Okay, raise your hand if you remember seeing "The Money Pit" and thinking that while it certainly served up some fine Tom Hanks comedy ("Two weeks? Two weeks!") it also served as a great big red warning sign of what you're getting into when you decide to buy a fixer-upper. Okay, put your hands down. That movie and many, many horror stories like it (most of which were probably not nearly as funny) could be the reason that home buyers these days opt for the move-in ready variety.

In a recent survey, Coldwell Banker Real Estate found that just 7% of their brokers have first-time clients that are in the market for an older home that would require a little TLC (read: Time, Labor and Cha-ching!), while 81% report having clients that want their pad in tip-top shape on moving day.