Pre-Sale Repairs Guide
Most pre-sale repair money is wasted, and the data is not close. A primary suite addition returns 18% of its cost. Solar returns 30%. A mid-range bathroom remodel returns 80%. Meanwhile a $4,672 garage door returns 268%.
But there is a second list that has nothing to do with resale value: the items that stop a mortgage, or stop an insurance carrier writing a policy at all. Those are worth fixing even when they add nothing to the price. This guide separates the two, with current Texas numbers.
What should you not fix when selling a house?Skip anything cosmetic or taste-driven: kitchen and bathroom remodels, new flooring throughout, repainting the whole interior, landscaping beyond a tidy-up, solar, and above all room additions, which recoup between 18% and 32% of their cost. A buyer who dislikes your old countertop will also dislike your new one.
Do fix anything that stops a loan or an insurance policy. An active roof leak, a roof with under two years of life left, peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, exposed wiring, missing handrails, a failed septic system, or utilities switched off for the appraiser. Those are not value-add repairs — they are the difference between having financed buyers and not.
On this page
What Not to Fix
The 2025 Cost vs. Value Report is the best data we have on what pre-sale work returns, and its clearest finding is that cheap exterior swaps beat expensive interior work, and additions never pay back. National averages:
| Project | Recouped at resale |
|---|---|
| Garage door replacement | 268% |
| Steel entry door replacement | 216% |
| Manufactured stone veneer | 208% |
| Minor kitchen remodel (midrange) | 113% |
| Bathroom remodel (midrange) | 80% |
| Primary suite addition (midrange) | 32% |
| Solar panel installation | 30% |
| Primary suite addition (upscale) | 18% |
Treat the ranking as reliable and the percentages as soft. Those resale values are agent opinion estimates rather than paired-sale data, and the 2025 figures ran unusually high. What the ordering tells you is worth acting on anyway.
So the list of things not to do before selling, in Texas or anywhere:
- Do not remodel a kitchen or bathroom. Even the best-performing minor kitchen remodel barely breaks even, and taste is not transferable. The buyer who loves your new quartz was going to buy the house anyway.
- Do not add square footage. Additions recoup between a fifth and a third of their cost. There is no version of this that makes sense as a pre-sale move.
- Do not install solar. 30% recouped, and a leased system actively complicates the closing because the lease has to be assumed or bought out.
- Do not replace flooring throughout. Clean it. A buyer who dislikes your new floor pays no more than one who disliked the old one.
- Do not repaint the whole interior to a trend colour or refinish cabinets. Touch up damage; leave it there.
- Do not landscape beyond tidying. Mow, edge, trim back, mulch. Stop.
- Do not cosmetically patch a structural problem. Filling foundation cracks before a sale does not fix movement, does not fool an inspector, and creates a disclosure problem you did not have. More on that below.
- Do not fix anything a buyer is likely to rip out — dated tile, an old vanity, a serviceable but ugly countertop. Price it in instead.
What to Fix Anyway: The Things That Stop a Loan
There is a second list, and it has nothing to do with resale value. These are the items that make a house unfinanceable, which means the pool of buyers collapses to cash. If you are listing on the open market, these are the ones worth money.
FHA appraisals work to HUD minimum property requirements. The common failures:
- A roof with less than two years of remaining life, or any active leak. Missing shingles and visible sagging fail.
- Peeling or chipping paint on a pre-1978 home — treated as a lead hazard.
- Utilities off. The appraiser has to see the electricity, water, heat and hot water working. A vacant house with the power cut fails on arrival, which is an avoidable and very common own goal.
- Exposed wiring or missing outlet covers.
- Missing handrails on any staircase with three or more steps.
- Heating that cannot hold 50°F, and well, septic or drainage problems.
- Serious settlement or foundation instability, which stops the loan until an engineer’s report and repair exist.
VA appraisals work to a similar list, with one recent change worth knowing: effective 1 May 2026, VA Pamphlet 26-7 Change 46 removed five minimum property requirements, including detached structures such as sheds and garages, and exterior paint defects on post-1978 homes. The three core standards — safe, sanitary, structurally sound — are unchanged.
The practical version: spend money on the things an appraiser writes up, not on the things a buyer would enjoy. A $400 handrail and turning the power back on protect the whole deal. A $28,000 kitchen does not.
The Gate Nobody Warns You About: Insurability
A financed buyer cannot close without a bound homeowners policy. So a house can pass the appraisal cleanly and still lose the buyer, because no carrier will write it. This is a distinct failure mode from the appraisal and it is badly under-explained.
Roof ageTexas sets no universal maximum, and each carrier writes its own rule — often shifting older roofs to actual cash value rather than replacement cost, or declining outright. This is in flux: on 24 August 2026 Governor Abbott directed the Texas Department of Insurance to prohibit refusing coverage based on the age of a property or its components, including the roof. Not every carrier’s underwriting has caught up, so check rather than assume.
Aluminium branch wiring (roughly 1965–1973)The Consumer Product Safety Commission found these homes 55 times more likely to have fire-hazard conditions at connections. Carriers require CPSC-approved remediation and a certification letter from a licensed Texas electrical contractor. Standard wire nuts do not qualify.
Polybutylene supply lines (1978 to the mid-1990s)Grey or blue flexible pipe at the water heater is the tell. Carriers increasingly flag or decline active polybutylene systems.
Cast iron drain linesA known claims-denial category, increasingly excluded outright. Common in pre-1975 Texas homes.
If your house has any of these, you are choosing between remediating it or selling to someone who does not need a policy bound by Friday. Both are legitimate. Pretending it will not come up is not.
The Big Texas Numbers — and Why They Are Not on the Value List
Notice what is missing from the Cost vs. Value table: there is no line for foundation repair, re-roofing, a repipe or a septic replacement. That is not an oversight. These are gating items, not value-add items. Nobody pays a premium for a house with a working sewer line. They simply refuse to buy one without it.
| Repair | Typical 2026 cost |
|---|---|
| Foundation piering / underpinning (San Antonio) | $4,700–$23,000; around $11,000 average |
| Foundation crack repair (cosmetic only) | $235–$2,350 |
| Roof replacement, asphalt shingle (2,000 sq ft) | $7,000–$14,000 |
| Roof replacement, metal | $14,000–$40,000 |
| HVAC system replacement | $5,500–$14,500 |
| Aerobic septic system, new (Central Texas clay) | $10,000–$20,000, plus a 15–20% Hill Country premium |
| Sewer lateral replacement, full 40 ft | $6,000–$18,000 |
| Whole-house PEX repipe (2,000 sq ft) | $5,500–$10,500, plus 25–50% on a slab foundation |
| Aluminium wiring remediation (pigtail method) | $5,000–$8,500 |
Two Central Texas notes. The I-35 corridor sits on expansive clay that shrinks and swells with the seasons, which is why slab movement is the region’s signature structural problem and why an engineer’s report carries so much weight here. And that same clay is why so much of Comal, Hays and western Bexar County needs an aerobic septic system at $10,000–$20,000, rather than the conventional gravity system that sandy-soil regions install for $6,300–$10,000.
The Repair Trap in the Texas Seller’s Disclosure
Texas Property Code §5.008 requires a written Seller’s Disclosure Notice on most single-family sales, delivered on or before the effective date of the contract. It asks about structural components, roof type and age, known defects, previous repairs, and flooding history. If you do not deliver it, the buyer can terminate for any reason within seven days of receiving it.
Which creates a trap worth naming. A cosmetic repair over a known problem is worse than leaving it alone. Patching and painting a foundation crack does not cure movement, but it does turn “I knew about it” into “I knew about it and covered it up” — and the exposure there is not the disclosure statute, it is common-law fraud and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Either fix it properly, with an engineer’s report and a transferable warranty, or disclose it and price accordingly.
Some sellers are exempt from §5.008 altogether, including foreclosure and court-ordered sales, and fiduciary transfers in the administration of an estate, guardianship or trust. That last one is why inherited-property sales often move faster than people expect.
A Rule You Can Apply in Ten Minutes
Walk the house with three questions, in this order:
- Will this stop a loan or an insurance policy? Roof, foundation, septic, wiring, active leaks, utilities off, handrails, peeling paint on a pre-1978 home. If yes, either fix it or accept that you are selling to a cash buyer.
- Is it a safety or habitability item? Fix it. It is cheap and it removes an inspector’s headline.
- Is it cosmetic? Clean it, declutter it, and leave it. Then price the house for what it is.
And before spending anything, price the alternative honestly. In this market the median seller in the San Antonio–New Braunfels metro cut their asking price by about $15,000, and 59.4% of San Antonio sellers paid the buyer a concession in May 2026 — the highest share of any major Texas metro. A repair budget spent up front does not exempt you from that; it stacks on top of it.
If the list is long enough that none of this feels realistic, that is worth naming too — see our guide to selling a house that needs major repairs in Texas.
Cost figures are 2025–2026 contractor and industry estimates and vary widely by house, access and soil. Get bids. Nothing here is legal advice.
Get a Number for the House Exactly as It Is Today.
No repairs, no cleanout, no contractor bids, no inspection re-negotiation. Compare it against what you would net after repairs, commission and concessions — and if listing wins, we will tell you so.
Quick FAQs
What should you not fix when selling a house?
Anything cosmetic or taste driven. Kitchen and bathroom remodels, replacing flooring throughout, repainting the whole interior to a trend colour, landscaping beyond a tidy up, and solar. Room additions are the worst value of all, recouping between 18 and 32 percent of their cost according to the 2025 Cost vs Value Report. Also never cosmetically patch a structural problem, which creates a disclosure exposure without curing anything.
What repairs are worth doing before selling a house in Texas?
The ones that stop a mortgage or an insurance policy. An active roof leak or a roof with less than two years of remaining life, peeling paint on a pre 1978 home, exposed wiring, missing handrails on stairs with three or more steps, heating that cannot hold 50 degrees, well or septic problems, and serious foundation movement. Also make sure the utilities are switched on for the appraiser, because a vacant house with the power cut fails on arrival.
Can I sell a house in Texas without making any repairs?
Yes. Texas has no requirement to repair anything before selling. What repairs affect is who can buy it. A house that fails FHA or VA minimum property requirements, or that no insurance carrier will write a policy on, cannot be bought with a mortgage, so the buyer pool narrows to cash. You must still deliver a Seller Disclosure Notice under Property Code Section 5.008 unless you are exempt.
Do I have to disclose repairs I made before selling in Texas?
The Texas Seller Disclosure Notice asks about known defects and previous repairs, so a repair you made is a fact within your knowledge that the form itself reaches. The real risk with a cosmetic repair over a known problem is not the disclosure statute but common law fraud and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Either fix it properly with documentation, or disclose it and price for it.
How much does foundation repair cost in San Antonio?
Structural piering or underpinning commonly runs from about 4,700 to 23,000 dollars, averaging around 11,000, based on 2026 cost data. Cosmetic crack repair is far cheaper at roughly 235 to 2,350 dollars but does not address movement. The I-35 corridor sits on expansive clay soils that shrink and swell seasonally, which is why slab movement is the region signature structural problem.
Why do insurance problems kill home sales in Texas?
A financed buyer cannot close without a bound homeowners policy, so a house can pass the appraisal and still lose the buyer because no carrier will write it. The usual causes are roof age, unremediated aluminium branch wiring from roughly 1965 to 1973, active polybutylene supply lines from 1978 to the mid 1990s, and cast iron drain lines. Note that on 24 August 2026 Governor Abbott directed the Texas Department of Insurance to prohibit refusing coverage based on the age of a property or its components, so the roof age position is currently changing.
If the repair list is longer than the budget, read selling a house that needs major repairs in Texas and what it really costs to sell a house in Texas. Or reach us any time at info@moneyfast4houses.com.