I have talked about this before. I am a huge fan of HGTV and other home shows shown on various channels. There are shows though that shouldn’t be on. For example, someone wants to sell their home. They paid 400k for it 2 years ago and think it is worth 600k today. They are broke and have a design budget of 1,000 as their home isn’t selling. C’mon get real!! You have to spend money to make money. Your budget has nothing to do with what you want to get for a home. These 1,000 remodels you see would cost thousands for a professional to do. No one will do them for free like these shows are doing them for. The consultation alone would cost a lot of money.

Realtors have become not only agents to sell homes but also re-modelers. Something outside of their fields. They should advise and not supervise or hire contractors to do jobs. This happens all the time and is now expected. You are setting yourselves up for major lawsuits by doing this. You are being hired to advise as I said. Not become a general contractor. Oh, I am guilty doing this in the past myself. We have all done I am sure.

For one those shows are old. Before in California or Florida, you could flip for huge profits in a year or 2. You didn’t have to do much if anything. There a home made paint job was considered sweat equity. And boy have I seen some terrible paint jobs. Anyway, it didn’t matter as the homes would sell no matter what due to demand.

So please if you watch those shows don’t think you can remodel a house for 1,000 or less. It just isn’t going to happen. Now if you can do all of the work yourself in a professional manner then I say go for it. If you say need kitchen cabinets and you know your home hasn’t sold because of it and you are hoping to make a huge profit, then install new cabinets. The length of time on the market will kill your chances to sell later at a higher price. Just do it. Hire a professional for advice. Listen. They are there to help you. If you can’t afford to do the items that are needed, then lower your price expectations. In most cases, it is best to complete remodel projects before you sell. In other words, you will make it back plus the home will sell quicker. Speed on a sale means more money. The longer it sits, the more likley you will have to lower the price.

In today’s market, it is more important than ever to get things right. I don’t think in my career I have ever seen so many houses that are prepared so nicely. Competion is fierce. So it is important your home stands out also. Imagine seeing homes listed at 250k in an area that are ready to move into. Then imagine yours needs 10,000 worth of work (your cost) and you are wanting to get 250,000. You might say, well I can just discount the price 10,000 and the buyer can do the work. Yeah I will be in a better position at 240,000. Wrong! You not only need to discount but you are not taking into consideration  the inconvenience the buyer has to do the work. Plus they will have to do the repairs out of pocket. You will need to at least double the discount. There is no rule to this. Each home will be different but in some cases triple the discount on the home for the actual repair cost. Remember a lot of people have no idea what it costs to do repairs. They might see a home in disrepair and think it costs 50,000 to repair it. Keep this in mind. Good luck!