Selling advice needed.

[5kings]

Hi all

We are looking to put our house on the very slow market soon. I think it needs a fair bit of work, should hopefully be finished decorating by Christmas (got to finish my degree so DIY on the back-burner for now)

Thing is we are hoping to put new interior doors, a new kitchen and some new flooring/carpets in, so probably about £2K worth of work to do, all DIY.

Is it worth it, or should we just try and sell as it is? The kitchen I must add is 1970s and literally falling apart, doors taped shut or they fall off etc!!! Trouble with us is we always put family fun first and things like new kitchens and doors don't bother us until we want to sell!

Also do estate agents offer advice about whether it's worth doing renovations before selling or not?

Thanks in advance

Helen

[nickydwuk]

Our agents told us not to bother but the feedback we got from some viewers was that it needed alot of work (cosmetic) so they would not put in an offer. If you have the time & money I would suggest just a quick tidy - new doors on the kitchen and a slap of paint to brighten it up and hide any blemishes. You won't get back the money you spend but it might hasten a sale!!

[Familyofmonkeys]

Most estate agents will tell you to redecorate and make your house neutral, as well as all the de-cluttering advice. But is is not always neccesary.

I personally think kitchens are big selling points for houses.....maybe you could put some new cupboard fronts on or new benchtop rather than replacing whole kitchen? I wouldn't bother with interior doors....just make give then a nice fresh coat of paint. Unless your capets are really bad, I wouldn't replace them as people will want to redecorate to their own taste anyway....you could alway hire a carpet steamer to clean them up. If they really do need replacing, consider inexpensive exhibition carpet in a neutral colour....cheap as chips...doesn't last many years, but that will be plenty long enough to sell your house while still looking new.

[holland]

I am currently viewing properties over here...and I must say I do look at the kitchen and bathroom...as they are the most expensive jobs...the internal doors arent a huge issue...but as a potential buyer if a lot of new floor covering needed doing, my offer would reflect this.

The thing is you can spend your 2k....and get the kitchen you want for the house and go off your budget....or you could wait until you get an offer off a buyer who may want a £15k kitchen and knock that off the price.

I know it will be an extra pain, but my advice would be bite the bullet and do it!!

J x

[5kings]

I also think having a house ready to move into might tempt first time buyers. I think we will do kitchen a B&Q sale job though, and as for carpets, it's only the stairs (1970s pub style) that really needs doing.

I did speak to an agent today though who said don't worry about any further renovations, but I know I saw beyond the 70's decor, but my husband couldn't. I think the swirly carpet should be cheaply replaced, and the kitchen too.

My and hubby havig proper chat later, I want it up as soon as possible, but there are a few jobs that need doing first.

Helen

[sizzlingbadger]

Definitely look at getting the stairs carpet changed especially if it's the first thing you see when they open the front door. A buyers mind is usually made up in the first 2 seconds of walking through the door.

If you can get it on the market as soon as possible, the later it is will be going in to winter when everything usually slows down (more than normal).

Kitchens and bathrooms are definitely worth tidying up or changing. One house we had had an 80's bathroom (grey bathroom suite and pink tiles, I kid you not just to top it off with a red carpet), kitchen was just as bad with a very bad paint job on the cabinets. So we decided to spend the money on the kitchen with new tiles, work tops and repainting the cabinets, new floor and wall paint. Within a couple of weeks we had sold, down to the 'new' kitchen, couple loved Wasn't that expensive, think we spent around the 500GBP mark in the end and it only took a weekend.

[cathgates]

Hi Helen, I'm selling my house at the moment, and I also worked at an estate agents until quite recently.
I don't think that there is ever a bad time to make the most of your property.
If your house needs work doing, it's just another excuse for a prospective buyer to reduce their offer even more. The competition is fierce, so you need to have as much going for your house as you can, or be prepared to take a really silly offer.
As has been said, you can pick up diy kitchens quite cheaply, I know it takes time which is the thing you don't really have much of, but it will be worth it. My boys who are 10 and 13 both enjoyed helping with decorating and things, and you can usually find at least one family or friend who will lend a hand.
If you can find your way to have the house as perfect as possible it will help you to achieve a better price.

Cath X

[Peter&Liz]

Hi Helen,

If it were me I’d do the work, first impressions count you want to give them as few reasons as possible to discount your property especially in this market. Also most buyers are going to overestimate how much the works will cost and expect to take that off the price, so what to you might cost £2k they see £10k.

We had a similar issue regarding the main bedroom in our house, it was the only room in the house we had not redone and it had wallpaper hiding some late crumbling C19th plaster, we decided to replaster and redecorate the room before putting the house on the market. We also had a new lawn put down and spent some money repainting the halls and bedrooms and buying plants for the garden.

I don’t know if you have seen the TV programme House Doctor but it is amazing to see how other people view properties and how little people need to spend to change a poor impression into a positive one.

I know it can seem like you are wasting money on a house you are soon to leave, but it increases your chances of selling and of getting a decent price, and for us even if we didn’t get into New Zealand it meant we had the benefit of having our house finally finished and a lovely garden to enjoy the UK summer, which at long last seems to finally have arrived!

Peter

[M-Squared]

Our house was in pretty good nick, all told, when we put it on the market (got out of the US market *just* in time last year!) in late summer. The big thing we did was tidy tidy tidy and clean clean clean. We had fresh flowers in pretty much every room, every day. We had kept small tins of paint when we redecorated the house, and I retouched the paint around the house, including the gutters. The flower beds were always weeded and watered, and the only thing we actually changed in the house was the taps... they were the cheapest on the market a decade previously. I think we put a total of $100 into the house!

Good luck.