What to fix before you list, and what to leave alone

I run RealDream Contracting, a renovation company on the North Shore, and every spring I get calls from people about to list who want to know what to fix first. Most of them arrive with a plan that involves spending far more than they need to, on the one thing that will not pay them back.

It is almost always the kitchen.

I want to give you the filter I use, because it is simple and it holds up across most properties.

The filter

Ask one question about any piece of work you are considering: does this remove a reason for a buyer to walk away, or is it a matter of taste?

Removing objections pays. Expressing taste does not, because it is not your taste that has to be satisfied. It is the taste of a buyer you have not met, and the odds that your choices match theirs are not good.

That is the whole thing. Everything below is just examples.

Why the pre sale kitchen is usually a mistake

RealDream’s published range for an average kitchen renovation is $60,000 to $120,000. That is a lot of money to spend weeks before handing the house to somebody else.

Two problems with it. The first is that you are making permanent, high cost decisions about cabinet style, counter material and layout on behalf of a stranger. If they like it, good. If they do not, you have spent six figures on something they intend to change, and they will not pay you for it.

The second problem is worse and it is about timing. A kitchen renovation is not a two week job. If it runs long, and kitchens run long more than any other room, you are now listing into a later market than you planned with a house that has been torn up. Trades in Metro Vancouver book four to eight weeks out during peak season, which means a delay in one trade cascades through the whole schedule.

I have watched people miss an entire selling season this way.

The exception, and it is narrow: if the kitchen is genuinely non functional, missing appliances, water damaged, or so dated that it reads as a gut job to every person who walks in, then it is not a taste question any more. It is an objection. Address it, but address it at the level of making it clean and functional rather than making it beautiful.

What actually earns its money

The unglamorous list, roughly in order of how reliably it works.

Paint. Nothing else comes close on cost against effect. Neutral, clean, everywhere. It is cheap, it is fast, and it makes a house read as cared for, which is the single impression you are trying to create.

Floors. Refinishing existing hardwood is usually far cheaper than replacing anything and it transforms how a house shows. Worn floors read as neglect even when the rest of the house is sound.

Light. Replacing dim, dated fixtures and getting proper bulbs into every socket costs very little. Dark rooms photograph badly and show badly, and on the North Shore, where a lot of houses sit under mature trees on north facing slopes, this matters more than people think.

The obviously broken things. The door that does not latch, the tap that drips, the cracked pane, the fence panel down in the back. Each is small. Together they tell a buyer that things have been let go, and that impression is expensive.

A cosmetic bathroom refresh, if the bathroom is genuinely rough. RealDream publishes $15,000 to $25,000 for a refresh at that level, new vanity, toilet, fixtures and paint. That is a different order of spending than a full bathroom renovation at $25,000 to $55,000, and for a pre sale property the refresh is almost always the right end of that range.

Pre empt the inspection, do not fight it

Here is the part sellers underestimate.

The buyer’s inspection report is where your negotiating position gets tested, and the items that cost you most in that conversation are rarely the expensive ones. They are the cheap, visible, obviously deferred ones, because a report full of small maintenance failures makes a buyer wonder what else was ignored. That doubt gets priced in, and it gets priced in at a number far above what the repairs would have cost you.

So the highest return work before listing is frequently the least interesting: service the furnace, clear the gutters and check the downspout discharge, deal with any visible moisture staining and its cause, replace the failed seal on the window, sort out the GFCI outlets that do not trip.

None of that shows up in a listing photo. All of it shows up in a report.

Do not start what you cannot finish

The single worst outcome is a half completed renovation at listing time.

An unfinished project reads to a buyer as an unknown liability. They cannot tell what is behind the work, whether it was permitted, or what it will cost to complete, so they assume the worst and bid accordingly. You would have been better off never starting.

This is why I tell people to decide their pre listing scope once, keep it small, and finish it well before the photographer arrives. If a piece of work cannot be reliably completed in the time available, it does not belong on the list. Pick something smaller from the same list instead.

If you want a second opinion on whether a specific piece of work is worth doing before listing, that is a reasonable thing to ask a contractor for, and it is the kind of call RealDream Contracting gets regularly. A short site visit generally settles it.

Sometimes the answer is to list it as it stands

Worth saying plainly, because it is often correct.

If a house needs real work, structural, systems, envelope, then dressing it up cosmetically does not fool anybody who brings an inspector, and you will have spent money to arrive at the same price. Some houses should be sold as what they are, priced accordingly, to a buyer who wants the project.

There is a real market for that in this region, and it is a cleaner transaction for everyone than a lightly polished house with problems underneath.

Nima Gerani

Founder, RealDream Contracting — North Shore Renovation

Nima is the founder of RealDream Contracting, a renovation company working across North Vancouver and West Vancouver, with select projects in Vancouver, New Westminster and White Rock. Reach them at info@realdream.ca or (604) 401-4849.