Renovations BEFORE listing a property. Good Idea? [Storify]

I have a real problem with HGTV and the so called "experts" they parade out on my TV. Well, not really but I think regardless of the show, you have to take what they are saying with a grain of salt. I remember watching a show called Reno vs Relocate where the hosts take a family that has outgrown their current space and try to convince them to either renovate their existing property or relocate to another one. In the episodes where the families decide to relocate, they often did renovations to the property anyway and made claims similar to this:

To get ready to list your property, you should de-clutter and depersonalize - you should spend 1-3% of the asking price on renovations to increase the value of the property.

The idea is that money spent on home renovations before you list the property for sale will not only help you sell the property faster, but they will also gain a net profit. I came across this video, which said the same thing.

In this video, the claim is made that a $7000 investment in renovations will make a $15-$20k return on her investment. The REALTOR® goes on to say to her client "Think about all the money you will be making". Not so sure I buy that...

Public Opinion

So as to not blindly believe everything I see on TV (or Youtube) I decided to take my question to the Internet - here is what I posted on twitter and the conversations that followed:

Now let me turn the question on you... Have you sold a property? What did you do to prepare the house for sale? What did your REALTOR® recommend?

I would love to hear your experience in the comments section below!