Advice about selling house

 I would like to get some opinions about selling a home.

Brief Background:

I am a male, 50's, inexperienced with real estate issues. My
mother died last June and during her final days I had the
power of attorney. I had to take care of all matters and
plan the funeral and things worked out pretty well.

In a few weeks I'll be the Personal Representative (I have
two siblings) of the estate and the house has to be sold.
The current market value (what others like that are selling for)
is $350,000. However, her house is not 100% up to par. The
entire house will need to be painted (inside) and the original
wood floors (built in 1950) will probably need refinishing.
The last matter is the kitchen; it's pretty much a disaster
(in my opinion) because it has the ORIGINAL cabinets, counter,
sink, and the stove is 45 years old, along with the tile floor.

I have been getting opinions from many people but I keep
ending up back at square one with no definitive information
as to where I'll be standing when this is over.

I have two quotes so far about the painting ($2,000) and the
floors ($2,500) and the kitchen could range from $3,000
(quickie throw together) to easily $10,000 or more.

These are my rough calculations so far:

$350,000 Asking price

$ 4,500 - costs for floors, painting

$ 5,000 - cost to put together inexpensive kitchen

$340,500 - Approx. profit for house

$ 18,000 - Charges for Realtor fees

$322,500 - Balance for profit

$  5,000 - Misc. costs

$317,500 - Final Selling Price for House


I am new at this so I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Today
all the neighbors got a flyer from a licensed real estate
agent "Have a Home To Sell?" "Want to sell 'as-is' without
paying a real estate commission?"

Basically it says he wants to buy houses that need some work
but it doesn't matter because he can save money because I
wouldn't have to make any repairs and pay any fees. Are
these people legit or is this a scam?

Any advice on selling the house? Do I pretty much understand
this concept or should I try to get an agent (6-7%) and
let them handle it? My concern is, if I make too many repairs
I'll have little profits left.

Any advice appreciated.

=========END OF MESSAGE =============

  Seller wrote:

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom; my siblings and I sold my parents
house about 3 years ago under similar circumstances. Another thing to
factor into your calculations is how quickly you want the house to
sell. In this bucket, put the hassle of checking on systems (e.g.,
heating/cooling), along with repair and maintenance of systems should
they fail, general upkeep costs (e.g., plowing) and property taxes. If
you're living in the house, this is no big deal; if you're flying out
of town every week to do this, it becomes burdensome.


For me, I would worry about the realtor who wants to sell without
receiving a commission -- it's not common here.

I would also ditch the kitchen remodel idea and instead clean the house
(windows, do some landscaping, spruce up the exterior, whatnot).
Painting, refinishing the floors, and moving *everything* out of the
house has, in my experience, made homes we've sold sell more quickly
(and caused us to buy homes that, well, we should have passed on. It's
the refinished floors -- I'm a total sucker.)

I realize you're thinking that the kitchen is dated and horrible, and
you're probably right -- but given that it's dated and horrible, I'd
rather have $5k knocked off the price of the house as a concession than
buy a house that had a low-budget kitchen and el cheapo cabinets put
in. All told, too, when pricing cabinets, those 1950 cabinets weren't
particleboard nor nailed together (but dovetailed), as opposed to what
you'd be getting today for $5k. I know other people may feel otherwise
(and will probably weigh in as such); that's old advice we'd gotten
from a realtor with a house we were selling that had a horrible kitchen
-- the buyers ended up putting in a 60k remodel which was exactly to
their liking, and we were spared dealing with contractors and looking
for things on the cheap.

Best of luck,
Caledonia

 

I would agree.  Clean up and paint but let the buyer do what they want
with the kitchen or other major projects.  Why remodel and try to find
someone who likes it when instead the house could be anyone's
"potential"?  I think people get most excited about finding ways to make
a house their own - remodeling the kitchen is one of the most popular
ways to do that.

If you're concerned that people will dismiss the house too quickly based
on the outdated kitchen, you could come up with some ideas (and maybe
estimates) for the kitchen (or other areas) to show when people look at
the house.  

I wish my house's previous owners hadn't done a cheap-ass remodel of the
kitchen before selling.

(I would also agree with a previous poster who mentioned fully
understanding the tax consequences of anything you do.  Tax
repercussions of inheritance are complex and little mistakes can have a
huge cost.)

*moc

 I would not call $317K a little profit !  My advice, which is worth
what I'm charging for it, is:

1) Make darn sure you understand the financial and tax consequences
first, no matter what you do.  For example, is a deceased person's
estate able to claim the $250,000 exemption on net gain ?

2) The guy with the flyers is trying to find people who are desperate
so he can buy their house at bottom dollar.  You are not desperate.
Some of these idiots will try to do all kinda weird things, get you to
enter into some weird contractual arrangement, so that they can make a
buck Just Like They Saw On Carleton Sheets' informercial. They may not
even have the moolah to buy it, they're just finagling you and then
trying to line up a buyer.

3) Your original approach is the one I would opt for based on what you
mention - fix up the house so it's at least in average condition for
the market, list it, take the money.   It's like selling a car - make
sure it's clean and spiffy and sell the thing, don't fall for some line
of BS.

 On 11 Mar 2005 19:55:19 -0800, someone wrote:


No because there is no gain.  The "estate" doesn't belong to the
deceased any more.  It belongs to the devisees and legatees
(technically, "heirs" is often the wrong term).  The value of the
house on the date of death is what is inherited, there is no "gain".
These "consequences" are vastly overstated out of ignorance.  The sibs
are not keeping the house; if they were they'd want to establish its
FMV as the basis steps up upon DoD, for any future sale.

If the sale is soon after death, and without a bubble market, there is
no gain.  The value of the house is what is subject to estate tax
whether they sell it or not, if the "estate" is even that big to
invoke the tax.  If they hold it a while as their house, there would
still be the original estate tax but then the cap gain is on the
difference between the value they inherited and the value they sold.
Unless they live in it, nobody gets a $250k exemption.

But OP should certainly ask his own lawyer, I am not responsible for
the accuracy of anonymous free internet advise.  If I was responsible
for it, I would not give it unless you paid me.


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