Selling A House With Bad Carpet - Clean It Or Replace It?

How To Sell A House With Bad Carpet

Our real estate team recently researched just how difficult it can be to sell a house with bad carpet.

We interviewed homeowners, real estate agents and carpet installers to better understand the challenge at hand.

This article will break out all of the details and feedback we received, along with some recommended approaches to sell your house with ugly carpet.

We will cover:

Why carpeting might be the one thing holding back the sale of your house.
What to replace bad carpeting with.
How much it costs to replace ugly or smelly carpeting.
Whether you should replace the carpeting or just leave it and sell your house as is.

Let’s begin!

Forget About Carpet and Sell Your House Today: Do you own a home with old, stained and smelly carpet? We can buy it from you “as is”.

MAIN TAKEAWAYS:

Carpeting accounts for 45% of the total flooring market in the US. This number has dropped in recent years despite many existing homes built between 1980 and 2010 still predominantly used carpet.
Carpets are still used in new construction, but there has been a surge in LVP and hardwood flooring preferences from new home buyers going into 2025.
It’s better to offer a closing credit for carpet replacements vs. replacing the carpet in your house before selling it. Less headache, less money and better results for the buyer.

Does Carpet Hurt Resale Value?

Every day carpet becomes more and more obsolete.

Which makes this question more and more relevant:

How does a carpeted floor impact the resale value of your house?

Although carpeted floors make up just one component of a home’s overall value, it’s important to be mindful that flooring is one of the largest physical spaces in a building or house. Having the right color, look, smell, and sound flooring can be a deal maker or deal breaker.

There are instances where older carpeting, or bad carpets in general, can deter buyers or prevent them from offering a a fair price for the home.

But don’t give up hope yet. Newer and cleaner carpets can still be an attractive feature in a house:

How To Tell If Your Carpet Hurts Your Home’s Value

I’m going to cut to the chase on this one.

If the carpet in your home is any of the following, then it’s hurting the value:

Smelly
Loose in corners
Dirty
Stained
Frayed
Worn
Dated looking
Shaggy

If you’re going to sell your house with carpeting, you must be sure that it is clean or brand new. A lot of folks are intimidated by this, but replacing carpeting before selling your house is not always a large undertaking. Of course, it depends on the size of the space and type of carpet, but you will almost always get more for you dollar in resale if you decide to do it.

The question then becomes, what do I replace my ugly carpet with?

Best Carpet For Resale Value

The best choice for carpet in your home, in terms of resale, is going to be a brand-new nylon loop cut in a color that is neutral to dark.

After countless interviews with homeowners and real estate professionals, we’ve found that keeping it simple with carpet replacement is the best way to go.

No need to statement pieces or obscure designs and colors. Keep it simple!

Sellers can often mistake their preferences for other buyer’s preferences when replacing carpets, when in fact the whole plan is to sell the house anyways – so you might as well appeal to the masses of buyers.

Avoid patterns, shag and any other material choices that are less common.

Unless you are negotiating carpets as part of a deal with a buyer and have their colors and styles, stick to the basic selections.

Sell My House With Ugly Carpet

Now, let’s suppose you own a home with carpeting throughout. All the rooms, hallways, closets, etc.

If the carpet smells or is stained, you probably are getting a bit worried that it might make selling the place difficult. And it very well could.

Here are some tips for selling a house with ugly carpet.

First off, have it cleaned.

For just about $200 you can drastically improve the look, feel and smell of your flooring.

The next step is to get a second opinion from a real estate professional. It some desirable neighborhoods, it won’t matter what your floors like look. Buyers will buy it anyways – bad carpet and all.

Start by calling a professional home buyer or realtor to get a second opinion on your ugly carpet.

The last tip is to evaluate if you need to place the carpets. We go into much more detail below on how to calculate the cost and make that kind of decision.

Selling A Home With Carpet That Smells

If you have a house you need to sell but the carpet smells, then your ugly carpet problem just got a whole lot worse.

So much of what buyers care about when they walk through a home is everything intangible:

How does the space make them feel?
Can they picture their family living there?
Are the neighbors nice?
What does it smell like?

And if your house smells because your carpets are in bad shape, then this will leave a lasting impression on buyers that ultimately push them away from making an offer.

Nobody wants to live in a house that smells like animal waste, cigarettes or mold. And carpets are like sponges, they absorb all of those things.

And for that reason alone, it is always a good idea to replace old or smelly carpets in your home.

Check out this reddit post describing just how difficult a bad smell can make for selling a home:

Selling Your House With Stained Carpet

What comes to mind when you walk into a room and see that the carpet has a huge dark stain on it?

For me, and many of the others that I interviewed, we all start thinking about what caused that stain. And having our minds wander like that is never a good thing if we are trying to put an offer together.

Nobody wants to buy a house with carpets that are stained or discolored. If you need to sell your house and your carpets are this bad, you should either:

Steam clean the area or
Rip out the carpets

The odds that the next owner rips them out is very high anyways, so why not just bit the bullet now and do it for them? They may even offer your more when selling the house.

Should You Replace Carpet Before Selling Your House?

You asked and we polled the professionals.

Overwhelming the majority of people thought that it would be wise to do something with the bad carpet before selling the house:

Why?

Doing something is always better than doing nothing. You can rip them out, clean them or replace them with new hardwood flooring.

It all depends on your budget and objectives. Here’s how I would approach making this decision:

Do Houses Sell Better With Carpet Or Hardwood Floors?

My team and I scoured the internet to find out what the data would tell us on flooring preferences. It turns out, according to builders and flooring associations, hardwood flooring continues to lead the market in 2024:

how to sell a home with old carpet that smells

Hardwood floors have been around for centuries.

Even under your tile and carpet floors, you probably have an original hardwood floor waiting to be revived.

The numbers don’t lie – carpet has had it’s time and many homeowners now prefer harder and more durable surfaces for foot traffic. Carpets are porous and absorb stains, odors and other unpleasant things.

How Much Does It Cost To Replace Carpet?

In 2024, it’s going to cost you around $6 -$8 per square foot to replace your carpet flooring.

There’s a lot that goes into that number.

One being the location you are in. Some areas have more contractors available and lower prices. Other more densely populated areas may not.

Another factor is the material you are planning to replace the carpet with. Nicer hardwood floors would put you at the higher end of that range vs. something like laminate.

The last driver of cost on a project like this would be the size and shape of the area you are replacing carpet in. Lots of angle and cutouts can be more work for installing newer floors.

Benefits Of Replacing Carpet Before Selling

By now, you probably have a really good idea of what comes with replacing your carpets.

The largest benefit is your ability to ask for more when you sell your house. New flooring can go a long way with market value of your property.

Another great outcome from replacing your bad carpet before you sell is that it is one less thing for the buyer to negotiate on. No more stains, smells or ripped carpet seems resulting in thousands of dollars off your list price!

Cons Of Replacing Carpet Before Selling

With all of the benefits being on the outcome of new floors, you can see where the downside comes in:

Ripping out bad carpet is expensive.
It required you to install new flooring over top.
Coordinating with contractors is difficult.
Sometimes new flooring may not have a huge return on your investment.
It can become just one more headache to resolve before selling.

Many properties we purchase with really bad carpets are ones that also have other major problems (mold, asbestos, wallpaper, etc.). If you own a house with bad carpeting and would like to sell your home “as is”, then my team and I can give you a free, no obligation offer:

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Sell Your Home With Ugly Or Smelly Carpet

Let’s go right to the facts.

You have a house you want to sell. It had bad carpet.

What’s the best way to do this?

Option 1 – Clean The Carpets

Depending on how bad the carpets really are, you could always try to clean them.

Cleaning your carpets is the least invasive and least expensive option.

It might help you mitigate the smell or discoloration enough to get the house sold. However, if it doesn’t then you’re no better off.

Pro Tip: If you have bad carpet that is isolated to a certain spot or room, then there might be no harm in just trying to clean it and see if that work.

Option 2 – Replace The Carpets

If your bad carpet problem spans more than just one spot or room, then replacing it is probably a good option.

Here’s my suggestion:

Since you are already planning to sell your house, why not get a cash offer or talk to a realtor first before you rip out your carpets.

It all comes down to numbers. If you will get more money back by ripping and replacing, then maybe you should do that. But if it means you would only sell your house for $1,000 less then maybe save the money and headache by moving on to Option 3…

Option 3 – Sell Your House As Is

Doing nothing to your carpets is an option.

You can easily sell your house, bad carpets and all, without any cleaning, repairing or replacing altogether.

This is by and far the easiest approach.

If you own a home with bad carpets and need to sell it, then call us for a free cash offer.

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We can take care of your bad carpets for you.

Common Questions When Selling A Property With Bad Carpet

Q: Is carpet replacement an absolute must when selling a house?

A: It really depends on the condition and age of your carpet, as well as the demand for properties in your area. It would be wise to consult with a real estate agent or home buyer to determine if your bad carpet need replacing.

Q: What if I just have bad carpet in my living room?

A: Living rooms are a very common area to have dirty, stained carpet. Because it is a common area it endures much more wear and tear over the years. If you have carpet in your living room that smells or has lost its original carpet color, then you may want to consider cleaning or replacing it.

Q: Does carpet hurt resale value?

A: Brand new flooring can have a huge return on your investment from a resale perspective. If you decide to sell your house “as is” with bad carpets, then you are simply trading in the opportunity cost of that investment for speed and convenience of a quicker sale. Carpeting does impact resale value if it is dirty, smelly, stained and gross.

Q: Does carpeting affect appraisals?

A: It can. Appraisals compare your house to other similar ones nearby. If most of the homes were built around the same time, then it’s possible that they have similar finishes – carpet being one of them. However, if you have comparable homes in your area with hardwood floors, then carpet could call for an adjustment on the appraisal report thereby reducing the market value of your home.