, it may look dated and out of style to prospective buyers.
Consulting a professional designer or home staging expert can be beneficial. These professionals are in tune with the latest styles and trends in color and texture in carpeting and can advise you on how best to prepare your home for sale.
If you can’t afford a professional, check with local flooring stores to find out what people are buying to put in their homes. A visit to a local home show can give you ideas as well. Homebuilders are masters of choosing the most popular styles and colors. Seeing what these home builders are putting into their homes to attract buyers can give you great ideas.
That First Impression
The first impression that a prospective buyer gets as they enter your home is often the determining factor in their decision on whether to make an offer or walk away. You want to create the best first impression possible. The goal is to let prospective buyers see themselves positively living in your home.
Options and Outcomes
You may have options for a total replacement of the carpet in your home. Controlling costs while staging your home for sale is imperative. You can never be sure that the upgrades and changes you make in your home as part of the staging process will result in higher offers. You want to make sure that anything you do has a positive effect on your sales.
Consider Partial Replacement or Repair
Replacing only the most worn or visible carpet may be enough. There are always rooms that get more traffic and wear than other parts of the home. You might accomplish your goals by replacing only those rooms that show significant wear or are sadly out of date.
In some cases, rehabilitation of the carpet by a professional carpet technician will suffice. Restretching the carpet to remove wrinkles that are a normal part of the wear on carpets can give the carpet a new look.
These same carpet technicians can sometimes repair frayed edges along baseboards or in doorways by pulling back the carpet, trimming the frayed edge, and restretching the carpet back to the tack strips. Cleaning up these worn edges is a quick way to eliminate unsightly spots in otherwise perfectly good carpet.
Cleaning vs. Replacing
If your carpets are a good color and the styling is relatively recent, you may avoid a replacement if spotting and stains are your major problems. The technology used to clean carpets has seen major advancements in recent years. A qualified carpet cleaner can clean and extract stains and odors from most carpets, leaving them bright, fresh, and looking nearly new. The cost of a good carpet service is much less than replacing the carpets and will be reflected in a higher value in your home.
To Replace or Not?
It is not an easy question. There are multiple options and considerations that you should understand before you go further. We hope that this guide will help you decide on whether it is worth it to replace your carpet when selling your house. Good luck!
Todd Robinson is a retired real estate agent who now specializes in advice on home repair and staging. His twenty years of experience in residential home sales has helped dozens of customers get their homes in tiptop shape before being placed on the market, and to fetch top dollar from qualified buyers!
