"John A. Weeks III" writes:

In article .com,
"Kirk" wrote:

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?

In a slow housing market like we have now, the issue is not so
much recovering your money, but rather, making any kind of sale.
Anything you can do to make your house show will is critical.
You don't want to give someone an excuse to move on when there
are so many other houses on the market and so many of those are
cutting their prices trying to make any kind of sale.

OTOH, some buyers might not have any interest at all in new carpet, or
prefer to choose their own -- maybe they want something other than
neutral cream color, for instance. Or hardwoods. If it were me, I'd
just get it cleaned and tell potential buyers that replacing the
carpet before closing or giving them a cash credit at closing to do it
themselves is negotiable.

-Sandra the cynic