Selling... carpet has huge stain

[lataraw]

Carpet in one room has huge stain. Not the best carpet otherwise but as a buyer I'd think it's ok for a while. No way stain will come out (tried everything), currently has a rug over it. Do we:

1 recarpet that one room (though it wouldn't match the rest)

2 recarpet whole house with something cheap but at least in good condition

3 make what we can of the floorboards under the carpet in that room and sell like that

4 leave the rug there for viewings and don't say anything if no one asks (obviously this feels sneaky, but quote to recarpet whole house was 3k and that would be a huge challenge right now)

Thanks

The house we purchased had a large rug down on a bare wooden floor covering a large piece of mdf where a hole had been cut out - people look under them so just leave it and declare on the form and tell the EA - you’ve then done the upfront thing

I cannot speak for all, but I imagine most people replace carpets fairly quickly anyway, just leave it but make sure people are aware it needs replacing, trying to sell presently and DW thinks we should replace pretty much all the carpets as one of the comments we had was viewer didn’t like that upstairs carpets were mismatched, I’m just not prepared to waste money on something they will almost certainly rip out regardless

This! Speak to your agent and I expect he'll say the same.

We sold my in laws house as it was, there were various stains on carpets, so buyer was aware that these would be left, but we asked if they wanted us to remove them before they moved in, but they didn’t want us to. The downstairs carpets were excellent quality and after a proper clean would definitely have been worthwhile, but upstairs really needed replacing.

We once bought a house that said the sitting room had a wooden floor in the blurb. They had a big rug down when we viewed. When we moved in the rug was gone but we realised the wood only went round the edge of the carpet. Underneath was bare. We complained that this had not been made obvious in the listing and the agent paid for us to have to room refloored. I am not sure if they recouped this from the sellers or not but I would say to declare the stain or change the carpet so you are not put in the position of maybe having to shell out once the new buyers move in.

@ApolloandDaphne that sounds a bit different, we certainly won't be advertising the carpet as a feature and will make sure it's mentioned at viewing that they'd need replacing

Same. I don't understand why you'd even consider to re-carpet the whole house unless there is a hole in the carpet in every room?

Most people will want their own carpets so I would leave it as it is but when you move out leave the rug or buy another cheap rug to sit in top
So at least the new people can walk on the clean rug until they put their own carpets in.

I’d do this. It doesn’t all have to match! You can find something that tones, surely. Unless the other carpets are awful, don’t bother recarpeting the whole house - it’s expensive for you and the buyers might just rip it all out anyway so it’s wasteful.

That's fine then. I was just worried as some were suggesting to leave it and say nothing!

100% this

Leave the rug and tell any propspective buyer.

Hiding stuff like this was exactly what my sellers did, and I was really upset on moving day.

Either redo the room or leave the rug off so people can see what they're buying.

Do not recarpet. Leave rug or remove. Many, many people replace carpets on default causing incredible amounts of waste.

Take advice from your estate agent, but I would leave the rug, and ask the agent to make sure that all buyers are made aware of the stain, and price accordingly to allow for recarpeting that one room. Also put it on the F&F form that you will be leaving the rug because it covers the stain.

It would just be a waste of money to recarpet it as they could come in and rip it all out.

You can patch a carpet. Is it still for sale where you got it from originally, OR if small enough use a bit from inside a wardrobe or put radiator covers over the radiator and steal a bit from the edge. Make sure it’s facing the same direction, put it on top of stain and cut through patch and carpet with a sharp knife, glue in place.

Surely new flooring is an expense any new home owner may consider and prioritise as needed as part of moving into a new home. Personally I have always replaced any carpet in a new home.

Leave it as is. Covered with a rug. If you really feel it's eating you up inside, mention it to the estate agent and they can handle it on viewings.

I'd recarpet the one room, you can get really really cheap synthetic stuff. I once got some for £5 per m2, at carpets4less, it was actually fine. (even if the buyer will rip it out, it's important to present the house well for sale, - clean, tidy, uncluttered).

If it's a period house with decent enough floorboards, and you think you could DIY sanding/varnishing, then that'd be better, but paying someone to do it would be a lot more expensive than carpet.

Just leave the rug on the stain. The buyers will probably get new flooring anyway. It's not something I'd care about anyway.
When I moved here I ripped up all the new cheap and nasty carpet the last owner had put in to sell the house. It had no underlay or anything so I didn't want to keep it. So it was basically a waste of his money.

Ask the agent. They will tell you to keep the rug down.

Mention on F&F form if you’re feeling guilty about it. But it’s perfectly normal and the sort of thing that is to be found in every house (the shower attachment that leaks, the wobbly door handle, the moth-eaten carpet under the bed…). If it’s not structural, it’s just one of those things.

Leave the rug over it for viewings. You don't want to go to the faff or expense of replacing the carpet cheaply only for the new owner to rip it up anyway if it's not what they want.

It's absolutely not an issue that would stop a sale going through. Once an offer has been accepted you could mention it then and offer to replace cheaply or reduce the sale price by £300 or something as a contribution to a more expensive replacement.

In a similar situation we offered potential buyers we could either leave it as is or replace the flooring cheaply. They asked us to re-do it cheaply as they'd need the flooring functional in the room it was in (not carpet). So for about £200 we had it sorted.

This!

As a buyer, we almost immediately redid the carpet when we moved in and I think I would anywhere, so it's worth a shot starting off with this approach.

A ruined carpet would never put me off if I loved a house.

When we moved in to current house we found a large iron print burned into the bedroom carpet under a rug. Would have rather they just told us. Wouldn't have put us off but would have been nice to know for immediate budgeting on moving in.

I replaced the stairs and bedroom carpets before I moved from my previous house, but wish I hadn't wasted the money as I took a low offer anyway.