LESLIE: Sherry in Illinois wants to talk carpeting. What can we do for you?
SHERRY: Well, I’m looking to put my house on the market and my carpet is in kind of bad shape. And I was wondering would it be more cost effective to have the carpet dyed or replace it?
TOM: Gee, I’ve never – I’ve never seen carpet dyed. And I have seen an awful lot of homes being put on the market where the carpet was in bad shape. And generally, what most folks do is replace that with a very basic grade carpet; not great stuff but OK stuff. New carpet is new carpet, regardless if it’s, you know …
LESLIE: And it has that new carpet smell which everybody loves.
TOM: Yeah, whether it’s the economy brand or the super duper brand, you know, I think new carpet is probably a real good thing to put in your house if your carpet’s worn out.
LESLIE: Just go for a neutral color, a short pile or even a berber; something that’s neutral and is going to work regardless of what the décor is. I wouldn’t say dying only because it’s got to be done by a pro to make sure that it’s uniform and they’re not oversaturating it to do any damage to the underlayment or the subfloor; whatever’s underneath there. You want to make sure that it’s done right. And it could be a disastrous process. And it could come out bad. I mean it could come out great but it could come out terribly. So you don’t want to risk that. It’s probably going to be cheaper in the long run just to replace it.
TOM: You know Sherry, if you’re putting your house on the market, there are a number of things that you should do. Number one, you should try to get rid of as much stuff as you can because the more space you can show the potential home buyer, the more attractive your place looks. You also want to neutralize it, so putting in the neutral colored carpet, painting with an off-white wall color – those types of things are good. Making sure your kitchens and your baths are in good shape both mechanically and that they’re, you know, cosmetically pleasing is a smart thing to do.
And lastly, what you might want to do is have a professional home inspection done. This way you can identify any potential defects that will come up in the eyes of a home buyer’s home inspector when your house gets on the market and you can either fix them when you have control of the situation or you could just …
LESLIE: Or acknowledge them.
TOM: Yeah, or acknowledge them and disclose them. Because once you get the buyer involved then it gets very emotional. And this way you’ll know what’s going on before you get that far.
SHERRY: OK.
TOM: Sherry, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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