Selling house -- new flooring?

Ok, question about selling a house--

Even though I've only been at my house for a year and a half, our carpets are NASTY (6 animals who get "scared" during thunder storms plus Georgia red clay plus some spilled paint, none of which has totally come out even with steam cleaners)

I'm thinking about moving in the summer of 08. Would it be a better investment to
A) Leave the carpets in all their glory and just offer the owners extra money to do what they want with them?
B) put down hardwood floors?
C) get the hardwood-eque flooring that you can get cheap at Ikea?

Also, what do you do about paint? Repaint to a neutral boring color, or just offer a giftcard? My house is colorful in a good way (like cottage greens, blues, and yellows)

For every $1 worth of new carpeting you put in you get $4 in value increase. Same thing for hardwood flooring. No matter what I would definitely suggest that you put in something new. It goes a long way in raising the purchase price of your house. (If you spend $5,000 you can tack on an extra $20,000 to your sale price).

Paint! And yes, please paint a neutral "boring" color. (white or beige is best.) For some reason people are turned off by colors they don't like. Every person who walks into your house to view it may hate the colors green, blue and yellow. But if it is natural color then they will think of it as they can paint over it in any color. Painting brings a value of $5 for every $1 you spend.

Landscaping is very important also. For every $1 you spend making your landscaping look better (Or curb appeal) you gain $25 in value on your home. So, yes, if you spend $1,000 on landscaping your house value will increase by $25,000!!

If you do all the above and spend about $7,500 before you put your house in the market you could raise the value of your house by $50,000! Don't let someone else buy your house and do these small things and then get all the profit from it. You should be getting the profit!

I would leave it the way it is and offer the buyer a lower price.

A would be my answer, some people prefer it that way, then they could do what they want.
If the carpets too nasty though, (smells) rip it up and get rid of it!

I would totally change it. There are some great ideas for getting the most out of your house at hgtv.com. When I see bad carpeting it makes me think that the owner didn't care about the house, which you don't want potential buyers thinking. The investment would be well worth it.

Pet smells are definatly a turn off for buyers. Unless you really want to take a bath on the price, get rid of the pet smells. The colors, ok are they classy or splashy? You might like them but do they look like ..a bit loud?
Do you want the most for your house/ or the least?
Good Luck

This is a common question with no solid answer. I'd check with your agent to decide which strategy to use. Your agent knows what other homes in the area look like, what your competition is and whether or not your home shows comparable to others in the area. Both strategies can work, and you may need to change your strategy mid-stream. Ask your agent and trust his/her advice and you'll be better off than asking this question on Yahoo. As you can see, you'll get answers on both sides of the issue here.