One year ago – we fell in love with a lot – and built a home – which we closed on in May. Since then – we have been slowly moving from one house to the other and preparing our home of 30 years for sale. Old house is paid off and new house has a very low interest rate loan that will be paid off when old house sells.

We paid for a home inspection and fixed 90% of the issues (and addressed the ones we can’t fix or don’t want to fix – such as replacing our 30 year old gas furnace that works like a champ!) Fixes included upgrading water heater, electric, plumbing, smoke detectors, GFCI, fireplace etc.

We painted several of the downstairs rooms, pressure washed patios and decks, refreshed our extensive gardens with mulch and took out some rickety fence and replaced it with new fencing.

So now we are getting opinions from various real estate agents and not one of them agrees on the comparables or the market value or a realistic listing price. So the more information we gather – the more confused we get.

Location: In our area – there are only a couple of houses for sale in the city limits that have a fenced yard, full DRY basement, four bedrooms above grade, large lot etc. Also our house backs up to a large undeveloped wooded area that can’t be developed due to the geology – so it is very private and very quiet. The location is walking distance to grocery stores and small restaurants. So we nailed the location piece of the listing.

Condition: We have never really updated anything inside the house – instead we put all our energy into our extensive ½ acre lot’s landscaping. The yard is a knock out – but every realtor has told us that no one cares about the inspection items we repaired and upgraded – all they care about is the appearance – so we feel foolish that we wasted time and money on items realtors don’t value. We have no idea what buyers value.

We have mostly carpeting (which our carpet cleaner says does not need to be replaced) and original oak flooring (which everyone says we need to sand down to bare wood and refinish.)

We have been told our house will NEVER sell with carpeting in the bathroom and have been advised to put down vinyl or tile.

We have been advised to paint ALL THE TRIM in the entire house white. And to paint every room in the house the same color – a neutral beige. Gray is on its way out out out.

We feel a little stunned by this advice – because we assumed the buyer would paint whatever colors they prefer – but it does seem to be consistent advice from the handful of realtors who have toured our home. And confused because all of our young friends who are buying homes paint the whole interior before they move in.

So do we suck it up and paint the entire interior – including the trim? We have lots of interior doors and crown moulding chair rail and baseboards and that task feels daunting.

Price: Homes in our area that have modern updated granite kitchens with stainless steel appliances are going under contract in a few days at prices that range from 5 – 40% above property tax assessments. We’ve been told if we do all these appearance upgrades we can expect to get offers 7-10% above tax assessment. After paying 5% commission, this leaves us just enough to pay off the new smaller house, but also requires we spend 5-10K more – which we have in savings and could spend on the old house – but we would rather offer that toward closing costs or a price reduction - which realtors are not recommending as a strategy.

So in a seller’s market – with a killer location, below average condition if we don’t do the appearance fixes of paint and refinished hardwood floors, and bathroom tile – what would your pricing strategy be? Or is the advice to suck it up and do those appearance fixes (which will mean putting our house on the market around 10/1).

Open to advice to help us sort through the conflicting advice! This forum has been immensely helpful while we were building our new home. Hope you can help us sell our old one.

10 Little Rock Carpet Cleaners and Upholstery Cleaners