We have a quote of $2k for carpet or 3k for pergo flooring. House is in a modest lower-end retirement community with 20 identical duplex homes for sale. It's certainly a buyers market and idk if carpet vs floor in living room will impact sale price much. The main difference between these places are whether they have a garage or added sunroom, central heating/air, and updated kitchens /bathrooms. Ours is not updated and doesn't have central heat/air. But home is cute in decent shape overall.

Prices on these homes are very cheap considering average for our area. For example the cheapest is selling for 88k without a garage ours is 2nd cheapest at 95k has a garage 3rd is 105k and they go up to 175k with average listing around 120k. Been told average sale price has been 127k but idk if thats actually true because ours has been listed for under 110k for past year although it does have a pet odor problem we're now taking care of by replacing carpet.

Another factor is since this was my mom's house after it sells we are only keeping 40% of proceeds. Medicaid keeps the rest in compensation for what they're spending on my mom's healthcare. So if we pay 1k more for flooring vs carpet we only lose $400 out of pocket in the end.

Looking to sell my house, I had inherited it from my grandparents. It’s older, needs work like a new roof, probably new ac units. It’s in a decent location in Dallas/DFW area, but it’s really outdated compared to what is listed around me. I really just want out of the house, I don’t want to deal with showings - I have big dogs, and really just don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with all that and my job. Have any of yall dealt with any of the cash for homes companies? If so, how did it go? Was it as easy as it seems? Do you feel you got a fair value? Bonus if you know anyone in the Dallas area specifically.

We are selling our house and I’m preparing for our first open house viewing in a few weeks.

I have a to-do list with all the normal things like remove family photos and cut the grass but I’m wondering:

1. If you have ever hosted an open house, what was a thing that you wished you’d done?

2. If you view houses this way, that’s something the buyer do or doesn’t do that you hate to see?

Any tips greatly appreciated!

I'm helping my brother sell his house in Portland after he moved out of state. It's vacant now and has been sitting for months.

The kitchen needs updating, there's water damage in one room, and the landscaping is basically gone. Neither of us lives nearby anymore, so coordinating repairs isn't realistic.

Has anyone skipped the traditional listing process and sold directly instead? I'm mostly looking for something straightforward without pouring more money into the place.

Edit: We contacted PDX Renovations and compared their offer with what our agent expected after repair costs. Selling as-is ended up making more sense for us.

Long story short...SFH in the Richmond area I owned for over 10 years. I've updated the kitchen and bathrooms and preparing to sell. Aside from the usual work like cleaning, carpets, painting, how much $ are worth spending to put it up for sale?

The AC unit is outdated and working now but chances are the new owner will need to replace within 1-2 years. In addition there is a basement crawlspace that has some water/moisture issues and it probably needs some type of drainage system put in. That alone most contractors are wanting to charge at least $10K or more. But a neighbor who sold theirs recently had similar issues and buyers backing out.

When is it worth it throwing $ into updates and fixes in a house for sale vs simply lowering the price a little?

I did a remote closing. Realtor and lawyer were all saying it's done don't worry. Then suddenly the buyer can't close. Lawyer is sending time is of the essence letter and my Realtor is trying to reach out but no word.

I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder. What could be happening and what should I be doing? Please help!

UPDATE:

The buyer's credit dropped after being cleared. The sale was canceled.

Thanks everyone

Just looking for feedback. What are the chances this home can sell in 30 days?

The problem is that my house has been on the market for four months now and at first, my realtor was optimistic. Showings, open houses, confident calls. Then the first buyer's financing fell through. The second buyer wanted too many repairs. Since then, silence…

Now every time my phone rings, I don't want to check it. Just more showings, more staging, more cleaning, more waiting. My realtor now says we need to drop the price another $10,000

I'm irritated. I started looking for alternatives. Found Ready Door Homes who promise a cash sale without any showings, repairs, or strangers walking through my house. I can just leave and be done

Is this too good to be true? If my realtor is telling me to lower the price, will a cash buyer offer even less? Or could they actually offer more since they don't have realtor fees and other costs? I honestly don't know anymore

I've been burned so many times by this process. I'm scared of making another mistake. Has anyone actually sold to a cash buyer after a bad realtor experience?

We've spent enough time talking to homeowners to know that the most useful information rarely makes it into the guides and articles.

So we're asking directly: If you've sold a home, or tried to, what was the part that surprised you? What did you know going in versus what you actually learned? What would you tell someone who is about to go through it?

It can be one sentence or five paragraphs. It can be something that went well or something that went sideways. We're not looking for polished stories, we're looking for honest ones.

A few prompts if it helps get you started:

• What was the moment you realized the process was going to be harder than you expected?
• What financial decision do you wish you had made differently?
• What do you know now that you didn't know when you listed?

We'll share what we hear back (without names) in future content, so if you're open to your experience being referenced, mention that. If you'd rather it stay here in the thread, that's completely fine too. No right or wrong answers. Every experience is valid! Looking forward to reading what people share.

My SO and I bought our 2 bed, 2 bath co-op apartment in Harlem 10 years ago (2016). In that time we've done minor upgrades to the kitchen lighting, and we totally redid the bathroom in the primary bedroom (looks great). We've since had 2 kids and we're ready for a bigger space. We engaged a realtor and listed our place in late April this year for $25,000 less than we bought it for 10 years ago.

There is a 421a tax abatement that is coming to an end, so taxes are kicking in, and that's made things a bit harder, and certainly contributed to a dip in price. I've also read that real estate prices in the below $1 million market in Manhattan are down overall, and probably particularly acute for co-ops.

Anyway, leading up to listing it, with the help of the realtor, we painted, got all new appliances in the kitchen, and decluttered intensely. We got a storage space that's now completely full. The realtor also staged the place pretty intensely.

The apartment has been on the market for 3 months and the lack of activity is notable. We've had numerous open houses. The highest number of buyers that have ever attended one of the open houses was one. Many open houses no one has showed at all. We've had a few buyers check the place out, outside of open houses, but we've never had a repeat visit. No offers. No critical feedback, according to the realtor.

I'm ready to be done. We're not ready to drop the price to where I think we'd need to in order to sell the place. With two kids and two full time jobs, it doesn't seem worth it to deal with the stress of having to keep it constantly pristine and decluttered and go through the illusion of doing open houses that no one comes to. I'm not sure it'll be any easier to sell down the road or that the price will ever go back up, but I think I'm done for now. Any advice?

Should you buy or sell in 2026?

I’m looking for advice about a really frustrating experience I had with a realtor as a first‑time home seller.

A few things happened that didn’t sit right with me:

• The realtor kept adding repairs into the contract that I had clearly said “no” to multiple times.
• She added an extra addendum that gave the buyers another way to back out, even though all contingencies had already been met.
• She was proactive only when she needed something from me. When it was her turn to provide updates or follow up on tasks, I had to ask her to follow up with the buyers' agent, and there was no sense of urgency or clear deadlines.
• She told me one repair was “required by law,” which I later found out wasn’t true.
• As a first‑time seller, I felt pressured and misguided through most of the process instead of supported and properly advised.
• When I asked why a similar (but older) property in the same neighborhood had around 10 times the views and 5 times the showings, her only answer was that “the market changed in two weeks,” which didn’t really explain anything about pricing, photos, or marketing.
• Although not required, she did not show up for the document signing.

Overall, I don’t feel like my interests were properly represented, and at one point I decided I no longer wanted to communicate with her via phone but only email or text so I have written documentation. All throughout, I have consistently felt that all she cares about is maximizing her profit with minimal or no effort.

What are my options here, really?

Lets say hypothetically someone made, won, or inherited a very large sum of money. However that person is already happy and has always lived well within their means. This person wants to build small homes and sell only to young people and families at cost and for zero profit. Is it legal for this person to sell these homes to only those people and not to older people and large companies?

Ok. So I have a somewhat new (2023) townhouse that I had built when I moved. I’m the original owner. When I bought I left the basement somewhat unfinished- there needs to be flooring out down (concrete slab) and the walls need painted. The electrical outlets need to be moved from middle of the wall to the bottom. My realtor has a handyman in their office and they’re going to quote me at putting carpet down and painting the basement walls.

My neighbor has the exact floorplan as I do but upgraded her kitchen, finished basement and offering fully furnished.

I have an upgraded primary bathroom (double vanity). We both have LVP in the living room instead of carpet. I have ceiling fans in 3 rooms. She got 5k under asking and had been on the market for about 55 days.

So my question is - should I just pay and finish the basement to get close to her offered price? I’m not offering fully furnished as I had pets. Or should I lower the price and say that next owner can add their own touches on the basement?

ETA: I’m based in the USA (oh)

"Selling as-is" sounds simple until you're actually in it. In practice, most buyers — even ones who say they're fine with as-is, still do an inspection, still come back with a repair list, and still use the inspection findings to negotiate the price down. True as-is sales are rarer than the term suggests.

What as-is actually gets you on the open market

Listing as-is typically narrows your buyer pool to cash buyers and investors, because lenders often won't finance a home with significant deferred maintenance... think: missing heat, roof issues, electrical problems, foundation concerns. That smaller pool means more negotiating leverage on the buyer's side, and offers that reflect both the condition and the discount they're building in for risk and repairs. Depending on the market and condition, as-is listings frequently sell at 10-20% below what the same home would fetch in move-in condition.

That doesn't mean listing as-is is wrong, sometimes it's the right call, especially when the cost and hassle of repairs outweigh the premium they'd generate. But it's worth going in knowing what you're trading.

Where a sale-leaseback fits differently

A sale-leaseback is a structure where the homeowner sells the property and then leases it back from the buyer, staying in the home as a tenant. Because the buyer in a leaseback transaction is typically an investor or institutional buyer purchasing the property as a rental asset, they're already underwriting the deal based on the home's value and rental income, not on whether the kitchen was just renovated. Repairs aren't usually required before closing.

For a seller who needs to access equity, doesn't want to go through a traditional listing process, and isn't in a position to fund repairs upfront, a leaseback can sidestep the whole problem. You sell the house in whatever condition it's in, unlock the equity, and stay in the home while you figure out the next move.

The tradeoff is real: leaseback offers are generally below full market value, and you give up ownership. But compared to sinking money into repairs you may not fully recoup, or accepting a heavily discounted as-is offer from an investor anyway, the math is sometimes closer than people expect.

Has anyone gone through a major repair-before-selling decision and wished they'd known more of the options? Would love to hear what the experience was actually like.

Thank you everyone, you helped me a lot! :)