Changing Trim on a house? Opinions please

[Greg P.]

Hello, we are doing a smaller rehab on a house and was wondering since we are doing new flooring if we should change out the trim to new trim as well? The current trim looks ok if it gets painted but new trim would look a lot better. Any opinions would be great. Thank you.

[J Scott]

It's a tough question to answer without knowing what the current trim looks like, what the rest of the house looks like, what the competition looks like, how competitively the house is priced, what type of buyers you're marketing to, how quickly you need to sell, what kind of flooring you're going to be putting in, etc.

In general, if the new trim will not stand out (in a bad way) after being painted, you probably don't need to change it. But, if there is any chance of a buyer noticing the old trim (again, in a bad way), definitely change it.

The other alternative is to replace the trim in the high-profile, high-traffic areas like the living room, kitchen and dining room, but leave the older trim in the bedrooms and bathrooms.