Dream old home place gets a lickety-split makeover - for $15,000

dream house for sale, old dream house for sale,

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Everything must go. That thought drove me as I cleared out my parents' home of 50 years. Little did I know, once everything was gone, the real work would begin. The ultimate goal was to get the 1,700-square-foot California ranch house empty, fixed up and on the market by the end of March. I had a lot to do in four weeks. Empty, the old homestead looked even more tired than before. The furnishings had buffered the facts that the carpet had seen more miles than an infantry squad and the wallpaper was more dated than Betty Crocker's hairdo. I looked around the home I grew up in. Instead of seeing a refuge where I once tanked up on food, sleep, clean clothes and abundant parental love and advice, played hide and seek, and blew out lots of birthday candles, I tried to see it through a buyer's eyes.

Boy, did that change my perspective. Besides the carpet and wallpaper, the cottage-cheese ceilings, dowdy drapes and worn-out cabinets also had to go. The fix-it list grew faster than kids. I called my good friend Bill Wood, who not only owns a couple dozen rental houses and can fix places up in his sleep, but also has his real estate license. Unlike other agents who encouraged me to sell the property "as is," Bill said that if we updated the place and didn't overspend, we'd net more and sell it faster.

"What would it take?" I asked. "One month and $15,000." "How much more would we get?" "Probably $50,000 more than if you sold it as is." "A fourth-grader can do that math." "Plus," he said, "when a home looks new and move-in ready, buyers are less likely to ask you to drop your price for a paint or carpet allowance." I pushed up my sleeves. "Let's go," I said. "No way," came the chorus from friends, family and those in real estate. "You can't bring this place into the 21st century that fast for that price!"

You did all that for how much? • Paint, removal of wallpaper, scrape ceilings $7,150 • Laminate floors, carpet, 4-inch baseboards $3,835 • Floor tile $106 • Wood blinds $695 • Six can lights $175 • Stovetop vent hood $240 • Bathroom light fixture $100 • Bath counter materials $150 • Two bath sinks $80 • Two nickel faucets $60 • Towel bars $40 • Two toilets $196 • Café doors $150 • GFI protected outlets $40 • New wall plates throughout $40 • Handyman, six days $1,200 TOTAL: $14,257