Do Decorating Allowances Help or Hurt the Seller?

Greater Indianapolis Real Estate Podcast with Shawna Brooks

When selling your home, I always advise against offering allowances for things like flooring, painting, and decorating. Here's why.

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Today, I wanted to talk about painting, carpeting, and decorating allowances when selling a house in the Indianapolis market.
We often see sellers who realize that their carpet or kitchen flooring, for example, is outdated or needs to be replaced. Many times, these sellers will opt to give a flooring allowance. However, I would advise you not to allow any sort of flooring allowance or decorating allowance up front.
Why? When you make an offer like that, it's like making an up-front offer to your kids—they just don't appreciate it. Secondly, when a buyer walks through your home and sees 2,000 square feet that needs new flooring, the amount of money they will think it takes to replace all of it will be much larger than the actual number it will cost.

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Buyers will always assume flooring replacement will cost more than it actually would.

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Instead, have your Realtor call a flooring person to come out and replace the flooring up front. If you replace it up front, it will not only cost you less than the amount a buyer would have asked for, but it will also help your home sell faster and for more money.
When we sell a home and say there's a carpeting allowance, people tend to automatically assume the house has filthy orange shag carpet when in reality, it might not be that bad to begin with.
If you have any other questions about selling your house, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help!