The house needs work and you are trying to decide whether to do it or sell it as it stands. Almost every answer you will find online is really an advertisement, including, if we are honest, most of what a company like ours publishes. So here is the arithmetic instead, with the numbers you have to find yourself and the three cases where the answer is obvious.
This article covers how to work the sum, which repairs actually return their cost, the ones that never do, and how to tell which situation you are in before anybody makes you an offer.
We buy houses as they stand, so we profit when you choose one branch of this decision. Read it knowing that. We have tried to write the version we would want a member of our own family to read, which means it tells you to repair and list more often than it tells you to call us.
The sum, written out
Every version of this decision reduces to one comparison. Do the arithmetic before you take anybody's advice, including ours.
Route A, repair and list. Take the likely sale price after the work. Take away the cost of the work. Take away commission and closing costs. Take away the holding costs for however long the work and the sale take: mortgage, tax, insurance, utilities. Take away something for the repairs a buyer's inspector will still find.
Route B, sell as it stands. Take the offer. Take away closing costs, which on a cash sale are usually lower and sometimes nil. There are no holding costs beyond the short timetable and no repair spend.
The gap between those two figures is what the decision is actually about. Everything else is noise.
Our net proceeds calculator handles Route A, our holding cost calculator handles the waiting, and our repair cost estimator gives you a starting position on the work before anybody quotes you.
The number people get wrong is the holding cost, because it feels like money they are spending anyway. Four months of mortgage, tax, insurance and utilities on a house you are not living in is a real figure, and on a modest Tulsa house it frequently exceeds the cost of the repairs being argued about.
Which repairs actually return their cost
Roughly, and in the order we would spend money if it were ours.
Things that stop a lender approving the loan. These are not improvements, they are the price of having a normal buyer at all. A roof at the end of its life, an electrical hazard, no working heat, active water ingress, a failed septic. Fixing these does not raise the price so much as it widens the pool of people who can buy, and our article on what a home inspector checks covers what gets flagged.
Cleaning, clearing and smell. The cheapest money in this entire article. Our article on smoke and pet odour covers why.
Paint, in neutral colours, where the existing paint is bad. Not where it is merely dated.
Landscaping the front, modestly. The photograph decides whether anybody views it.
Small visible defects in quantity. Ten small things a buyer notices reads as neglect and licenses a low offer. Fixing them is cheap and it changes the story of the house.
The ones that do not
Kitchens and bathrooms, done properly, immediately before a sale. You rarely get the money back, you certainly do not get the disruption back, and there is a real risk the buyer would have chosen differently anyway.
Anything that will not be visible or reported. If neither the buyer nor their inspector will see it, and it is not a safety matter, it is not part of this decision.
Upgrades beyond the street. The best house on the road is the one that sits, and our article on why appraisals come in low covers what happens when a property outruns its comparables.
Work you will manage badly. This is not a joke. A project run from another state, or around a full-time job, or through an estate with three siblings disagreeing, routinely costs double the quote and four times the time.
The three cases where the answer is obvious
Repair and list, clearly, when the work is defined and quoted, you have the money and the time, and the house is otherwise ordinary. This is most houses. You will net more than any cash buyer will pay, and it is not close.
Sell as it stands, clearly, when the work is structural or systemic rather than cosmetic, when you do not have the funds and cannot borrow them, when a deadline you do not control is running, or when the property is one you cannot supervise. Our page on selling a house that needs repairs covers that case.
Somewhere in between, which is where most people who read this actually are, the deciding factor is usually not the money but the management. Ask yourself honestly whether you are going to run this project, or whether it is going to sit half-finished while the holding costs accumulate. That question has decided more of these than the arithmetic has.
The middle option people forget
It is not a binary, and treating it as one is how sellers overspend.
Do the lender-blocking items only, then list. Fix the roof and the electrics, leave the kitchen from 1994 exactly as it is, price for it, and market to somebody who wants to choose their own kitchen. You get an ordinary buyer at an ordinary price without funding a renovation you will not recover.
Our page on how to sell a house as-is in Oklahoma covers what as-is actually means and who can buy one, and our article on what to do with an inspection report covers separating what to fix from what to price.
That middle route is the right answer more often than either extreme, and almost nobody publishes it because it does not sell anything.
Where we come in
Plainly: we are Route B, and Route B is worse for most people. A cash buyer takes the repair risk, the holding risk and the resale risk, and prices for all three. That discount is the product. When the work is defined and you can manage it, you should not be paying us for risks you are capable of carrying yourself.
Where we are the right answer: structural or systemic problems you cannot fund, a timetable you do not control, a property you cannot supervise, or a situation where the emotional cost of managing a renovation is not something you are willing to carry. That last one is legitimate and we will not pretend otherwise.
Our page comparing a cash offer against listing with an agent sets out the arithmetic with our own numbers in it. Run it before you ring anybody.
The short version
- Work the sum: price after work, minus work, minus commission and closing, minus holding costs, against the as-is offer minus its closing costs
- Holding cost is the number people get wrong, and on a modest house four months of it frequently exceeds the repairs being argued about
- Spend first on what stops a lender approving, then on cleaning and smell, then paint and the front
- Do not renovate kitchens and bathrooms immediately before selling
- Do not fix what nobody will see or report, unless it is a safety matter
- In the middle case the deciding factor is management, not money
- The forgotten option: fix only the lender-blocking items, then list and price for the rest
- A cash discount is the price of somebody else carrying risks you may be able to carry yourself
Frequently asked questions
Should I fix my house or sell it as is?
Work the sum first: likely price after the work, minus the work, minus commission and closing costs, minus holding costs, against the as-is offer minus its closing costs. The gap between those two figures is the decision.
What number do people get wrong?
Holding cost, because it feels like money they are spending anyway. Four months of mortgage, tax, insurance and utilities on a house you are not living in frequently exceeds the repairs being argued about.
Which repairs are worth doing?
In order: anything that stops a lender approving a loan, then cleaning and clearing and smell, then paint where the existing paint is bad, then modest work on the front, then small visible defects in quantity.
Why do lender-blocking repairs come first?
Because they are not improvements. They widen the pool of people who can buy the house at all, which matters more than the price effect.
Should I renovate the kitchen before selling?
Rarely. You seldom get the money back, you never get the disruption back, and the buyer might have chosen differently anyway.
What about repairs nobody will see?
If neither the buyer nor their inspector will see it, and it is not a safety matter, it is not part of this decision.
Can I over-improve a house?
Yes. The best house on the street is the one that sits, and an appraisal will struggle when a property outruns its comparables.
When is repairing clearly right?
When the work is defined and quoted, you have the money and the time, and the house is otherwise ordinary. That is most houses, and you will net more than any cash buyer pays.
When is selling as-is clearly right?
When the work is structural or systemic rather than cosmetic, you cannot fund it, a deadline you do not control is running, or the property is one you cannot supervise.
What if I am somewhere in between?
Then the deciding factor is usually management rather than money. Ask honestly whether you will run this project or whether it will sit half-finished while costs accumulate.
Is there a middle option?
Yes, and it is forgotten constantly: fix only the lender-blocking items, then list and price for the rest. You get an ordinary buyer without funding a renovation you cannot recover.
Why does nobody publish that middle option?
Because it does not sell anything. It is the right answer more often than either extreme.
How do I estimate the repair cost?
Get three written quotes from contractors who have been at the property. Our repair cost estimator gives you a starting position so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.
Does a cash buyer pay less because the house needs work?
A cash buyer takes the repair risk, the holding risk and the resale risk, and prices for all three. That discount is the product.
So when should I not sell to a cash buyer?
When the work is defined and you can manage it. You should not be paying somebody to carry risks you are capable of carrying yourself.
Is running the project from out of state realistic?
It is the situation where projects most reliably cost double the quote and take four times the time. Be honest with yourself about it.
What if siblings disagree about the work?
That is the same problem in a different form. A project nobody has authority to run is a project that stalls, and the holding costs run regardless.
Does cleaning really matter that much?
It is the cheapest money in this whole subject. Smell and clutter change a buyer's reading of the entire property before they look at anything else.
Should I paint everything?
Paint where the existing paint is bad. Dated is not the same as bad, and repainting a sound room in a neutral colour rarely repays the cost.
How much should I trust an as-is offer?
Compare it against the full Route A arithmetic rather than against the asking price of repaired houses. Those are different numbers.
Do you buy houses that need work?
Yes, and that is exactly why you should run the sum before calling us. On most houses the listing wins.
What is the first thing to do?
Get three repair quotes and work out your monthly holding cost. Those two numbers decide almost every version of this.
We buy houses as they stand, so we profit when you choose one branch of this decision. Read it knowing that. We have tried to write the version we would want a member of our own family to read, which means it tells you to repair and list more often than it tells you to call us.