Getting Ready to Sell a House Creates Lots of Local Jobs

[MineralMan]

One of the things that helps a local economy is hiring people to do things at your home. At no time is that more evident than when you're getting a house ready to put on the market. As I've described before, my wife and I bought a new townhome in a city on the West Side of the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota. We had lived in our previous house for 17 years, and will be putting it on the market at the end of the month, or so we hope.

As I catalog all of the things that are being done to that house to make it ready for sale adds up to a lot of work for a lot of local workers. Here are some of the jobs we're having done, and an estimate of how many people will get paid for doing that work:

1. A New Roof: The old roof is at least 20 years old, so the house gets reroofed. At least four people will be working to do that job for a day or two.

2. Interior cleaning: Since we're painting the entire interior, part of the prep for that is a thorough washing of walls and ceilings. Two cleaners will work one or two days on that job.

3. Basement Demolition: The unfinished basement in that house had old carpeting and fiberglass insulation between the floor joists. The basement is unfinished, so I hired a crew to demo the carpet, remove the fiberglass and empty the basement of everything that is down there. Four people worked on that job two days ago, and the work is done.

4. Rehabbing Garage Front Facade: Peeling paint and an ugly plywood gable end needed an update. A handyman is on that job today. It should take him about four hours.

5. Interior Painting: The painting crew is coming in on Monday and will spend two days painting the house's interior, including doors, woodwork, and cabinets. I don't know how many people will be involved.

6. Yard Clean-up: A crew is coming in just before the house goes on the market to clean up the entire yard and make it look as good as it can. Couple of workers for a few hours.

Now, nobody will make a living just getting our house ready for the market, but sales of existing homes are skyrocketing in numbers right now in this area. Scheduling the work has been difficult, which means that everyone is very busy. At least a dozen local workers will participate in the overall work, each earning a decent wage.

I had, frankly, not thought about the impact of such a thing on the local employment market, but it's clear that the house we're selling will create work for a number of people. I like that. I don't have time to closely supervise any of those work crews, so I'll be relying on those who referred me to those who are doing the work. I'm sure they'll do a good job.

My estimate for the entire set of jobs comes to between $15-18K. So, we're putting that much money into circulation in the local labor and contractor marketplace. Multiply that by the hundreds of homes that go on the market every week here, and it adds up to a lot of workers getting paid.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Don't leave me out. I am the RE photographer.

It's funny. I shot a home yesterday. (4, in fact) The owners were running behind schedule so when I got there, there were landscape people, cleaning people, and moving people, all local. Your post is spot on.

[MineralMan]

8. Yes. I was surprised at how many people are involved.

The market here is so hot for existing homes that we'll almost certainly have offers on the first day of showing. Our realtor will have an open house, but we're not staging the place at all. What you see is what you get - use your imagination.

I expect that we'll accept an offer after the open house. It can't come too soon for me. It's far from a dream house, but it's a good, solid, livable house with potential for the next owner. It's also at the bottom of the market. Those houses are selling immediately.

[SharonClark]

2. It sounds like you've lined up reliable people to do those tasks.

They are few and far between where I live.

[MineralMan]

10. Well, I relied on our realtor for most of the recommendations.

I got three bids for the roof, and all three contractors have great customer reviews. So no worries. The painter, a woman-owned business, with all women workers, came over for the estimate. I handed her a paint strip with the palette I wanted. She said, "I like that palette. Want me to decide what goes where?" I said "sure." I won't even be there, so...

[jimfields33]

3. That's an awesome price.

The roof alone would be 22K on my roof which will need replaced within 5 years.

[MineralMan]

9. Our previous house just has 900 sq. ft. under the roof,

which is a simple gable roof. Basic architectural asphalt shingles. Unless the decking needs repairs or an overlay, it will be a one day job for the roofing company. Just 13 squares of roofing with no complexities.

Our basic estimate from the roofer is $5400. If decking is needed, the max quoted is $4000 more. I can't predict that, since I didn't see the old roof go on.

[jimfields33]

12. That's pretty good.

Good luck with everything!

[MineralMan]

13. Well, as long as the roof looks good to the new buyer,

I'm fine. All of what we're doing is just "putting lipstick on a pig." It's still a 1954 tract house built like every other house in that development. They're sound, but not that interesting, really. Just a 3 bed, one bath rambler. "Starter house," I think they call them.

Our new place is a 1970s split-level quad townhome. Just like all the other split-level quad townhomes from that era. We like the layout, and it has a tuck-under 2-car garage, so that's good. The previous owner redid all the flooring in high-end laminate. We have two dogs, and wanted a carpet-free house. We got one. They're rare, it seems. Most of the places we looked at were completely carpeted, which was a no-go for us.

The previous owner had also paid for the assessment for new siding, which gets installed next year at no cost to us. Bonus!

[Tracer]

4. Your old house will look so good,

that you will almost be sorry you are selling it.

[Demsrule86]

6. That is exactly how I feel. I don't want to sell this house now...but alas we closed last Friday

and I am out on Monday.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, it will look better, but we love our new place already.

We're basically all moved in now, except for hanging pictures, etc. We're taking that slowly and trying to decide exactly what to hang where. Previously all the stuff on the walls was sort of haphazard. We're striving to do better and produce a better effect.

There's a new small dining room set arriving today for me to assemble. Once that's in place, everything will be where it's going to be, so we can start putting art back in place. Then, it will be housewarming time!

[Demsrule86]

5. I donated to the local economy alright...bought appliances, paint,and other materials

at local stores, hired a local contractor, for plumbing and electrical. Also, I bought 'fluffy' stuff at local stores for the staging... I donated a great deal to Goodwill and other charity shops as well which will help the less fortunate, the economy, and the planet. I employed a realtor from my area who plans to redo her kitchen with the money she earned from my sale and other sales thus the economy will continue to be stimulated.

I had extra pickups from our garbage company so they have extra money too. I also have eaten out in restaurants more and helped stimulate that sector. It is like an economic ball rolling downhill getting bigger and bigger. I believe, the stimulus helped fuel the home buying spree as people have money for deposits. It shows that helping the poor and middle-class fuels the economy while helping the super-rich does not. Consider the positive effect of Trump's tax cut or lack thereof compared to Biden's Pandemic relief bill.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes, there are even more people involved than

I know about. So far, my one trip to Lowe's ended up with a shopping cart full of stuff and a $600 checkout total.