Contracts & Chaos
Contracts & Chaos is the place to hear about what's happening to fellow Realtors like you. That crazy seller, the buyer who left at closing; we talk about it. How to stay relevant and thrive in a down market? We discuss it.
Alyssa & Brenna are Realtors located in the Charlotte and Hickory, NC market who have built their businesses in communities they are transplants in, without buying leads or joining mega teams to make it happen. They've beaten the odds during a pandemic and are here to share their stories, tips and advice on how to survive a down market or start your business from scratch.
Contracts & Chaos
136: Is It An Upgrade....Or Did You Just Spend Money?
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Let’s have an honest conversation about pre-listing “upgrades.”
Because not everything you can do to your house is something you should do before selling. And just because you spent money… doesn’t mean you added value.
In this episode, we’re breaking down the difference between smart, strategic updates that actually help your home sell — and the ones that look nice but don’t move the needle (or worse… don’t get your money back).
We’re talking about:
🏡 What buyers actually notice (and what they don’t)
💰 Where you’ll typically see a return on your investment
🚫 Common upgrades that rarely pay off
🧼 The “unsexy” fixes that matter more than you think
🤝 How to prep your home based on your market — not your Pinterest board
Because the goal isn’t to have the nicest house on the block… it’s to have the one that’s priced and positioned to sell.
If you’re thinking about listing and wondering where to spend (or not spend) your money, this episode will help you make decisions with strategy — not emotion.
Like what you heard? Make sure to follow and review the podcast, and shoot us a message with your thoughts at
contractsandchaos@gmail.com
@YourHomeGirl_CLT
@Real.Life.Brenna
All right, we are back. We are live. By the time you listen to this, it won't be live, but right now we we are live talking about something to do with money and real estate. And Brenda, are you okay over there? No, I do I do know what we're talking about today. We are talking about expensive mistakes.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Is it an upgrade or did we just spend money?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This is more geared toward, of course, the sellers in the market or the agents that are working with sellers in the market. Things that you can maybe say to them that maybe that eclectic happy style is not going to be the biggest appeal to a buyer. And I'll say this, I just had a final walkthrough yesterday with it. It's a brand new construction. It's a local builder and uh his fiance, who is actually Well, are they closing? They will be closing. Is that what I think it is? Yes, it is. They will be closing the end of this week. Knock on wood. Um. No, no, no. It's all it's all good. I'm just saying, because the universe does weird things sometimes. You know what I mean? There's no reason that we should be alarmed. Um, where was I going with that? Oh, so the builder and um the agent was were talking, and it's actually the agent is his fian the builder's fiance, which is even funnier. But, anyways, we were talking about how um she had wanted to put dark cabinets and dark countertops in the house because she likes dark, you know, moody aesthetic. And she is like, I have a question for you, talking to my buyers. Like, if this house had dark cabinets and dark granite, like she showed them examples, would you have still loved it and still bought it? And um, the husband was like, no. And the wife was like, Well, I don't know, I'd have to see it, right? But the agent laughed and she's like, Well, we didn't put it in there because obviously this, the white, the clean, it makes it look bigger. It's more appealing to more buyers. But we um she was talking about her and the builder were talking, and she, when she built her house, chose all dark because that's that's what she wants, right? But in that conversation, she was like, We I knew that it would eliminate a huge amount of buyers to put that moody element in here because there's a lot of people that can look at it and be like, Oh, that's cool, but they still don't want to live there. Right, you know? So that's kind of what we're talking about today. Just because you love it, you saw it on Pinterest, and you think it's cool, or you spent $25,000 on it, doesn't mean it's adding anything to your property value.
SPEAKER_00So right, and this this all came up because I was showing a house a couple weeks ago and the agent had put in, like, oh, they've done $30,000 in upgrades. And my clients and I are lurking around the house going, Where the fuck are the upgrades? Like, what are you talking about? They're no. And so before she like I sent her a nice message and was like, hey, like, do you have a list of what they did? Like, maybe I'm just missing something. Well, I also went back to the old listing. One of the big things that she was so very proud of, and they were so very proud of, was they'd taken out the wood floors and put in vinyl.
SPEAKER_01Hmm, that's such a it's a personal preference, really. It really is, but they're like, I don't think that that's an upgrade.
SPEAKER_00No, that's what we said. We were like, what? We thought that added value. Yeah. And then it was um they had painted the whole house. That's not an upgrade. Well, it's not an upgrade. Now, some of the advice we're gonna give you is a fresh coat of paint is worth other things. But a fresh coat of paint is not worth more if you just buy the 10-gallon bucket of the cheap contractor grade crappy white paint, and you throw maybe one and a half coats over everything and you can see stuff through it, and you just whitewashed the entire house, every room, every wall, every piece of trim, every ceiling. They didn't even use ceiling paint, they used the same semi-gloss paint on the ceilings. Yep, and we just they took all of the character, all of the dynamics out of this house. Like there was it was gray flooring, white walls, all of their furniture was gray and white, very sterile. Yeah, and then dark brown cabinets that haven't been cleaned in forever, and we were just like, okay. And then it was, oh, they graded the backyard, but they never seeded it or followed up with keeping up with the grass. So it was all eroding anyway, and we were just like, they're never gonna get that out of it. And they're selling within like a year or two of buying and trying to up the price by quite a bit. And we were like, nope.
SPEAKER_01So I have there, there's a lot of few things. There's there's a lot of few. Jesus, that's not English. There's a lot of things that can be done that will change the value of your house, right? But there are things that people immediately think will change the value of their house that don't, right? Like um, for example, a $225,000 house, right, we're not putting marble showers in there, right? That's not that's not an upgrade that's equal to the house. You're over-improving for the neighborhood. Right, right, right. So when an appraiser comes in, they're like, I mean, hey, nice shower, but like I'm not gonna give you an extra, you know, $7,500 on that bathroom because it's marble and you just paid $15,000 to get it done. That's not going to happen because it's not in line with what the neighborhood has to offer. Or popping a, I'm trying to think of like a dramatic feature or fixture, a pot filler. You know, a pot filler. I want a pot filler. I would probably never use it, but I would love a pot filler. It looks so pretty. But guess what? To put again that same house, say a $225,000 house, you're not gonna put a brass or a gold or a black even pot filler in that house. It's not, it's not something that will add value to the property. The other thing, I've got clients that they have kind of, it's not a full formal dining room. It is like it has like the columns that kind of like separate that area out into a dining room, if that makes sense. And they're talking about putting half walls up because they want it to work as like an area for their grandkids, like a play area for the grandkids, right? And I was like, listen, that's well and good. That's not going to be an appeal to people, right? Because, oh, this is great. You can see the kids, but not like they're not everywhere. And I'm like, that's wonderful. And they're like, no, it doesn't matter because we're gonna live and die in this house. Great, then I love it. Like, do whatever you need to do for you, right? But that is something that as a listing agent, if I was to go into that appointment, I'd be like, hey, this is not, this is an odd marketing piece, right? Like, I can't advertise your kid corral on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00Your kid corral. Right? Or like, so I have a client who's looking at this house right now, and it's four bedrooms at just under a thousand square feet, and there's literally no living room. It's a hallway in the entrance, and the the washer and dryer are literally on the kitchen floor, like they're in the middle of your kitchen, and they're gonna end up blocking the walkway into the kitchen that already barely has room for a table. And she has three kids, and I'm just like, Where are y'all gonna eat dinner? Where are y'all gonna watch a movie? That's a really big fine, it's fine. And I'm like, it's not though. Like, I I I get it, it's pretty, it's all remodeled, but we've got to look at the actual day-to-day use of this house. And to me, I'm like, okay, so it's great that he remodeled this house, but there's a reason it's been on the market for over 200 days because no one wants a house without a living room.
SPEAKER_01Well, and there's not a lot of people that need that fourth bedroom, like, right? Like, what's not at that square footage? Right. At that square footage, what is the benefit of a fourth bedroom? If you have multiple kids, obviously, stack some bunk beds, a trundle, a pull-out couch, whatever it is. But, and that's one thing that I've come across with my gosh, I've been working with so many buyers recently. It's bananas, but the biggest thing, there was one house that they added a uh they remodeled and did a sunken in living room, you know, like straight back from whatever, like the 70s or something like that.
SPEAKER_00But that's an upgrade for me.
SPEAKER_01No, because see, here what here's what happened: they took this giant section of floor that was like all one level, put a wall in to block off the kitchen, and now you step down into this living room. But now, where you could have had, like you said, like a dining room table that's kind of like the eat-in kitchen scenario, and then your living room, now you've got stairs, and now you either have a small kitchen table right off the stairs in the sunken and living room, or you don't have a table at all. That layout just doesn't work. Does that work?
SPEAKER_00Eliminated all that extra. No, and I get it. I mean, I do love a sunken living room, but yeah, if it doesn't make sense, then you know, so I think to clarify, an upgrade adds market appeal and perceived value. An expense is a personal preference with little to no ROI. Like I think that a good way to clarify if you're not sure or your clients aren't sure is would a buyer pay more for this? Correct. Or would they just tolerate it? Or is it going even, I think you could say, is it going to eliminate the buyer pool? No living room eliminates buyer pool. Dark cabinets eliminates buyer pool. Like, but some people would say, well, white cabinets eliminate buyer pool because I have clients who are like, oh, the first thing going is white cabinets. I'm like, yeah, I get it, trust me.
SPEAKER_01So mine's like the perfect like grayish color. So it's they're not really dark, but they're definitely not white. So it's it's white.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna have mine. Hope my one of my goals this summer is to have mine painted a mauve color. Oh, and I know I know it's gonna eliminate the buyer pool, and that's fine because I don't plan on selling this house for quite some time.
SPEAKER_01But I think the biggest thing that sellers run into is either A, they are thinking they're gonna sell and they start doing these things before they reach out to an agent, right? So they're like, oh, again, happy on Pinterest, been on HGTV. This is such a cool thing. I'm gonna change this, turn this office space, this beautiful office space, into a bedroom. I'm gonna um paint this accent wall DIY in the living room. I'm gonna put wallpaper in the half bath, like those kinds of things that in some instances can really add to the property. But there's other things like new isn't always better.
SPEAKER_00I like if you're watching this and you're looking at our backgrounds, you're probably thinking, oh, Alyssa, no one's ever gonna buy a house with that color room. I know if I list my house, the first thing I'm doing is emptying this room and painting it. Like Brennan's wallpaper might be a turnoff for certain people. I think it's adorable.
SPEAKER_01I love it, but I don't want them. My husband, for example, my husband doesn't like my wallpaper, right? Because he's just, I mean, he's he's a very like old school if it it's fine if it you like if it's it's good enough kind of thing. He likes right.
SPEAKER_00No, he's like, I wear green t-shirts and blue blue jeans because I wear green t-shirts and blue blue jeans, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, like he has that's his uniform. He doesn't even have to make any decisions in the morning because everything is exactly the same, and that's fine. But for me, I like it, right? So that's that's perfect, but that's not necessarily you don't want to eliminate, shoot yourself in the foot your first day on market because you didn't want to take your wallpaper down or you didn't want to repaint your, oh, this is a perfect example, your living room. I, a wonderful investor that I've worked with several times now, texted me and said that his ex-wife was going to sell the house. Um, and she needed a real estate agent, and he told her to call me. Great. So I go there and open the door, and it is um, her home was the model home. It was a new construction back in the day. It was like 2012, whatever. Beautiful home. Open the door, and when I tell you that this level of red hit me in my soul.
SPEAKER_00That early 2000s, not quite brick. Really, really red. And I was like, oh wow, okay. I feel like in that era, everyone was painting their house that color and coloring their hair that color.
SPEAKER_01Like that, it was all coming together. The it was red on the walls and black ceilings. The living room was a mood, like the dark carpet or the dark rug, real dark furniture. Like it was it was vibey, but it was not the vibe, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? But one thing that she did, she was like, Oh yeah, he already told me like that this was not going to work to sell the house. So she they repainted the whole house, top to bottom, because she she's an artist, right? So she had beautiful paintings throughout the house, but every single room was like a whole other dimension. And before we listed it, she cleared out a bunch of stuff, repainted the house, and she hated it, right? Because it's just it's bland now, it's not who she is. But that's why we were able to get that house sold because I don't know that I would have gotten it under contract as quickly as I did. Actually, I do know that I wouldn't have gotten it under contract as quickly as I did.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I could I could pull up MLS listings right now and tell you why these houses aren't selling. I go through expired every day and I'm like, oh. That's why. You wanted top of market with your 2003 pink colors and decorations. But it's the same way, like my my my dad is convinced he he knows real estate, you know. And love you, Padre, if you're listening, but they have a big um microchip company moving into the area. So he's like, oh, our house is gonna be the one the executives want. And I'm like, Again, love you, Padre. Um, but I mean it's a great, don't get me wrong, it's their house is great. I love their house. It's three stories, comes out off the river, like walkout basement with an apartment. And they've they've put a lot of work into it, and a lot of good work. I will give them that. Like when they had the flood, they which sounds really bad, but it's a whole story. Um Don't worry, the flood's been taken care of.
SPEAKER_01It's cleaned up now. Yeah, it's irrelevant.
SPEAKER_00It's like $400,000 in just repairs, so it's good. Um, but they not only fixed what was wrong, they actually redesigned the main living floor to open it up more, and it's absolutely worth the extra money they spent on that. But then my stepmom had a designer come in, and my stepmom is a lot like me in in house decorating, it's a little eclectic, very bright colors. Awesome, love it. Their house is beautiful, but it's very them. And I've told him, Well, if you're going to do this, because he's like, I'm just gonna list it high and one of the executives will buy it. And I'm like, that's not how this works, but sure. Um, I said, at a minimum, you need to depersonalize, and we're we're neutralizing this. Well, no, no, it's and I said it is, it's it is beautiful, it's very beautiful, but it's not generic enough to grab a buyer pool. Isn't that terrible to say out loud? It's not on current trend enough, I think is the other thing. It's like, yes, this is very much your style. It is, I I mean, I saw a house the other day in the mountains. This I forgot to tell you this right. Um, it's another bad agent I need to add to our bad agent episode. $695,000 listing. Probably could have gone for $650. But if if he had neutralized the paint, and the paint's not even that terrible. They have like a lavender basement, it's a really pretty lavender, uh, blue and green bedroom, still really pretty colors, but again, not neutral. I won't get into what the agent did or didn't do for this listing for this man, but um it was my clients were like, it's really great, but like his style was very particular. Well, and that leads into the sorry, he put in a really big kitchen because he's a chef. But that eight inch, there was no living room area anymore because it was all kitchen. Yeah. And my clients were like, that doesn't work for us.
SPEAKER_01And I think that leads right into the next, like the part that if you're going to spend the money, here's what you should spend it on, right? Like, what are the most impactful items that you can do as a seller or advise your sellers to do as a listing agent, which I think paint is the most the very basic, easy, top of the list thing to do, especially when we're talking about crazy colors, right?
SPEAKER_00Um and use the right finish of paint, use quality paint, don't slap on something you bought at Walmart, like go by decent, and it doesn't have to be the top of the line. It really doesn't, but pick the correct finish. Don't if if a wall, especially if a wall is flat paint, I'm sorry, you can't touch up flat paint. You just can't. It never looks good. You need to paint the whole wall.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Um, because it is noticeable. And if the paint's been on there more than I'd say five years, and you think you can touch it up, you can't. The color has faded, you need to paint the entire wall because it is obvious. And you're just gonna end up doing it twice if you don't do it right the first time.
SPEAKER_01I have a um, I think I might still have a picture. I show this house, and they're like, oh, it's been paint touch up, yada yada, yada. Well, I went in and I was like, oh yeah, I can see every single spot that they touched up, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I had one and you could see every place. I've had more than one. Oh, the roller stopped here. Oh, the roller stopped. I was like, what were you doing?
SPEAKER_01The thought was correct, but say if that paint has existed and gone through the seasons and the sun and life, it you cannot just, you know, open a new can and and have it magically matched. The next thing is flooring consistency. I have a I have a picture. It's like, have you ever there's a spot and I don't remember what states it is, but you can like stand in four states at it all at the same time. Okay. Well, there's it in, I think it's Nevada's one of the I have I have no I have no idea where it is, but I have a picture of me like standing in this floor and I just like shoot down towards my feet, right? And where I'm standing, to my left, to my right, and in front of me are all different floorings. Yeah. All different floorings. And I I have to tell you, that's one of the biggest turnoffs for buyers right now. It is flooring's expensive. It absolutely is. And this whole, you can tell, like they're like, oh, we updated the bathroom, right? So there we put new tile in there. That there's no transition strip, which sucks, right? The hallway is one flooring. We have one color carpet and one bedroom. Obviously, one was just replaced, so it's a little bit fresher, a little bit cleaner, and then there's a different clicket LVP throughout the living room and kitchen. It's so hard for buyers to wrap their heads around.
SPEAKER_00And mine, honestly, mine would probably it may or may not fall in that category because I live in a historic home, so a certain percentage of my house has to stay around. One of the things they chose was the flooring. But it only worked in my entranceway and my living room. So then in the bedrooms, the flooring in my bedrooms, they match each other, but it's like a dark bamboo. But then they did in the kitchen this like it's a waterproof flooring, which I don't even know what it is, but it looks like chipboard kind of. I hate it, I hate it, and I just haven't redone it. But I've come to the conclusion that when I redo that, I will probably redo the bedrooms or find something that I as close as I can to match the bedrooms to create, then I only have two flooring types. Yes. Um, other than I mean, my bathrooms are penny tiles, so that that's not I don't take that as much into consideration as I do the living spaces.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's one of those things, flooring is expensive, but if you have terrible stained carpet, if you're I have a listing right now that I think we're gonna end up be pulling it off the market, and I advise them before we list it, you have to fix this floor, right? It's the only feedback that we've consistently gotten is the floor is torn up, right? And somebody goes in there and they're like, mmm, floor is expensive. I don't want to do a floor, you know? And actually I have one, another one that's under contract, and they're like, oh well, we're not replacing the carpets. When the carpets are so loose, like you can almost trip over them, right? Because they just shift and move and they're old, and it's just one of the that was another piece of feedback that we got over and over and over the flooring.
SPEAKER_00Yep. The buyer hates the because it can be expensive. And buyers always go to highest price, worst case in their minds. They don't go to, oh, this is, you know, and I think we get a little jaded in this industry of what is expensive and what's not, and it's different for everyone. Yes. But if I can do a whole like 1,500 square foot house for five grand because I'm ripping carpets and running the same flooring through the whole first floor, to me, do it. That's not super expensive. Now, if it was 10 grand, okay. But the buyer, the buyer is looking at that going, that's gotta be 10, 15 grand. I don't have. And if you had just done it, your house would be sold. Or even acknowledge it. And people go both ways on this. If you have the money, do it. If you don't, then acknowledge it and price correctly.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Just say, hey, we we understand, and that's why, you know, looking at the comparables, we knocked this much off our list price because we know someone's gonna want to do the floors. Yep. But like I saw uh what was it? A million. I'm trying to think back. I just had the example in my brain. I was at like a million-something dollar listing, and what was it? Oh I was at a $2.6 million house in Charlotte last week or a couple weeks ago. Brand new construction, beautiful. The one next door was 2.3, complete remodel. Same builder, gorgeous. And maybe this is at a different price point that this would then be customized. I did not dig that deep into these listings. I was at Broker's Opens and they were busy, so I did not ask questions. They didn't finish the closets. There was nothing to hang anything on. There was no shovel. So maybe at that price point, that's something that you can customize before closing. I don't know. But the other thing was like they'd done all these upgrades, and the street that it's on was a major busy road. And they put in, you have the ability to add a rear driveway. No, honey, read the room. Add the driveway. At that, like that is something where I'm like, that that isn't even an upgrade, that's a necessity. But make sure it's like we've said it's compatible with the price point, but sometimes you just have to do it. Because, like you said with your example with the carpets, everyone has said it's the carpets. I can guarantee you everyone on that house has said it's the driveway. Because for showings, they're gonna have to try and negotiate or navigate that busy road and not get slammed into in rush hour.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, that's tricky. That's a that's a hard one because people want ease and convenience, you know. Um, I think a couple of other ones, reasonable kitchen, like we don't have to get into them. Uh especially if you're a real estate agent and been in the business, like you understand like a good kitchen upgrade is a is a great kitchen upgrade, right? Like maybe um if you're from like a countertops or falling apart, go ahead and get some granite, put some granite in there, something like that. Those kinds of things go a long way. Um, same with bathrooms, right? Make sure that they're at least functioning, right?
SPEAKER_00Or if you're gonna paint cabinets, have them done well. Yes, they're like paint it. Some cabinets, like I'm having mine painted. I'm going to have a professional do it and they will look amazing. But you come in, you see someone, I'm like, did we give the toddler the paintbrush last weekend? Like what? No, and I will say, my sister had this happen once. She hired professionals and they did a crappy job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She didn't know because you know they never worked for her. So make sure you find someone with good references. But if you're going to like paint a cabinet, do it well. Because there's nothing worse than seeing, well, they because that I when I see a crappy painted cabinet, I go, okay, what else did they do wrong? What else was half-assed in this in this remodel or this upgrade?
SPEAKER_01Curb appeal is another big one. I feel like there's a lot of gardening and stuff coming back around, but people love an easy landscape, right? Or even like I don't want to deal with them. But that's I don't have bushes either, because also same thing. And snakes live in them.
SPEAKER_00Let's go get you plants.
SPEAKER_01And I don't want things. I don't want snakes. I don't want to take care of them. I don't want to, it's I'm not, I have the blackest thumb. Like, I seriously, a plant will come into my realm and it will immediately shrivel up and die. I just don't know what to tell you. So landscaping is really not my jam. I know a lot of people who are really good at it, a lot of people that love to go out and maintain their little flower beds and gardens, my mother-in-law being one of them, right? Make it easy enough that people are like, oh, that's pretty, but it's not, it doesn't look like work, right? Something very simple. Make sure it's trim, if you're not putting in new trim or new um new bushes and stuff like that, maybe add some fresh malt. Trim that stuff up. Make sure that your yards mode, like those little things really go a long way. And then my favorite one of all, please, please, your light fixtures. We won't get into the book. I changed my light bulbs the other day. I'm so glad you matched now. I'm so glad. Goodness gracious. Um, I know that there's some old fixtures. If there's fixtures that are literally like don't work, replace them, right? Not only is a buyer gonna be sitting there like, what does this light switch do? Because nothing's happening. The inspector, when your house does go under contract, is gonna be like, it could be a light bulb, could be faulty wiring, could be a fire hazard, right?
SPEAKER_00At a minimum, if it works, make sure you have working light bulbs. Even if it's a a vacant flip or a vacant old rental, put the freaking light bulb in. I can't, because I'm like, I don't know. And I'm not gonna put light bulbs in your listing for you. Yep.
SPEAKER_01And I do I do, because light bulbs drive me bonkers.
SPEAKER_00So I literally no, so as the listing agent, yes. As a buyer's agent, if I come to your house to show it, no. Understood. Because it's also a liability. Like, what if I put it in and it breaks? Nope. Right. Not touching it. Right. But I do think, and I the listing appointment I went on Friday, like I was looking at the old pictures, they've only lived in it two years, and I was like, I don't know how I'm if they haven't done anything, I don't know how I'm gonna get their money back out of this. Like I I was scared, and I told them that when I got there. I was like, so I'm so glad you've done these things. And the one thing I pointed out was you guys upgraded the light fixtures. That makes a world of difference because in the listing two years ago, it was the original 1998 brass and wood tone. And I was just like, please God, please God, please God, don't be this. And it wasn't. They had gone with like the flat black, it looked really pretty, and a new kitchen, and I was like, and new flooring. I was like, perfect, we're good. This is great. This is awesome. Light fix I mean, they seem little, or even drawer pulls. Change your drawer and your cabinet pulls. I know that that sounds silly, and like what? Mine right now are I would if I listed this house, I'd change them because they're just I can guarantee you, the people who did my house, it was men who designed it when they started. And they just went probably with what was ever whatever was the cheapest, you know, and everything in it in my light fixtures, everything's like the brushed nickel. Well, my I have black doorknobs, which makes no sense. But anyway, um, but that's one thing I would do is go through and change my drawer poles to something that's a little more updated, you know. And and I think those show wear and tear a lot. Yeah, if you don't buy good ones, they can show a lot of wear and tear. So that's something I think that that five dollars a drawer pole will go so much further than you know, taking out the hardwood and putting in vinyl.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Well, and that's the that's the other thing is like your your risky moves are pulling out hardwood, putting in vinyl, uh, taking out stone and putting in lamp, like those kinds of things, like what you think is a is an inconvenience to maintain or take care of can be a like hardwoods are are very expensive to put in. So to pull those out and just put like a not even a elevated LVP, because there are some really nice LVP floorings out there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01But absolutely not to get the like $2.80 the square foot one to replace your hardwood. Just don't, just don't do that.
SPEAKER_00Um decent one.
SPEAKER_01The other thing is we've talked about this. Well, we kind of like circle back on all of these, but your hyper personal design choices, right? That really red and moody living room, that's not probably going to be a huge sell for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00The um the one I'm thinking of, my best friend it from college is an artist. And when her kids were little, she did beautiful, beautiful murals in their bedroom. But when they went to sell that house, she had to paint it because and I I don't think I was even a realtor at that point. Um, it may have been may have been just getting into it, but I was like, no one is going to buy this house with Spider-Man jumping at the wall. Because again, a buyer's gonna come in, and even if they have kids, they're gonna be like, Well, my kid likes Batman, or my kid's a Disney princess, and they see, okay, this is more than just regular paint. Like, I have to neutralize an entire mural. So we're gonna have to um do primer and paint, and and they're just looking at it going ching-ga-ching ka-ching. I think another one is like a partial update. You're going to put in, like, you have the old three by three square tiles in your bathroom. Uh like on the wall, not just like the tub wall. And you put in a new vanity that's super hyper modern, brand new, like current trend. Why didn't we rip out the I and I get it, it's an added expense.
SPEAKER_01I just had this conversation with my dad because they're updating a half bath at my parents' house, and he has a couple of really nice vanities that he's picked up because he was gonna replace it. He's like, Well, I think I'm just gonna try to salvage, that's the word he used, salvage the vanity. It's in the half bath so I don't have to tear it out, and then because it's like it's fixed to the wall, he doesn't want to have to like mess with any of that, and he's just gonna put in this granite top, like the granite sink on top of his vanity. I'm like, Dad, you use the word salvage this, like just take it out, like you're gonna put work so much work into trying to save this. Just take it out and do the work to have it all.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Or like if you're only doing one part, it just looks half-assed. It's like, what? Now, if it got destroyed and you really don't have the budget, okay, that's one thing, but like figure out, find maybe a cool retro one that fits the vibe, you know?
SPEAKER_01Like what so you just you just said if it doesn't fit in the budget, and I think that that's an important thing to do. If you are working on a really, really tight, you can't put money into this listing. Like you're already moved across the country for a reload, like there's a lot, like then we need to work on the problems, not the cosmetics, right? So if there is a plumbing issue under the bathroom, if we are getting water in the crawl space, if the roof is old, those things will go much, much farther. Um, cosmetics are great if we're able to have a a presented house that's like buttoned up, clean, ready for show. But in the scenario that that's not able to happen, then having the big things done will go so much farther than you saying, oh, but I spent $5,000 on on paint and new floors.
SPEAKER_00And I think there's three questions we need to ask when we're figuring out what are we or should we be spending money on. What problem are we solving? Will it show up in photos and showings? And are we matching the neighborhood standard? Yes. Because I think those are good. Like I think those qualify. So like because I'd rather have someone spend five thousand dollars on paint and flooring than thirty thousand dollars in a kitchen or a back patio or something that no one in the neighborhood has, and and they're not gonna be able to get it back out because everyone's gonna look at go, well, you know, we can't get that, we just can't. So I always think like compare the cost of the upgrade with the likeliness of the return on it and the impact on the days on market. Yeah. If if not doing it is going to impact the days on market, then we should be doing it. If doing it is going to negatively affect the impact or the days on market, then we probably shouldn't be doing it. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And because here's the thing, we can we can use comps and price houses the best we can all day long, but at the end of the day, and this is becoming more and more prevalent in our market right now, is that it's only worth what a buyer is going to pay for it, right? So whether or not you paid $25,000 for whatever you did in your house, if you're if your buyer doesn't believe that it was worth that or the appraiser doesn't believe that it was worth that, then it's it's not worth that. That's and we could do a whole episode on pools, right? Like I have a uh potential client down the road that put in, they spent almost $125,000 in a pool and outside because their house was brand new. And then they got another appraisal because they were going to refi and take some cash out to be able to buy something else. And their appraisal um only came in $15,000 higher than they paid for it originally. And I think that that was false. I think that was a little skewed, but the appraiser said that it did not add the value because there's not enough comps with a pool.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, that's what I hear a lot is a pool doesn't add that much. I mean, unless it's like a really nice pool. Right.
SPEAKER_01They're like, we paid $80,000 for this pool, but guess what? That didn't show up on the appraisal.
SPEAKER_00Right. So that sucks. Yeah. All right, I'm gonna give you some quick fires. I'm gonna give you an example and I want you to say upgrade or expense. Okay? I don't want to fire to wrap this up. Okay. Painting everything white, upgrade or expense? Expense. Adding beadboard accents. Also expense. Replacing countertops. That is an upgrade. Removing formal spaces, so like dining rooms.
SPEAKER_01I think that's an expense. I do. It has to be up to the it's such a personal preference. The amount of money that you could spend in closing it in to do something else could be worthless to the buyer because they wanted it as that formal space.
SPEAKER_00Right. Like maybe you really wanted it as an office and didn't have one or a bonus room to use as an office. But but again, it could go, I mean, maybe it could go the other way. A lot of people work from home these days and aren't doing formal dinners. Yep. So if there's another dining space, um, trendy tile backsplashes. So I'm thinking like not just the nice clean ones, the super particular tiles. No. Like my mom's kitchen backsplash. Sorry, mom. It's cute. It's cute, but if I were listing a house, and it fits her house, it I it really does. But in a regular house, it'd be like we're taking that out.
SPEAKER_01Well, I guess it would depend on the house, then. You know what I mean? Because if we're if we're talking about them having no backsplash versus a trendy tile backsplash, then I'm on board with the with the backsplash. But if we're taking out a perfectly beautiful white subway tile backsplash to replace it with some like paisley print, um I'm a vote no. My mom says a paisley. Oh my god, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00It's okay. It's like I didn't know. No, hers is like, it's like this, it's it's really it's actually pretty. And it it fits. She lives in like a 200-year-old farmhouse with a very rustic vibe in her kitchen. And it's like this Paisley quilt-ty Mexican, like it just I'll take a picture of it when I go home at the end of the month and said it'd be like, hey, here's that tile, you trash. Um, but one of the things, like, back to the countertops, when we redid her bathroom, I told my stepdad we need to put granite in. And he said no and went with the lit. And I was like, okay. All right. Um, okay, backyard improvements without the maintenance. So, like, say someone put in this beautiful like uh brick patio, but it has they obviously have not been taking care of it. Expense. Agreed. Expense, and don't ever volunteer to help my dad put in one of those paper patios. Um, you get hit in the head with a mallet. Oh no, that's terrible. Yeah. It was a hey, stand right here, hold it just like this, whack. And then he was like, Why are you crying?
SPEAKER_01And I was like, That hurt, Dad. I think it's funny, and we'll wrap up with this because uh, we've talked a lot about our parents on this episode. And so for you listing agents out there, or you sellers out there, like don't take it too hard. Like, we tell our own parents this stuff and they still don't listen to us sometimes.
SPEAKER_00So, um or like, do you ever walk into a listing and you're like, Oh, my mom could live here? This is my mom's house. Like, or I walked, I hope my dad doesn't listen to this. I walked into my dad's house last time I was home, and I was like, Oh, the old people live here. Oh no, not the old. The old people smell. Um but yes, we give this advice to our family. So don't feel like we're insulting you because we're not. We're we're just trying to get you the best we can for your listing.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. On that note, guys, we will see you next week.
unknownYes.