Selling As-Is vs. Doing the Work: A Real Greater Moncton Example

My sellers just spent $10,000 fixing up a house they didn't even live in anymore.

It was the best money they spent all year, and I can prove it with the numbers. Even by the most conservative math, that $10,000 came back as more than $33,000 at the closing table.

The Story

Back in 2019, I helped a young couple buy their first home, a semi-detached in Riverview. We stayed in touch over the years, and this spring they called me. They were moving out to the country, they had a baby on the way, and it was time to sell.

The house was 16 years old and it showed. Dated paint colours, worn flooring in the basement, dinged up baseboards, and all the normal wear and tear that piles up when you're busy living your life instead of maintaining a showpiece.

There was one more thing, and it's the thing nobody wants to talk about: pets. This was a home with big dogs and cats, and it smelled like it. Chewed baseboards, scratched trim, damaged paint, and a strong animal odour throughout the house. If you have pets, you know exactly what I mean, and you also know that you stop noticing it in your own home. Buyers notice it in the first ten seconds.

Nothing here was unusual. Nothing was broken. Just a house that had been thoroughly lived in.

When I did the evaluation, I gave them two numbers.

Sell it as-is: list in the $324,900 to $329,900 range, and be prepared for it to sit.

Do the work first: list at $364,900.

That's a gap of $35,000 to $40,000 on paper. The estimated cost to close that gap was about $10,000.

What They Did

They took the advice. Here's what the $10,000 covered:

A professional painter went through the whole house, which handled the dated colours and the pet-damaged walls in one shot. The house was professionally deep cleaned top to bottom (windows, walls, baseboards, trim), and then cleaned a second time, because one pass does not get pet odour out of a home. New flooring and baseboard trim went into the basement level, which took care of the worst of the wear and the chewed trim. The basement stairs were cleaned and painted, mini splits were serviced/repaired and a new dishwasher was credited in the sale. The deck got pressure washed and the yard was cleaned up.

None of this was a renovation. No kitchen gut, no new bathroom, no additions. Just paint, cleaning, flooring, maintenance on existing appliances, and elbow grease.

And here's the part that matters: when we listed, the smell was gone. Completely. Buyers walked into a home that felt cared for instead of walking in, wrinkling their nose, and mentally knocking $30,000 off their offer before they'd seen the second bedroom.

The Result

We listed at $364,900.

We had an accepted offer in 8 days.

Final sale price: $363,000. That's 99.5% of list price.

Run the math, and let's use the conservative version. Even if the as-is listing had sold at the very top of that range, $329,900, they still sold for about $33,000 more by doing the work. After covering every dollar of the $10,000 in prep, they put over $23,000 extra in their pocket. Compare against the bottom of the range and it's closer to $28,000. Either way, every dollar they spent came back at least double.

And that's the optimistic version of the as-is scenario. In reality, an as-is listing in today's market probably doesn't sell at the top of its range, or at list at all. It sits, it gets stale, buyers start asking what's wrong with it, and the eventual offers come in well below asking. The real gap was likely bigger than these numbers show.

Why This Matters Right Now

The Greater Moncton market has shifted. Buyers have more options than they did a year ago, and they know it.

Here's what that looks like in practice. Buyers walk through an as-is listing and make a list of everything that needs doing. Paint, flooring, that railing, the deck. Then their agent takes that list and uses it to justify a lowball offer. And they're not offering you the cost of the repairs off the price. They're offering the cost of the repairs plus the hassle plus a margin for the unknown. A $10,000 prep job becomes a $30,000 or $40,000 price reduction in a buyer's offer.

In a hot market, sellers could skip the prep and buyers would compete anyway. That market is gone. Right now, the homes that sit are the ones where the seller decided the buyer could deal with it.

What This Means If You're Thinking About Selling

When your REALTOR walks through your home and tells you it needs work before it hits the market, that's not criticism and it's not them being picky. That's them protecting your money.

A good listing agent should be able to give you two honest numbers: what your home is worth as-is, and what it's worth after the right prep. Then you can decide if the gap is worth the investment. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes the work costs more than it returns, and as-is is the smart play. But you can't make that call without both numbers.

That two-price evaluation is exactly what I did for these sellers, and it's what I do for every seller I work with.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I renovate my house before selling it in Greater Moncton?

Usually no, not in the full renovation sense. Major renovations like kitchens and bathrooms rarely return their full cost at sale. What does pay off is prep: paint, deep cleaning, flooring repairs, fixing the obvious wear and tear. The example above returned at least $2 for every $1 spent, and none of it was renovation.

What does selling a house as-is mean?

It means listing the home in its current condition with no repairs or prep work done. Buyers see everything, and in a balanced or buyer-leaning market, they price everything into their offer, usually with a heavy margin on top.

Can I sell a house with pet smell?

You can, but it will cost you far more than fixing it would. Pet odour is one of the fastest ways to lose a buyer, and most won't tell you that's the reason. They just don't come back. The fix is usually not complicated: professional deep cleaning (sometimes twice), fresh paint, and replacing any flooring that's absorbed odour. If you've lived with pets for years, assume you can't smell your own home accurately and get an honest outside opinion before listing.

How do I know if the prep work is worth the cost?

Get both numbers from your REALTOR: the as-is value and the after-prep value. Compare the gap to the estimated cost of the work. If the gap is meaningfully bigger than the cost, the work is worth doing. If it's not, list as-is with your eyes open.

How long does it take to sell a house in Moncton right now?

It depends heavily on condition and pricing. Well-prepped, accurately priced homes are still selling quickly. The home in this example sold in 8 days. As-is listings and overpriced listings are the ones sitting.

Thinking about selling? Before you list, get the full picture. My free Seller's Guide walks through the entire process, including real closing cost numbers for New Brunswick, so you know exactly what to expect.

[Download the Seller's Guide]