Irvine condo - renovations and improvements before selling?
Hi all,
We are planning to move to south county soon and after we plan to rent out our condo in Irvine for a shorter term lease before we go to sell. I think we would likely just do some minor renovation (maybe paint and carpet cleaning) before renting out but after the lease ends and the renters are out we would look to do some more renovation.
Just looking for suggestions on the most minimal renovations/updates/improvements we might want to consider as our place is dated.
It the original carpet from when I first moved in back in 2007 (I think the carpet was recently installed back when I moved in) throughout and has been kept up relatively well since then but it does show signs of wear. We don't wear shoes in the house though so it has held up well because of that I think. Other than that, white large subway tile in the kitchen, bathrooms and entries. A lot of original fixtures and lighting though. The kitchen we repainted and had most of the appliances updated. The bathrooms have the original vanities, lighting, tubs and bathtub tile walls - most of the faucets were changed out along with the toilets when I first moved in but some of the faucets are dingy now. The blinds are the older style cell shade/honeycomb shades - they're in OK condition. The windows are the original windows and some don't full close all the way. We just had a new water heater put in this past week as the prior one had issues. Furnace I think was put in by the previous owners possibly the same time the last water heater was installed (2005-2006?)
Again, just looking for the common things that will get us the best ROI in our area - nothing super fancy, expensive or anything that would take a long time to get done.
Seems flooring (vinyl tile in the bathroom, kitchen and entryways. And laminate in the common rooms and bedrooms) would go along way as well as a neutral color theme throughout like greige?
The kitchen and living room are separated by a pocket door - I've seen a number of other units remove the pocket door and open that space up to give a more open look, so I'm considering doing that too. As well as adding cabinet and drawer pulls. As far as the bathrooms, not sure if it would be worth putting in new vanities, mirrors, corian walls around the tub and curved shower curtain bars or whatever.
Another factor I'm concerned about down the road especially with selling (and even renting!) is the noise from the upstairs neighbors - the walls/ceilings are thin here and it doesn't help that a prior owner for the upstairs unit installed hardwood flooring (and without very good padding) throughout. So you can pretty much hear it whenever someone is walking around up there and the footsteps are pretty loud even if the person isn't necessarily 'heavily walking' - not sure if that will majorly detract from a sale or not.