Selling A House/flooring Question

I really don't want to make an account on a home improvement forum, so I figured I would start here and see if anyone has done any flooring work before and to get a few opinions on some things.

We bought our house in 2017. Unless something drastic happens, we will be moving within the next year or so. Our housing value has increased due to the area just exploding, so I'm not worried about selling it. We want to do some improvements to the house over the next several months to prepare to sell. Here are my questions:

1.) Vinyl vs. hardwood in a kitchen. I know hardwood is "nicer" but I really do not like the idea of wood in a place that is prone to a lot of water in a bad situation. Would hardwood really increase the home value that much? I currently have a nice vinyl flooring picked out that looks like wood. Then there's installation. A lot of people DIY their flooring (especially vinyl) but frankly I'm too scared to do it myself. Have any DIYers redone their kitchen and bathroom floors?

2.) Carpet. I know this is a no-no for newer houses being built (I personally like a carpeted bedroom), but we have a dilemma. When we bought our house, the previous owners laid down nice, new vinyl flooring....in every room except two bedroom and the kitchen. The two bedrooms have old carpet in them, which I don't mind but I know other people will. So...do we just replace those carpets and leave the master bedroom with vinyl, or do we say screw it and put down carpet in all 3 bedrooms? I don't know what the vinyl is that the homeowners put down, else I would just have the put down in the other bedrooms. It really bugs me that the rooms aren't uniform.

3.) The kitchen. Again with the mismatched stuff- our stove is stainless steel and black, fridge is white, dishwasher is white. Drives me crazy. Stainless steel sells better, but it would be cheaper to just replace the stove with a white stove and be done.

Nothing is set in stone, obviously, but we have never had to do any sort of DIY stuff before and it's overwhelming. Surely some of you on here have had experience with updating houses. Thanks in advance for all your insight.

Don't people usually want their own fridge for a house? So I don't think you need to update the fridge but I would install a stainless steel dishwasher.

I suppose they do! This was our first house coming from an apartment, and the previous homeowners left the fridge. We were just giddy that we wouldn't have to pay for a new fridge!

Maybe it’s different in different areas, but both houses I’ve bought have come with a fridge. I would just go for all white appliances.

I wouldn’t worry about the bedroom floors matching. If you can, I’d put vinyl or hardwood in the two bedrooms.

I have tile in my kitchen and have never installed flooring, so I’m no help there.

Talk to a local realtor. If the first one seems sketchy, find someone you like. A lot of things are location specific.

For instance, my uncle is trying to settle my grandma's estate. He lives in Texas. He says nobody in Texas includes the appliances like fridges and stoves so he was going to remove them from my grandma's house but my mom stopped him. Around here, it's really weird if a house doesn't include them.

Also, I sold my old house last year. My realtor said that, unless the carpet/hard floors are so bad that it would really turn people off (mine were), not to replace it because people like to choose their own flooring, but you can offer a cash-back incentive for flooring. Same with mismatched appliances. He said you will always spend more on trying to fix things that people might not want fixed.

But obviously the expected norms vary by location/neighborhood/home style/etc. So definitely consult with a local realtor.

He was going to remove the stove and fridge?? That is bizarre to me, wow! I'm in Georgia but lived previously in SC and never heard of anyone doing that.

The carpet is pretty rough. Previous owners had no kids or pets, but with three cats...well, let's just say that it's their favorite barfing grounds. Not on the laminate or vinyl, they love the nice, cushy carpet while they puke. It's great. It may be revived by a professional steam cleaning, but it's just so worn and old.

When you say "cash back incentive", do you mean that you say you'll be willing to cut them a check for x amount for new flooring in closing paperwork?

EmersonandEvie said:

When you say "cash back incentive", do you mean that you say you'll be willing to cut them a check for x amount for new flooring in closing paperwork?

Click to expand...

Yep, it's a big thing around here. Since most people don't qualify for a loan for more than the house costs, they won't have any extra money to make improvements. So, instead of lowering the price, you cut them a check after closing. Kind of a runaround on the mortgage system, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Hmm. Interesting. I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks!

I'm in California and homes don't usually come with appliances unless it's a custom unit for the space or the old owners are buying new for their new space. From the people I know who bought in the last ten years, only one came with appliances and they were a retro style that fit the home and the owners were moving to a more modern house so they left them behind. I think half came with stoves but not refrigerators. I'd check with realtors in your area to see what is common.

If your checking with realtors, I'd ask about the flooring too. I personally like vinyl or tiles in kitchens and bathrooms but hardwood everywhere else. I do area rugs under beds so I don't step on a cold floor in the morning. Personally, I'd lean towards leaving the flooring alone if the realtor doesn't think it is worth it to replace. If the seller wants they can ask for a price reduction to compensate for needing to replace it after purchase or the extra check after to cover it. Either way, you'd be in a position that if the seller doesn't know to ask you end up ahead since you didn't pay out for it.

The kitchen flooring (roll-out laminate) got pulled back away from the wall slightly when we moved a sofa. That's our reasoning for at least wanting to redo that area.

Selling a house with the kitchen appliances is definitely regional, e.g. in the Chicagoland area it is expected for the sellers to include these appliances. Stainless steel is what buyers prefer here as well as hardwood floors. There are different sealants for hardwood: Hardwood Floor Finishes: Not All Are DIY-Friendly

I agree with neely about the appliances, but I would go ahead and carpet all of the bedrooms. It looks better if they all are, and old, dirty carpets are a real turnoff for buyers.

When we gutted our kitchen, we decided on luxury vinyl tile with grout. It's gorgeous and it has held up well (so far). It cleans easily with either a Swiffer or a steam cleaner, it vacuums well. With the cats, I was worried about cleaning up puke, but it's fine. We've had a few water dish accidents and the floor was fine. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again. You don't have to grout it; we chose to do so. I should add that we had it professionally installed. Hardwood in a kitchen.....not a good idea; as you mentioned, water will kill it.

If we were to sell the house right now, we'd take the fridge with us; it's a fairly new Samsung 4-door French door. Everything else could stay; it's all stainless.

I want no carpet at all in the house, largely because of the cats; we've slowly gotten rid of all carpet and put hardwood flooring throughout. We still have to pull up the living room carpet and replace that. The bathroom has ceramic tiles. Easy to clean and easy to care for.

Unless your carpets are truly filthy, a professional cleaning job might be worthwhile. Somebody mentioned that buyers tend to want to put their own carpet or flooring in anyway. When we sold Rick's mom's house, the carpet was worn and not in good shape. But we knew there were real hardwood floors underneath, so we pulled all the carpet up. A good sanding and polishing and those floors were gorgeous! Turned out to be a nice selling point.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

i've spend some time looking at slate flooring, as well as other options -- thinking of future home improvements. i really like the look of hardwood flooring in a kitchen, but wouldn't for the reason that others have given -- water. i saw some very nice looking slate tiles, some that look similar to hardwood. my preference for my kitchen would be slate flooring.

We just finished with a remodel of our kitchen a few months ago, and we used the luxury vinyl plank for flooring, because the laminate that I installed in the living/ dining room doesn't play well with water, as is the case with real wood. We pulled up the carpeting downstairs, and are gradually doing so in the rest of the house.
Around here, leaving or taking appliances is a sometimes thing, varying with the individual buyers/ sellers.

l bought my house 6 months ago and the previous owners put slate tile in the kitchen and l love it, it's beautiful and easy to clean. l'm not a fan of wood flooring in a kitchen.
Maybe if you agree on house price you could put in their choice of (agreed to) flooring before they move in, rather than paying to put in something they may just replace anyway.

I want to do this or something very similar to this. Excuse Evie in the corner, she ran in just as I took the photo, lol

https://www.roomvo.com/share/kqjtfa