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I will be getting the house ready to sell and it will need new carpets and wall paint. Any suggestions on good color selections? Also , all my windows are covered with ecru/light beige floor length lace curtains- too dated? House was built in the 80's so there are no hardwood floors under the carpet, have to stick with carpet.

Sandlance, Happy to hear you are taking steps to get your house ready to sell. Preparation in advance can make the property shine and sell faster than the competition when you are ready to put it on the market, BUT have to say for myself at least, that I'm not really qualified re the decorator's touch so you might want to post this thread in the Decorator's Board as well. Good luck and let us know how things are as the journey continues.

I think lace of any kind turns off a lot of buyers; and I always hate the "looks like Granny's house" comments. Clean/bare windows would be better...if they are in good repair of course.

I can only tell you what worked for us. We have only sold one house with carpet, about a year and a half ago, we went to Lowes and picked out a Stainmaster light off white but not beige color and had it installed. It was quite inexpensive and needed to be done badly. I know we bought our current house with carpet that also needs replacement, so I'll go the same route again.

About the windows, we've kept it fairly simple, we had a modern house with 2.5 inch slat blinds with no curtains expect in a few rooms where we put modern curtains. You don't need a lot of money to put up simple sheers if you just want to keep it simple, I did that in our last house in a few rooms where we did not have the slat blinds.

There are definitely other board where you will get fantastic advice on decorating.

Have you compared the cost of laminate flooring to carpet? Obviously, you'd have to consider your home's price range and the competition before using laminate instead of hardwood flooring.

Agree, I would remove the lace curtains and change them out to simple panels, if necessary.

Best of luck with your upcoming sale and move!

Having just been through that, beige is a good color, and we had HD do our last house, and they did a great job (looked wonderful). I would also lose the lace, and plain panels would be great.... Light and bright.... It's amazing what new carpet does - and just make sure you get good padding - makes a world of difference when a prospective buyer steps on it.... Got lots of comments about that.

I agree with getting a good pad. The pad is not much more money to upgrade, and less expensive carpet will feel rich under foot. A great carpet on a cheap pad will feel more like a cheap one.

And a nice frieze carpet with a blend of beige and tan notes will show well with most buyers.

I keep offering the same advice. Check out this article by Scott Govers, a California Real Estate Appraiser and Broker. He tells you what updates and upgrades you need to do to get the best price on an appraisal to sell your home. Sometimes a little can go a really long way.

http://510homes.wordpress.com/...your-home-appraisal/

Hey, 510 Area Homes, perhaps you are trying to be helpful but did you read the rules of this message board? NO ADVERTISING ALLOWED!

I'm one of the different buyers out there that does not want you do to anything to the floors. Just clean the carpet and in negotiations, deduct a flooring allowance so that I can install the flooring that I want.

I turned my back on a fairly nice house because I did not like the brand new carpeting. I mentioned to husband that the carpet would need to be replaced. He did not agree. I walked out to the car and seated myself while he and the real estate agent were still in the house. Follow up - the people who bought the house, replaced the powder blue carpet before moving in.

Besides...I don't like carpet especially in the most used areas of a house.

I would rather buy a house and put my own carpet or wood floor in. I hate laminate floors so that would be the first thing that would turn me off if looking at the house. I'd rather have an allowance to do my own floors.

Clean and immediately usable is what would sell to me (so many other things matter more than decor). If it is dated, as in carpet, drapes or paint color, that simply can go into price negotiations. But not all buyers are the same, some do lack imagination. I would err on not spending the money unless it is just worn out or really bad. Then replace with something builder grade.

This is why I will not put new counters (granite or other) nor replace the top quality (however 1960 vintage, grey speckled Congoleum in our kitchen) the next owner will probably redo the whole thing, and they can do so for their taste. We have great quality carpet, with unfinished oak floors underneath. I will be happy to pull back a corner in each room to show buyers, but it will be up to them to refinish. Not "everyone" prefers wood floors.

It is not really about imagination. A good agent will help buyers look at what is important.

Here are the questions and the issues:

How much room do you have on price and investing in prepping the home and how much time do you have to sell?

How bad are the carpets? Are they just showing wear and tear or are they trashed?

What is the norm for your neighborhood? That is, what does the competition have on the floor?

Yep, posters come on here all the time and talk about the bones of the house, and how people don't have imagination, etc. But if you are trying to sell your house and your floors are trashed, you are going to lose more buyers than those who walk in and say - "oh yeah, the first thing I want to do is lay carpet or install floors, where do I sign"?

If you list the house with a discount for the carpet - potential buyers who are not turned off by the floors will still take another discount on their low ball offer.

Just about every buyer who walks into a resale will have a mental list, if not actual, of areas that need to be addressed if they buy the house. The longer that list the lower the offer.

If a professional cleaning will give the carpet some life in the short term and it is in keeping with the competition - then that is the way to go. If the competition is all sporting hardwood (not laminate) or brand new carpet, then that answers your question.

Sherry - I can only imagine the other decorating choices a homeowner would make who puts powder blue carpet in a house they are planning to sell.

Stop. Do nothing except clean, clean and clean some more.
Do not spend any money to you check out your market. Call 3 agents..get opinions, then go from there.

Check out your market first by calling some agents, have them come to the house to offer opinion. However...clean, clean, clean first.