(large post)- need advice for making house okay to put up for sale

[Easydoesit]

okay, i have some questions for anyone who knows stuff about this stuff.

we need to sell our house because my mom is having a hard time affording it by herself. our house is about 100 years old and has some electrical problems. according to her, half of the houses outlets dont work. i think it's a little bit less than that though. we use a decent amount of extension chords lol. we have 3 bedrooms in our house and 1 very small bedroom that my sister is using.. i think the person who built the house might have had the intention of it being an office or a nursery as it's on the top floor with the biggest bedroom right across from it and a big closet in between and right in front of the stairs.
our basement isnt finished, but its pretty big and there's a bathroom down there that isnt in use at all right now, noone ever goes in there, but it mustve worked at one time.
our kitchen is an alright size, but is really outdated and nothing and i mean NADA matches in there and things like the stove are in funny spots. our bathroom is pretty small, but its not too too small.

anyways, our house has the potential to be a really sweet house that would sell for WAY above what it would sell for now if everything was good. i think its the absolute perfect house for those people who buy and completely fix up houses to sell for a higher price.
reasons:
- we have a big basement that if we finished, would add a LOT of space to the house + an extra bathroom.. it could even add 1 bedroom and a big hang out room with a pool table and a second living room type area.
- we have a big open living room
- our kitchen is a decent size and could be considered a "nice kitchen"
- good amount of bedrooms
- our yard is pretty big, i think a half an acre? not completely sure.
- we live on a big hill and get amazing views from our big-window-filled living room, our kitchen, and a small back closed in porch that comes out from the kitchen that no1 uses and is used for storage right now
- we are within walking distance to an elementary/middle school, and within walking distance to a big outdoor mall thing and grocery stores/restaurants
- very close to highway access, and very close to gas stations
- we are in a decent neighborhood in town and if you go up the street and take a couple of turns you end up in those big "cookie-cutter" new housing developments.
- we also have an all stone detached 2 door garage, but the roof on it is completely screwed up(would need a good amount of work) and it's not being used as a garage right now. but it's really pretty looking minus the roof.

to do this would take a lot of money that we dont have, but im sure it would sell for higher than it would take for us to do the work. we just dont have money like that though.
does anyone know of any ways that we could maybe do this? i have a feeling we definitely cant, but id love to. maybe we could contact one of those "we buy houses" people who leave those signs and let them know that we know it will sell for a decent amt. of money when they redo it so we could get an okay price for it? or idk. i know im not asking this in the right place, but i really dont know who to ask as i dont really know anything about this stuff.
im picking out colors to paint right now and im going to look at things like new cabinets and floor tile things and maybe countertops for the kitchen and new tiles and paint for the bathroom floor and walls. im also figuring out how to make that back enclosed porch usable and decent looking. my mom doesnt have the time to do things like this and shes really stressing out about the fact that we shouldve had the house sold a while ago. we just need to get it okay looking so we can actually sell it.
so, since i dont have a full time job right now, i have time, energy and will to do this stuff and help out a lot.
suggestions of easy ways to make a house look a lot better would also help. i have a creative head so i just see all the potential the house has, but i have no idea if my ideas are at all realistic or possible, or where to even start to put them into action(as you can see by the fact that im posting this on a fish forum). my mom has no hope and is convinced that the person who will buy this house will definitely be a person who will completely redo the house. i know that's not true though, and its better to atleast make small changes(like making the kitchen match and look pretty decent, and painting everything incase the buyers dont have money to redo literally everything.
i try to tell her that things like that would make at least a little bit of difference in selling price, but she doesnt buy it and just wants to get out of here ASAP.
things im have started/am planning that i think will make a good difference:
-new matching doors throughout the house
-painting for the kitchen, bathroom, and living room
-new cheap "tiles" for the bathroom and kitchen floors
-new cheap but alright looking cabinets for the kitchen
-new paint, door and "tiles" for the back closed in porch

so i just need.. idk some advice or suggestions on anything. my brain is going nuts, i dont know who to ask.
a big thanks to anybody who took the time to read this huge post. i really appreciate it.

[j_chicago]

Buy a name brand paint (ie benjamin moore or sherwin william williams) but in a mid-grade product line (Super Spec for ben. Moore) . You can list the name brand as a selling point, but chances are the new buyer will repaint anyway (there for buy the mid grade product line). Paint in nutural colors. As a paint store manager, we always say people ready to sell and looking at bold striking colors, big mistake. buy off-whites, tans, and taupes.

remove furniture, especially oversized furniture, will make rooms look bigger. Also remove "personalized" touches. you want your house to look as a model house, not your home.

Also trim the hedges and cut the grass outside, maybe add some flowers, repaint the exterior, or something to give it some curb appeal.

Contact a real estate agent in your area. they will give you good ideas on how to stage your home.


FYI: Behr from home depot or paint from another box store won't be a selling point.

[j_chicago]

Oh, and those "we buy homes" and "for sale buy owner" companies, big rip off, they don't work for you to get a good dollar amount. abid the housing market has alot of homes for sell and its a buyer's market, so a real estate agent is the best bet for selling your home and getting what the market value truely is.

[Easydoesit]

thanks for the tips and the response j. i knew they neutral colors thing, but never knew behr paint was no good.. lol i think we have some buckets of it in our basement.
my mom has a real estate agent in mind, but its bc she knows her.. and i can picture her coming in here and being like.. daam*, whatd i get myself into.. so im trying to do some things to kind of lessen the negative whoa factor.

[j_chicago]

Behr gets good ratings from Consumer Reports and the like due to it being sold in HD, those high ratings are due to large volume the that big chain can sell.

[cam191919]

im too tired too read it but if you put vanilla extract on incandesent light bulbs then it smells like cookies. i guess people like that

[Sploke]

If your cabinetry etc doesn't match, it is possible to paint it. We just painted the vanity and sink area in our bathroom (it was a woodgrain finish) because we painted the room and it looks a lot better now. Updating small things like knobs on the cabinets can really update the look of the room.

I wouldn't worry too much about name brand paint as a selling point - as was mentioned, the buyers are likely to repaint anyway. I painted my whole house with Glidden and Behr paints from HD and really like how everything came out. Doing other details like a stripe around the top or bottom of the room can add some interest as well.

TLC has a few TV shows basically dedicated to doing the exact thing you're talking about - you should check them out, they have some good ideas and might give you some usable tips to really clean things up.

[Dangerdoll]

2 big selling points in the house will be the bathrooms and kitchen. If you can make those decent looking, you could be in ggod shape. I also agree with doctoring up the front of the house with flowers, not too many of a different kind, just stay simple with something like impatiens. Another thing of benefit is the yard, you have good proprty, sometimes it's a good selling point. It's a reason I bought my second home and miss it since I am in my third.

[Easydoesit]

cam- hm, weird
sploke- i was going to originally paint the cabinets. im still going to do it but we really dont have enough cabinets in the kitchen and the sizes are really off, so im gonna check out some new cabinets that just match in size. im going to paint the bathroom cabinets though. tuned into TLC about an hour ago and im getting some ideas.
DD- yeah the bathroom and the kitchen are the main things im trying to figure out. they are also the rooms with the most work to be done
thanks guys for the responses and tips. it really is helpful

[Sploke]

Replacing cabinetry can get very expensive, very quickly. You might be better off to get a pre-fab standalone unit that you can put on a wall sort of like a wardrobe but in the kitchen. If the kitchen is bad enough that you think whoever buys it would want to remodel it anyway, I wouldn't put a ton of money into it, just enough to really clean it up (paint, knobs, getting everything sparkling clean, etc.)

[Que]

I agree with the paint brand not being that big a deal.

An inspection of your home will likely bring up some things you don't know about so fixing up as many of the problems you do know about now is good. All switches and outlets must work. Curb appeal is important because it is the first impression people have and for some reason sticks in the mind... just like the smell of apple pie when you open the door.

I don't know if a home equity loan will be possible for you but it could get you some cash to do the fixing up needed to add value to the house. Since you aren't doing a full scale update of the bathrooms and kitchen then do only just enough to make them look OK or you will likely just be spending time and money on something that will likely just get torn out and replaced by the new owners anyway. Don't forget to steam clean the carpets. I can't tell you how many open houses I've been to where the nasty carpets set the tone of how I feel about the house.

Q

[SpockthePuffer]

I'm addicted to HGTV and they have this show called "Designed to Sell" Its all about getting the house ready for selling it.

here is the link to their website http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdts/0,1804,HGTV_15857,00.html

[eroomlorac]

Can't you market it "as is" and call it a "fixer upper"? There are people who can see the potential of the house and actually enjoy redoing a house.

[Sploke]

That would be an option, but I think the intent is to put in some work and a few hundred bucks in order to increase the market value. Doing things like shampooing the rugs and repainting the rooms aren't going to make it into a turnkey purchase, but it will make people willing to spend a bit more if you can kind of bring out the potential a little bit.

[Easydoesit]

yeah my mom is wanting to sell it as is/ as a fixer upper, but im trying to get her to consider taking out a loan and kind of "flipping" it(HGTV or TLC lingo)((thanks spock, ive been watching HGTV and getting ideas)). our house has good bones, just needs some things done to it. she wants to move to upstate NY because houses are cheaper up there and i know we could get a pretty decent price on the house if things were working and looked good. it would be a really good investment. id help her to make the loan payments until we sold.
if she doesnt go for it(and i know it would be a lot of work), i want to atleast have things looking okay, so that like sploke said.. the buyers atleast see the potential.
we have hardwood floors throughout too, no rugs. thats a plus also.

[j_chicago]

HELOC's have a really bad rate on them now. I won't even do them anymore at the office, not worth the hassle.

[Easydoesit]

HELOCs?

[j_chicago]

Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) as mentioned by Que

[Easydoesit]

ohh, i see. hm.