Selling a home - standard procedures

Once you've decided to sell a home, what are things you must do, things you can do, and things you shouldn't do? 

We have new carpet (2 yrs old) so we are just steam cleaning it...

We have the old white applicances.  Just the over the range microwave needs changing.  We are only going to replace that.  Someone told me if I want to sell my place to pay $1500 to change all to stainless.  Someone else said not to waste my money because I wont see a dime of those improvements.  Thoughts?

I have a crown moulding guy who will do my whole downstairs and master bedroom for $600.  Worth it?

Counters.  We have very standard counters in most of the house.  I guess this is same as above. 

Paint - we are going to repaint the place to nice neutral colors.  We were thinking grayish/tan.  Are there better neutral colors?    Do you also re-paint doors, door frames, stairwells and etc?    Also, we have maple cabinets.  They are in good condition except that the cabinets under the kitchen sink has some of the finish peeling due to water.  Should I paint cabinets white or can these cabinets be refinished?  Any ideas?    Should I add hardware to cabinetry?

Is it better to show the house with or without furniture?    We are not fancy and do not have fancy furniture like the model homes.  This is a former bachelor pad turned family home... 

I guess I was thinking about what needed to be done because today's buyer seems to be overly obsessed with new this, new that, stainless this, etc...  Maybe these improvements won't get me a better price, but will it sell the house quickly?  Thanks in advance for any input.

At the end of the day, it comes down to location, price, and floor plan.  But you want to make sure your home is very clean, well lit, and free of cluster.  Painting the home in a nice neutral color is a great idea at a relatively low cost.  Don't worry about painting the doors, door frames, stairwell, etc.  Don't paint your cabinets...looks tacky.  Definitely show the home furnished...walking into a vacant home is kind of depression for some buyers.  If you can pick up some used stainless steel appliances for cheap on craigslist that would help.  Buyers focus on the living area, kitchen, master bedroom, and master bathroom.

At minimum do the paint. Beige/tan seems to be the least offensive of colors and Pottery Barnish.

If your furniture is ugly and worn down, remove it... or buy furniture you plan to use in your new home.

What type of counters are we talking? Tile? Laminate?

Skip the crown molding.

Try to fix the cabinets and adding hardware to the cabinetry may be inexpensive so you might want to do that. You could paint or refinish the cabinets with the crown molding money.

The appliances will help if the cabinets/counters are older but like you said... you may not see a return. We did not do that... but our fridge was stainless so it helped the buyers see what stainless would look like in the kitchen. The kitchen and master bath seem to be the key areas we concentrate on (replacing light fixtures is also fairly cheap).

Or... hire a stager. I did that and felt it was worth it and if anything it helps de-clutter your place... but your mileage may vary.

Good luck.

kitchen is corian.  rest of the house is cultured marble. 

crown moudling - nixed.

searching around for inexpensive cabinet hardware.  we've already replaced the standard "dressing room" row of lights in all bathrooms.  Interesting enough, when I took down the old lights, the builder did not put boxes behind the lights to protect the wires, and obviously violation. 

Took a stroll over to the Sears outlet for cheap SS appliances..  no luck.  If I don't find something cheap, then I'm going with the Chris Rock (If it's all white, it's alright!)

Corian works... depending on the color... it's better than tile.

Pacific Sales has fairly inexpensive 4-pc SS packages... since you won't be using it, just get the cheapest one. Or buy the 3-pc (no fridge), buy a nice fridge for your new home and take it with you after you sell.

from my point of view, i think you are wasting your money on the appliances.  but if you ask my wife or MIL, you have to have stainless steel or they will be quickly turned off.

rkp said:

from my point of view, i think you are wasting your money on the appliances.  but if you ask my wife or MIL, you have to have stainless steel or they will be quickly turned off.

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i agree, i wouldn't spend money on appliances, furniture or window coverings.  the only "staging" i would do is to de-clutter and clean/paint.  my 2 cents and good luck.

irvinehomeowner said:

Corian works... depending on the color... it's better than tile.

Pacific Sales has fairly inexpensive 4-pc SS packages... since you won't be using it, just get the cheapest one. Or buy the 3-pc (no fridge), buy a nice fridge for your new home and take it with you after you sell.

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I've looked at the discounted packages.  However, they all include free-standing range while I have a cooktop and a separate (wall) oven....

If I can get something on the cheap I'll do it...  otherwise, Ill pass...

My home is up for sale now. I basically put fresh paint on all of the walls. I did paint the cabinets but only because they were old and really looking bad. They turned out really well though. I wouldn't worry too much about the appliances. As long as they aren't over 20 years old, they should be fine. For staging the house, we ended up boxing up and storing a lot of stuff that was cluttering the house. We bought a new couch for the living room to make it look nice.

thanks for the info.  Where are you selling (moving from)?  Welcome to Irvine!