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Should Your Clients Replace Their Carpets Before They Sell?

Selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions your clients will ever make — on the other side of the coin, buying a home is one of the biggest as well. As a realtor, you want to make sure that your sellers are getting the best price they can for their house, and that means making the house as appealing as possible for the next buyer that comes along.

One of the simplest ways to spruce up a house — as well as one of the most important — is the carpet. The average household carpet only lasts around ten years, and it can wear out much faster than that if not properly cared for. Despite this, many people will go the whole time they live in a house without ever replacing the carpet.

Carpets wear slowly and gradually, and since they see it every day, it’s easy for the homeowner not to notice that it’s starting to wear or discolor. But when the furniture is lifted, the house is empty, and new people are looking at it, dingy carpet is as clear as day.

Benefits Of Replacing Carpet

The benefits of replacing carpet in a home before you sell are clear. New carpet looks much nicer and fresher than older carpet, showing the new buyers that the house is ready to move into. Of course, there are bargain house buyers who would rather buy a house in need of some upkeep for a lower price, then do the work themselves. But most house buyers want a house that’s ready to be lived in, and new carpet gives them that.

Carpet is often a better choice than wood floors or laminate as well. For one thing, carpet isn’t nearly as dependent on the subfloor underneath it. Between the soft carpet and the padding under it, any small imperfections or irregularities in the subfloor will be ironed out.

By contrast, wood and vinyl flooring need very smooth subfloors, which aren’t always easy to find. In older houses especially, smoothing out the subfloor to create a surface for hardwood or vinyl flooring would cost far more than it’s worth, so carpet makes a lot more sense.

What Kind Of Carpet Should You Use?

Once you’ve decided to re-carpet the major areas of a house before selling it — specifically living rooms and bedrooms — you have to choose a carpet. This can be tricky. On the one hand, you want to choose a carpet that looks nice, will last a long time in the event that the buyer wants to keep it, and increases the perceived value of the house.

On the other, new buyers often see a house as a blank slate. They like the house, but they plan to get new appliances, new cabinet hardware, new paint, and yes, sometimes new carpet. You don’t want to encourage your sellers to spend thousands of dollars on new carpet if the buyer is just going to tear it up because they prefer a different shade, so how do you find the middle ground?

That’s why we recommend going with a nice mid-range cut-pile carpet. A textured cut-pile is a good generic carpet — it’s high-end enough to bring a premium feel to the home you’re selling but without breaking the bank. Pick a neutral color so the new buyer can picture the house as a canvas to paint their new lives on.

Best of all, Sloane’s offers discount prices on even high-end brands. With carpet for as little as $1.00 a square foot — and some options even lower — replacing the carpet before putting a home on the market is a no-brainer. It’ll attract buyers, modernize the house, improve value, and close the deal!