There are two buyer pools out there and they want opposite things. The decision you make about repairs before listing determines which pool you're selling to.
Should you make repairs before selling your house? Everybody tells you to fix it up. Nobody tells you what that's actually worth. And nobody tells you what skipping the work actually costs.
Here's what the numbers say.
Two buyers, two prices
A study analyzed over 2 million listings and compared listing descriptions with actual sale prices. The results were clear.
Turnkey homes, the ones described as move-in ready, sold for 2.9% above expected value. Homes described as remodeled sold for about 2.2% above. So when the listing signaled that the home was done, buyers paid a premium of 2% to 3%.
Fixer-uppers sold for 14% below expected value
That's not a symmetrical trade-off. It's not 3% up or 3% down depending on your decision. It's 3% up or 14% down. The total swing is roughly 17%. Your downside is about six times your upside. On a $400,000 home, that gap is nearly $70,000.
Don’t stay in the middle
There are two buyers out there and they want opposite things. One pays extra for a home that's completely done. The other takes a lot off for one that isn't.
The mistake is trying to sell to both. You end up with half the work, priced like it's finished. The move-in ready crowd walks because it isn't done. The bargain hunters walk because it isn't cheap. That's the house that sits for a very long time.
You have to decide before you list. Are you going all the way to turnkey, or are you pricing it as-is and accepting what that means? The middle is where homes go to sit.
“The downside is about six times the upside. It’s not 3% up or 3% down. It’s 3% up or 14% down. That 17% swing is the number most sellers never see.”
The buyer pools aren't equal
The group of people willing to buy a fixer-upper is much smaller than the group that wants move-in ready, and it's getting smaller.
62% of buyers want move-in ready. Only 28% bought a fixer-upper. And here's the number that should change how you think about this: in a survey of homeowners, 88% of fixer-upper buyers said they'd do it differently next time. For most of them, the ongoing cost and hassle simply outweighed the upfront savings.
When you sell as-is, you're putting yourself in front of the smaller, pickier crowd. The owner-occupants who want a finished home won't look at you. Who's left? Investors looking for a wholesale deal. That's not where you want to be competing.
The repair doesn't disappear… It moves
Whatever needs to be fixed right now isn't going away. It's just going to show up later, on the inspection report, on the buyer's terms, not yours.
46% of sellers in May made a concession. That's the highest share on record. When you skip the repairs and the buyer's inspector finds them, you're negotiating from a position of weakness. You're tired. You're under contract. You want to close. And now the buyer is asking for credits or repairs at prices you didn't set.
The bill comes either way. The only question is whose price you pay. Fix it now on your terms, or fix it later on theirs.
Which buyer are you selling to?
Before you spend a single dollar, the first question you need to answer is this: which buyer are you selling to? The one who wants it done, or the one who wants a deal? Because every decision that follows, every dollar you spend or don't spend, flows from that answer.
If you want to walk us through your home and get a candid answer on which way to take it, give us a call at 480-267-9368, email us at Office@GoodCompanyRE.com, or visit goodcompanyre.com. We'll tell you exactly what makes sense for your specific situation.
