...
what changes would you recommend? Lay it on me, I'm all ears!
View attachment 919646
First, style and what people want varies all over the country. What sells here in East Texas, doesn't do well in West Texas, and so on.
In my opinion, the biggest issue is the ceiling. That just overwhelms the area. I can't imagine a buyer walking in there and not wanting to change it. The issue for them is if they are willing to do the work, or is it too much for them to deal with, and they walk away from buying the place? I know that just the wrong paint color on a wall, which is an easy thing to change, will cause some buyers to walk away. The ceiling is going to make selling your house more difficult.
Paint color should be neutral. White is probably the only color that doesn't scare buyers away. They never say that it's too much to change. It's just the opposite. White paint lets buyers think of colors that they can change it to that will make it their home. I'd wait until you are ready to sell, and paint after you remove all her stuff from the walls. Fill the holes, and paint the walls then.
I personally really like your tile floor. Since it's been there so long, it might be worth the money to have it professionally cleaned. You have to look at the grout lines and decide if they need it or not. Same thing with the entire house. Professionally cleaned floors will be noticed by the buyers. It always happens after I'm done with everything I'm doing in the house, and in my opinion, really makes everything look, feel and smell better in a home.
The goal is the offer a house that makes the buyers want to be there, and having it as clean as possible is a huge selling point.
I'm a wood guy, and I like wood stained cabinets. But if I wanted to get as much money as I could out of a house, I would paint those cabinets white. Sherwin Williams has a fairly new Latex paint called Emerald that is designed for cabinets. It sprays easy, it covers great, and it performs like oil based paint. I love everything about that paint. I still get jobs where they want oil, but if they don't want to spend the night in a hotel because of the smell of oil paint, I spray Emerald.
If you paint the cabinets, you will need new counters. From the picture, it looks like Corian to me. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not what buyers are wanting. In the last 20 years, I've only had one clients want Corian. She was very elderly, and very wealthy, and knew what she wanted. Two years later, she sold that house, built a new one, and installed granite.
If there is just one single product that changes the value of a house, it's granite in the kitchen. Nothing else provided anything close to the same impact on a potential buyer.
Appliances should be stainless. I'm not a fan of stainless, but everyone else is, and home buyers do not want to buy new appliances for a house.
Be careful on buying a new faucet. Gold is trying to make a comeback. To me, it's just a dull version of brass, but the trendy people are all buying it. Since you are trying to attract the highest number of buyers, to get the best price possible, I would match the faucet to the handles on the cabinets. If you go with chrome, stick with chrome. or stainless or brushed nickel. Just keep it all constant and nobody will be bothered by it when looking at it.
If you where keeping the house, or wanting to push things in fixing it up, the double ovens are not a thing anymore. I probably do a job where I take them out and rebuild the space for a single over and a microwave, or turn that area into shelving, or match the doors for storage and put a range in somewhere else. The challenge is figuring out where to move everything, and for selling the house, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. In a perfect world, double ovens wouldn't be there.
Another thing to consider when getting close to selling is installing new toilets. A brand new toilet sends the signal that it's clean, fresh, and hasn't been used before.
One of the fun surprises that have happened with clients was that they couldn't find anything that they liked as much as their newly remodeled home, so they decided to stay there.
