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Updated almost 11 years ago,
To Upgrade or Not for Selling?
We are currently working on preparing our former first-home-turned-rental-house to sell. We are getting a new exterior paint job and touching up the outside (replacing broken sidewalk and fixing negative drainage).
Those are givens, but now we are trying to decide whether to spend the money to replace/upgrade items in the kitchen and 2 bathrooms. This house is in south central Kansas (near Wichita) and would be a first-time home buyer house.
Below is the kitchen. We have considered replacing the countertop, adding a backsplash, and replacing the flooring (probably in that order of priority).
This is the upstairs bathroom. We have considered changing the flooring here as well, and possibly going with a pedestal sink.
This is the downstairs bathroom. The only thing to really do here is possibly a pedestal sink.
Since we live out-of-state, the work would almost surely have to be contracted out. Since I would like to get the house on the market as soon as possible I see two options:
1) Do all of the work, including upgrades to Kitchen and Bathrooms upfront before putting the house on the market
2) Do the "givens", put the house on the market; If it does not sell within 2 months, then make upgrades
We are just not sure that there would be a positive return on the money spent on the upgrades. Option #1 would get the house on the market roughly June 1st. Option #2 would get the house on the market roughly April 26th. Thoughts?