"Kirk" writes:

The carpet in our current house is not great, but not horrible
either. It is a neutral cream color, but is worn with some
imperfections around vents, bannister, etc. We could have it cleaned
and it would look good enough to sell, but not great. If we plan on
selling withing 6-12 months and we replace the carpet soon, will we be
very likely to recoup that money in resale value?

The smell and look of new carpet will definitely show your house
better and eliminate another reminder that folks aren't looking at a
new house.

As to whether you'll recoup it, if you find a local independent low
overhead carpet installer that works directly with a mill, you should
be able to do well with it with a higher sale price and shorter market
time. An installer like this can install great looking carpet for
less than Home Depot will even sell the raw carpet to ya! $20/sqyd
installed shouldn't be too difficult to get. If you have furniture to
get out of their way, might have to add a buck or so for that.

--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/