We're getting with our realtor at the end of this next week. I'm certain we will have to offer a carpet allowance with the sale of our house. How exactly does that work? Does it just come off the price of the house at closing? That doesn't seem very beneficial to the buyer because it's not cash in hand. Do we just pay out the amount of the carpet allowance or take it off our profit of the sale? I've never bought/sold a house with an allowance before.
Thank you!

By Breann on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 02:41 pm:

I haven't ever bought/sold with an allowance either, so I'm not sure. But, I have seen on several television programs that if you replace the carpet yourself, before you list, that your house will sell faster and for more money. Basically, you don't ever want any one to see your dirty carpet secrets ;)

By Trina~moderator on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 02:54 pm:

We sold our first house with a flooring allowance. It just came off the sale price of the house.

By Reds9298 on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 04:57 pm:

Breann- I'm sure that's true! We considered replacing it all about 3 years ago, but it would have been around $5000 and we knew we weren't going to be here much longer. The carpet is about 10 years old, and the really good stuff, but just has staining. I'll be surprised if our realtor doesn't suggest an allowance, and I wasn't sure how it worked.

Trina- I hope that's true here!

By Debbie on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 05:10 pm:

We almost purchased a house with a flooring allowance. They were going to just take it of the price of the house.

By Pamt on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 05:13 pm:

Deanna,
I figured that when we listed our house last year that we would do a carpet allowance. Our carpet was ICK and it was one of those things that we just never got around to. Our agent suggested not offering an allowance, but being willing to when we had an offer. It never came up. The people who bought our house ripped out all of the carpet and put in hardwood, put in granite counter tops, and repainted everything beige and flipped our house. It's been for sale ever since.

By Trina~moderator on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 05:42 pm:

Breann, I forgot to add earlier... It's not always possible to replace carpeting or paint before selling. In our case, DH accepted a job offer in another state and we needed to sell and buy quickly. It was so much easier to offer a flooring allowance. As Pam stated, in some cases it may not be an issue, but our house visibly needed new flooring, and such an offer made the buyers happy. They also got to pick their own flooring.

By Reds9298 on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 06:50 pm:

Thanks Pam-good idea and very possibly what our realtor might suggest as well. It's not GROSS by any means, but stained nonetheless and not what *we* would like, so maybe the same would happen for us. Thanks!

By Amecmom on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 07:45 pm:

Pretty standard to list the house as it is and then after you have an accepted offer and a home inspection, then they will negotiate the credits.
Although in this market, a tag like:owner offers a $2000 decorating credit might be a great way to sell the place more quickly.
Our house has been on the market in NY for a year.
Hope yours sells quick.
Ame

By Reds9298 on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 08:09 pm:

I often see "carpet allowance" listed here on homes, but haven't actually seen the current carpet in those homes so not sure how "bad" it actually is.

There are tons of homes here that have been on the market for at least a year, too. My DH's old company is in a bad bankruptcy that's going nowhere. Lots of our friends have already relocated, and strangely enough, each and every one of them that sold without help from their new place of employment all sold within 3 months. I'm hoping that's contagious! We do NOT want to continue commuting for long. We are giving it 3 months and then we will probably *seriously* consider swinging and going ahead with the new house. I hope yours sells soon Ame!

So I'm taking it that a flooring allowance would come off the final price?

By Breann on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 08:50 pm:

Trina, I didn't ever say that it's possible for everyone to go out and replace all carpets before listing. I simply shared with Deanna what I had seen on a television program. I didn't intend to step on any toes with my comment.

By Trina~moderator on Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 09:06 pm:

Breann, you didn't step on any toes. I just wanted to point out that sometimes replacing the carpeting, etc. before selling is a huge hassle, especially if time is of the essence.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, April 28, 2008 - 12:02 am:

When my sister bought her house she got her loan for the cost of the house, plus the cost of the improvements they wanted to make. She had all new carpet/flooring put in, painted, and new counter tops before they even moved in. So the allowance in my opinion would depend on what your asking price would be compared to the houses in your area on the market and how quickly you want to sell the house. Let them walk a few people through, if the carpet is brought up as a complaint then tell them to offer the allowance.. What seems terrible to us may not be a huge deal to someone else.

By Reds9298 on Monday, April 28, 2008 - 07:42 am:

I'm really starting to think that now, Bobbie. I think we'll have the carpets cleaned and then play it by ear from there. Thanks!

By Debbie on Monday, April 28, 2008 - 08:01 am:

When we moved from Chicago, and moved our furniture out, we realized our carpet was really yucky. We had blacktop driveways, which is a mess with carpet. You could see exactly where the furniture had been in our family room because the carpet was a lot lighter where the furniture was. We told our realtor to offer a carpet allowance if they freaked when they did the walk through. They never said a thing.