Did I Leave Money on the Table When Selling One of My Condos?
I recently wrote about selling my condos. When prepping my condo at the Meritage for sale one of the things I debated upgrading was countertops and the flooring, among other things:
I debated re-doing the countertops, they were black granite tile after all! But after consulting with my real estate agent friends, they didn’t feel it was worth the money and that I’d have no problem selling the condo as-is. The other upgrade we could have done would have been to do hardwoods throughout, but again, didn’t feel like it was worth the time, effort and money.
It turns out that I might have made a mistake! :)
Shortly after my condo sold, the neighboring unit, unit #503, which has an identical floor plan, hit the market and sold for $660k. $50,000 more than what I sold mine for. For units with identical floor plans, what were the differences? #503 had the following upgrades:
- Hardwoods throughout
- Built-ins in the den had been removed
- Slab countertops
- Upgraded lighting
- Gas fireplace
- Upgraded bathroom countertops and tile flooring
- Closet organizers
Could I have done all those upgrades for less than $50k? Likely. Though, it likely would have been very hard to add a gas fireplace, that was an upgrade at the time of purchase. Given what I know now, what I have gone back and done it? Maybe? It definitely would have been a large time and energy commitment to tackle all those upgrades.
