"workinprogress" wrote in message
...
I'm preparing to sell my house. It's a modest dwelling, 2br 1 bath. My
kitchen cabinets are slab particle board with a thin veneer. They look
"ok". Some parts have the veneer starting to come off if you look
closely,
which a prospective buyer probably would. The bathroom vanity looks worse
as moisture has taken it's tool on the particle board; I'll probably just
replace that outright.

I'm just trying to get a feel for which direction I should go in the
kitchen. I've heard of cabinet refacing and if that would make it look
decent at a lower cost I'd go with that. I think I could install
everything
myself even if I got all new cabinets. My main goal is that the house
shows
well enough without me having to spend thousands of dollars that I won't
get
back on resale.



First things first: Interview some realtors, and pick one who will be your
selling agent. He or she should be able to offer some guidance. When I was
looking at houses, I saw quite a few upgraded kitchens that were obviously
done for the sole purpose of selling the house. While all the cabinets were
at least of acceptable quality, the choice of color & style was often not
what I would've chosen. It was impossible to negotiate big bucks with people
who'd spent time & money on these upgrades. It would've been easier if they
left in place the old built-in-place cabinets. At least that way, both
parties know what's worth what.

Visit some open houses, which I assume you have in your area. See what other
people have done to their kitchens. You'll be surprised to find that
although kitchens don't have to be palaces in order to sell the house, they
can't be disgusting, either. With that in mind, you might want to check the
yellow pages for places that work on countertops. You should be able to find
someone who can come out and reglue the cabinet laminate, unless it and the
underlying particle board are damaged.

I think you're better off adjusting the price of the house to take into
account the fact that the buyer will probably want to remodel the kitchen,
and be honest about it. Either that, or go over the top and do an amazing
design/remodel job on the room. Most sellers I saw did sort of a halfway
job - nice, new cabinets, but not much effort on the rest of the room.
Matter of fact, the house I bought is like this. If I stand in the kitchen
and turn around 360 degrees, it's like I'm seeing the work of 3 different
minds at work.

Bathroom: Your idea sounds good.