What Should I Fix Before Selling My Las Vegas Home, and What Should I Leave Alone?

Almost every seller I meet has a list. Some of it is worth doing. A lot of it is money you will not get back, and some of it is money that actually slows the sale down.

Here is how I sort a seller’s list, in the order I would spend.

This is the part nobody argues with and everybody skips.

The sticking door. The running toilet. The outlet that does not work. The sprinkler head spraying the wall. The garage door that needs a shoulder. The cracked switch plate. The screen with the hole in it.

None of these cost much. All of them cost you when a buyer walks through, because buyers do not add up small items. They form an impression. A house with ten small things undone makes them wonder what else was skipped, and that question shows up later as a lower offer or a longer repair list after the inspection.

Do this first, and do all of it. It is the best return on any dollar you will spend.

I wrote a whole piece on what a Las Vegas inspection turns up. The short version: the air conditioner, the roof, the water heater, stucco cracks, pool equipment, and what our water does to fixtures.

You do not need to replace any of those. You need to take the surprise out of them.

Service the AC and keep the receipt. Get a roofer to look at an older roof and either fix the slipped tiles or write a note saying it is sound. Strap the water heater if it is not strapped. Fix the drip line that is spraying rock instead of plants.

A buyer who knew about the older system before writing the offer usually accepts it. A buyer who finds it on page four of the report asks for a credit. Same house, different outcome, and the difference is whether you dealt with it first.

If you do one cosmetic thing, paint. Fresh, neutral, the same color through the main rooms. It makes a house read as cared-for faster than anything else, and it photographs well, which matters because your photos are the first showing.

Then light. Replace every dead bulb, match the color of the bulbs in a room, and open every blind for photos and showings. Dark houses feel smaller and older than they are.

Then clean, and I mean the clean you would do if your mother-in-law were coming to stay for a month. Windows inside and out. Grout. The top of the fridge. Baseboards. Buyers open closets and look under sinks. Empty the closets by half and box up what you do not use. You are moving anyway.

Trim what has grown wild. Replace dead plants with living ones. Fresh rock or bark in the beds. A working irrigation clock set to the season. A front door that is clean or freshly painted.

Do not tear out the yard. Do not start a grass-to-desert conversion in the months before listing; a half-finished yard is the worst thing to photograph, and new plantings look thin for a season. If you are a year out, that is a different conversation.

Here is where I save sellers real money.

The kitchen remodel. Buyers want a clean, working kitchen. They do not need your idea of their kitchen. New hardware, a fresh coat on the cabinets if they are tired, a new faucet, clean grout: yes. Tearing it out: no. You will not get it back, and you will lose a month.

The bathroom remodel. Same logic. Re-caulk, replace the worn fixtures, fix the fan, clean or replace the shower door. Stop there.

New flooring throughout. If the carpet is stained and smells, replace the carpet in that room with something simple. Do not re-floor a house to sell it. Buyers who want different floors will change them anyway, and buyers who do not care will not pay for yours.

The pool resurfacing, the new roof, the new AC. If they work, they are older systems that work. Price the house with that in mind and disclose it. A credit at closing is almost always less than the cost of doing it yourself in a hurry, and it lets the buyer choose.

Anything that is a matter of taste. Accent walls, custom fixtures, the outdoor kitchen you always wanted. Not now.

Before you spend on anything, ask: will this change the offer, or just make me feel better about the house?

Fixing what is broken changes the offer. Taking the surprise out of the inspection changes the offer. Paint and light and clean change how fast the first offer comes. Almost everything else is for you, and you are leaving.

Call 702-881-6562 or email JArendt658@gmail.com. Tell me the age of the house and roughly when you want to list.

I will walk it with you, room by room, and tell you which items on your list I would do, which I would skip, and in what order. If the honest answer is that your house is ready as it stands, you will hear that too.

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John Arendt, Realtor, has sold homes across the Las Vegas valley for 20 years, in Henderson, Summerlin, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Boulder City and North Las Vegas.

This article is general information about preparing a home for sale, not a contractor’s or inspector’s opinion. Every house is different.