Getting the house ready to sell

[dawnwes]

can be SO frustrating!

Our kitchen window is a bay window/garden window thing. One of the panes broke and we were going to replace it......not so easy........it is completely made of wood and the wood has been leaking and yup, now rotted.

The entire thing needs replacing......SO......

I find out a couple of things:

1. It is a custom made size and there is no such pre-made window.

2. Garden windows start at around $1,000 for the window itself and the website says to anticipate an additional $1,000-$2,500 to install. And that is for a STANDARD pre-made window.

3. My husband is so pressed for time that each of these stupid things that pops up could set us back another 2 weeks for each one if we don't hire it out.

So:

We will have the window guy come out and give us a quote on a bay window AND a standard flat window. Either way, I think it will be quite expensive because they will need to re-frame it custom to make a standard window size fit.

This is just a VENT........

and yes, it is bad enough for an inspector to find, and no, we didn't spend this much time getting the house as nice as it is to sell the house "as is" and lose a bunch of money.

So, we will suck it up. But it stinks.

[ua_guy]

"Plan B" might be to waltz into Home Depot or Lowe's and check out what they get for a custom-sized window. That would save the work of re-framing the opening and possible interior drywall work as well. They also do installs, or, you can hire someone to install it. Especially if you can go vinyl, things get really cheap!

We ordered a double-paned vinyl window, low-e, with two sliders in a custom size of 3' x 12' with two sliders (with screens!) for something like $450.

[msomnipotent]

How big is this window??? I had 6 windows replaced two months ago for $4,000. One was a bay window with rotting wood, but it counted as 3 windows to them. I just ordered another one this morning. I thought it was expensive at $1,500 installed, and it is 90x60". All of them were custom made. I'm not sure if it will be the same for you, but all the window companies I contacted said they take 4-6 weeks to make windows now. That is much better than the 8-12 weeks the windows I ordered in September took.

I'm getting the "Just put it on the market and see if people complain" lectures from everyone. Our windows were so bad that my hair blew while sitting on the couch, and rain would pour down. I never should have let my husband install those blinds. He drilled into the flashing or something, so the installers said. I'm sure people would notice. And then there is refinishing the wood floors, redoing the shower, and on and on! Not counting the windows, we are easily looking at $8,000 to $10,000 in costs. I'm in an area that buyers expect turn-key condition. They won't even paint if they don't like the colors.

[dawnwes]

The guy coming tomorrow is from Lowe's, so I will see what he will say.

I think the window is 43"x41" or some such oddity. And there are cabinets on either side so we can't go bigger.

[creditcardfree]

I'm getting the "Just put it on the market and see if people complain" lectures from everyone. Our windows were so bad that my hair blew while sitting on the couch, and rain would pour down. I never should have let my husband install those blinds. He drilled into the flashing or something, so the installers said. I'm sure people would notice. And then there is refinishing the wood floors, redoing the shower, and on and on! Not counting the windows, we are easily looking at $8,000 to $10,000 in costs. I'm in an area that buyers expect turn-key condition. They won't even paint if they don't like the colors.

Well you could do that...just put it on the market. But I think you are right, most buyers want move in ready. Although, I've sold two houses in less than four years. Both had teen bedrooms with really bright colors, orange and teal. Other rooms were neutral however.

I'd go with the cheapest flat window because I would guess a garden window will end up with similar problems down the line for the next person. It has got to be the cheapest way. And definitely run to the local hardware store and see what they can estimate for you.

Hang in there! It is a bumpy road to sell a house.

[dawnwes]

Well you could do that...just put it on the market. But I think you are right, most buyers want move in ready. Although, I've sold two houses in less than four years. Both had teen bedrooms with really bright colors, orange and teal. Other rooms were neutral however.

I'd go with the cheapest flat window because I would guess a garden window will end up with similar problems down the line for the next person. It has got to be the cheapest way. And definitely run to the local hardware store and see what they can estimate for you.

Hang in there! It is a bumpy road to sell a house.

Well, the one we will put in will not be wood, because I can't find any!

All of our windows are wood, but I think the kitchen replacement will have to be vinyl.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Hire it out. I could paint if i didn't have kids. With kids I hired someone to pain because we didn't have the luxury of time to paint.

[dawnwes]

Update:

Yeah, vinyl won't work. The entire house is cedar sided with wood windows. I was thinking since the kitchen has no other windows, it wouldn't matter but I didn't take into consideration what the outside would look like.

To get vinyl (which we found out is all they have) the quote is $2,300 for a flat window and $3,300 for a garden window.

The problem is that the opening is a custom size, so they would need to build something around it to make it fit.

The above quotes are without paint or finish.

We are going to opt for DH to just replace the rotted wood and rebuild. It may set us back a weekend or two for the sale of the house, but will cost less than $200.

THIS is why we rarely hire out. It is literally 10 times the price to get stuff done.

[snafu]

dawnwes, is it reasonable to hire a handyman to work with DH, removing the current window and framing, removing the rotted frame, building a new, custom frame, adding insulation, re installing and painting to co ordinate inside and out? There is cost but it will likely help with the sale and there is significant anticipated return. I too believe that current buyers want 'move-in ready' since it's such an enormous, long term commitment. Homes that are in need of work seem to languish on the market as buyers are blind to their potential.

[dawnwes]

we have had some HORRIBLE luck with handymen.

They don't show up
They ruin what they are working on
They don't finish on time

We have never, never, never had a good one yet.

The only person we have hired that we have liked is an outdoor guy and he has fixed our front wood porch, so he may be a possibility.

The problem really is that DH knows how to do all of this stuff and does it well. He is a perfectionist and so handymen don't work well for him.

Although I will also say the last guy we hired for inside work was HORRIBLE and really botched some things and caused more damage to the house.

After him, we asked three handymen to come out and give us quotes. One never showed. Two came but never got back to us with a quote. I assume they didn't want the job.

Before him we had two who came out, gave us quotes, but then never came to do the work.

I am telling you, it is SO frustrating.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

What we were up against was time. If we had delayed another week or two it would have delayed closing on time for us. We needed a buyer the first weekend and got it. We also wanted to close specifically end of June.

I've found that too sometimes with people. You have to get names from friends, angie's list, even bulletin boards of Ace Hardware and see who will come out. I had less than 6 weeks to get our house painted. I used someone who was a little more expensive but could get the job done in time. Guy I used had a aerial boom, sounds nuts but our house was 4 stories on a hill. It was not an easy or cheap job.

I had to do the foundation repair in less than 7 weeks with city approval and stamp from engineer. Again I was on the phone calling non stop for days. Pretty much I was leaving messages and chasing engineers and contractors. The same thing happened with our parking pad and retaining wall issues 10 years before.

Contractors are never easy to get in good times. During the recession in 2008-2012 my friends said the deals she got on work done was ridiculous. She called the same painter and he quoted her 3x what she paid to paint her house in 2015 from 2009. He said the market then was everyone had no spare money. Now stand in line and bid.

[dawnwes]

What we were up against was time. If we had delayed another week or two it would have delayed closing on time for us. We needed a buyer the first weekend and got it. We also wanted to close specifically end of June.

I've found that too sometimes with people. You have to get names from friends, angie's list, even bulletin boards of Ace Hardware and see who will come out. I had less than 6 weeks to get our house painted. I used someone who was a little more expensive but could get the job done in time. Guy I used had a aerial boom, sounds nuts but our house was 4 stories on a hill. It was not an easy or cheap job.

I had to do the foundation repair in less than 7 weeks with city approval and stamp from engineer. Again I was on the phone calling non stop for days. Pretty much I was leaving messages and chasing engineers and contractors. The same thing happened with our parking pad and retaining wall issues 10 years before.

Contractors are never easy to get in good times. During the recession in 2008-2012 my friends said the deals she got on work done was ridiculous. She called the same painter and he quoted her 3x what she paid to paint her house in 2015 from 2009. He said the market then was everyone had no spare money. Now stand in line and bid.

WE DID!!!!!!!!!!

Two of them were from our CHURCH.

Another (the one who did such a bad job) was a referral from a friend who praised his work. Turns out she didn't realize the work he did for her was contracted out, for me, he did the work himself.

One was from our soccer team.

[FLA]

one of the benefits of my memory loss is I have pretty much lost the prepping, packing and selling of my house, nor the move to here. I don't remember packing or unpacking a single thing. You could offer me $100 to tell you what I sold my house for and I couldn't begin to tell you. I do remember having to paint the whole house white and I thought it looked terrible with no color and that I had just replaced every single inch of flooring for 11k the year before the move because not staying hadn't entered my head then.

I suspect this was a good chunk of memory to lose, lol

[disneysteve]

I do remember having to paint the whole house white and I thought it looked terrible with no color

That would annoy me, too. It bothered me when we were house hunting. Everything we looked at was white. I know why they say that but to me it became a negative because I knew we'd have to paint all of those walls when we moved in because there's no way I'd live like that.

The house we actually bought was one of the few that hadn't painted everything white. Rooms were yellow and blue and beige. They had color and character and were ready to move into without needing to be finished first.

[bjl584]

80% of people decide if they want to by your house before they walk through the front door.

Talk to a realtor and they'll tell you to focus on the landscaping and on the entrance way of the house. Curb appeal seems to matter more with people than anything else.

Stinks about your window dilemma. Could you just leave it broke and eat the potential lose that you'll take on the sale. It could be a break even scenario. Come up with $3000 to fix the window, or leave it broke and sell the house for $3000 less. It would save you time and aggravation.