What Carpet To Buy When Selling Your House
It's time to sell your house but your carpet has seen better days. It can be a worthwhile investment to replace well worn carpet before selling your home. The last thing you want is for prospective buyers to be distracted from seeing your homes natural beauty by old beat up carpet. Ideally the carpet will be a non-issue. It will neither draw nor repulse their eyes as you want them to focus on the home itself.
Unless you’re selling a mansion in Beverly Hills you probably don’t need to install a high end carpet like Fabrica. What you want is a decent quality carpet in a neutral color. Beiges, tans, and off-whites are good. We recommend purchasing a standard textured cut pile. Avoid bold colors and patterned carpet. Potential home buyers should note that your carpet is in good shape and then move on to viewing other aspects of your home. The last thing you want to happen is for them to be distracted by your carpet. You may love a thick burgundy colored shag carpet but that doesn’t mean everyone will. Stick with simple neutral tones and generic looking cut piles that will work well with a variety of wall coverings and furniture.
As far as carpet quality is concerned, in an ideal world we’d all have more money than we know what to do with. Unfortunately that isn’t the case for most of us. Considering you’re selling the home, I wouldn’t spring for the best carpet in terms of quality. Pick a middle of the road Mohawk or Shaw carpet with Scotchguard stain protection. Although we normally highly recommend Stainmaster, I wouldn’t worry about paying extra for Stainmaster or Nylon Tactess considering you won’t be around long enough to enjoy the benefits.
The typical home buyer only cares that the carpet looks nice and has some sort of stain protection. I would however suggest that you purchase an 8lb pad as visitors to your home will be able to feel the difference if you use a lesser weight pad. Don’t worry about upgrading the pad to one with a moisture barrier. Just pick a carpet that looks nice and will hold up for awhile.
In conclusion, if you’re planning on selling your home soon purchase a textured cut pile carpet with neutral tones. Don’t worry about buying top of the line carpet, but avoid the cheap stuff. You want potential home buyers to be assured that the carpet is in good shape but to not be distracted by it. For more information on purchasing carpet read our guide on How To Choose Carpet.