Author Topic: Selling My house 80% finished  (Read 2924 times)

waffle

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Selling My house 80% finished
« on: March 02, 2016, 03:42:45 PM »
I bought a house in Aurora, CO about 18 months ago and have been fixing it up as we live in it. Now my job situation is changing and we are looking to move out of the area. The remodeling is about 80% done. The only thing that would be left by the time we want to move would be the bathrooms. I don't want to rent it out, so I see 3 main options that I'd like advice on.

1. Sell the house as is. Its in much better shape than when we bought, and the Denver area is a pretty hot market, so I think we'd come out ok, but worry how long it would take to sell with bathrooms in poor condition and how big of a price hit I'd have to take.

2. Delay moving till we are finished. This would maximize the value when selling, but my job is uncertain now so I don't know how well this would work.

3. Hire someone to remodel the bathrooms. Would maximize the value when selling, but costly and I'm not sure if it would gain us anything in the end.

We bought the house short sale for 185k and when we refinanced this last fall it appraised for 240k even in the middle of a kitchen remodel.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2016, 03:54:44 PM »
How long would it realistically take you to DIY the bathrooms?

waffle

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2016, 04:00:33 PM »
How long would it realistically take you to DIY the bathrooms?

Going with basic materials (prefab showers instead of custom tile) I'd say the down stairs bathroom could take as little as a week. The upstairs would be at least 2 weeks. That's assuming I was working on it myself all the time though. We also have a lot of smaller projects that we are trying to wrap up at the same time.

Another Reader

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2016, 04:09:44 PM »
Get some estimates so you can make an informed decision.  I would remodel if I could as buyers don't like to do the work. You will limit your buyer pool and take a haircut on the price if you don't.

Frs1661

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2016, 04:55:39 PM »
Why not take 3 weeks between jobs to do the bathrooms? Your 'salary' in increased sales price would likely be pretty good.

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bobechs

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2016, 05:31:21 PM »
There is someone out there who would rather buy the house at a reasonable discount and do the work themselves rather than have you or a contractor do the job as quickly and cheaply as possible.

That someone does not include the multitude of couples, one of whom believes that the tablet Moses mislaid on Mt. Sinai had the Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Sell Nor Buy An House Which Is Not  Perfect In Every Way (sic).

That's most people, frankly.  For the remainder the question is, how much are you taking off?

If you really know what the house is worth in ritually pure condition and you have an estimate of what a mid-range contractor would charge to finish it off and deduct B from A that should give you the ballpark you inhabit.

Compare that to how much you would give up to have the whole problem solved for you by the new owner.

Neither underestimate the desire of the new buyer to save a buck and do it he/she/it- self nor underestimate the costly pain in the ass to to yourself to get the thing done on time, on budget and with flying colors.  That's the hard part.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2016, 11:10:44 AM »
How functional are these bathrooms? Are they merely ugly, or do they truly need work?

waffle

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2016, 01:10:16 PM »
Both bathrooms are technically functional, but truly need work. Issues like the shower wall liner is cracked and just covered in caulking, shoddy tile work with cracked floor tiles, peeling paint...

I ended up not getting the position I was hoping for. I am still on the hunt for a new job, but now have a bit more time to hopefully wrap up the renovations before we move.

Roboturner

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2016, 01:16:15 PM »
I think you'd be much better off finishing and pricing 2x costs of bathroom remodel, it'll move quicker i imagine, especially if it ends up near or sub 300k in total

Roboturner

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Re: Selling My house 80% finished
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2016, 01:17:23 PM »
never underestimate how lazy the general populace is - they probs would be willing to pay much more for a "move in ready"

 

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