I appreciate all of the input from you and others. I do take a bit of offense at your assumption that my home is “dirty” and/or “greasy” and what appears to be an insinuation that we are lazy.
I didn’t think that any of this was relevant to my question, so I didn’t address it, but in response to your comments, my home is clean. We’ve done a lot to improve it in the 8 years that we’ve lived there. We put in new fencing, we rehabbed a broken outdoor kitchen, we put in a patio cover, we re-landscaped the front yard, we put in new pool equipment, we put in a new hot water heater, we put in new ceiling fans, we’ve done work on electrical, etc. etc. The house needed a lot of things when we bought it, many of which we’ve addressed. The kitchen needs a significant amount, something we’ve been saving to do. The cabinets are the original from when the house was built and are falling apart. It is not a matter of resurfacing and painting them. The carpet is old and worn, it is at the end of its life. The hardwood floors have been scuffed and stained as a result of us living our lives in the home. We’ve made a significant effort to manage our resources and address maintenance and improvement of the home in an efficient manner. We would continue to do so if we intended to continue living there.
We are moving because I am transferring within my company. It’s a good opportunity and we have family in that area. I have no illusions about how expensive it is to live in the bay area.
I admit that purchasing this home was not a good financial decision. If you want to judge my overall worthiness to be a home owner based on that, feel free. It’s just not particularly helpful guidance for me.
I do not care what the next owner chooses to do. It does seem inefficient for me to put in a kitchen, carpeting, and paint that I like but they may not. It seems far more efficient to simply credit a buyer for such things or to have a real estate professional advise me regarding what is the most efficient way to address them.[/quote] Based upon this post, get your kitchen cabinets refaced and replace all your non-hardwood flooring with wood-look laminate. If your countertop is tile or formica, replace it with whatever is the cheapest modern material (FlyerInHi is our local resident “expert” on this :-))
Rent a sander and buffer for your real hardwood floor and spend a week getting it back into shape.
Make sure everything is sparkling clean (even under appls and furniture) and that all your screens, doorknobs, etc are in good working order and every window opens and closes. Clean your doors and walls with TSP and spackle and paint your whole house cream white (navajo white if you have large skylights).
Put your stuff in a POD in your driveway (or RV pkg area) while you go from room to room making these repairs while you live there.
This is the cheapest way to get out of your situation with the most money. If you have made all the repairs you say you did in the paragraphs above, just disregard my equity-sharing RE broker idea. You don’t need it. You can easily DIY and keep all your own equity upon sale.
