Advice on work to sell house

[mogga]

Make the price attractive.

[Guy Dawson]

Having just (on the 12th) moved into a house with

avacardo family bathroom pink master bedroom and en-suite mock tudor interior living room

1980's style red and white kitchen pale lavender bed room pale purple bed room

and other crimes against taste we're happy that we've not paid a premium for new decoration in a style we did not actually like!

The money we did not spend can now be spent redecorating exactly as we want it rather than how the seller thought we might have wanted it.

The house was neat, clean and tidy thought.

As per another poster, get a estate agents to give some guide prices with and without redecoration.

Guy

-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Guy Dawson I.T. Manager Crossflight Ltd [e-mail]

[Guy Dawson]

Indeed but by then they've bought the house and it's not the OPs problem any more!!

Guy

-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Guy Dawson I.T. Manager Crossflight Ltd [e-mail]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. A bathroom replaced purely for sale is likely to be thrown in - as is a kitchen. And you'll have no comeback on the installer, or vendor come to that, if there are problems. Far better deal for both to simply not bother. Most of these TV programs talk crap about costs of doing such things - like ignoring a true labour charge.

[ARWadsworth]

I agree that people forget these important things when buying and will have to pay later. "A clean and tidy kitchen and bathroom are always listed as the number one features" is true and people often never look further.

I would never buy a new house without a PI investiging the next door neighbour after buying this house.

Adam

[Andy Hall]

Is the neighbour a wrong'un?

[Doctor Drivel]

Do a Google on Fowler and timegoesby. They did some good posts on this sort of thing.

[Doctor Drivel]

Do you have in the add first time buyers only?

So advertise do doerupperers only need apply.

Boy you are a plantpot and really should eff off.

[Lobster]

Is he a wrong'un?!!! ROFL

Andy I'm sure if you google for posts by "ARWadsworth", along with a few choice keywords like "neighbour" and maybe "axe" it will put you on the right path...

David

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Would that be add to the ad?

You really need to lay off the sauce.

You might just read the original post and ponder how many first time buyers can afford a semi-detached bungalow.

[Doctor Drivel]

Boy you are a plantpot and really should eff off.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Those with a drink problem such as yours frequently won't admit it to themselves, but their actions show it only too obviously to others. Fortunately help can be had for this unfortunate illness.

[Andy Hall]

Oh, yes. Now I remember....

[Doctor Drivel]

Boy you are a plantpot and really should eff off.

[Steve Smith]

Hi all

Thanks for the many comments. Sorry if I was short on detail. The house was indeed an inheritance.

Finding buyers for the house will be a problem. As has been pointed out, first-time buyers will expect not to have to do too much work. Retired couples, which it might also suit, again would not want to do any work. It has two bedrooms and no garage, only parking space.

The house is probably valued at £120,000 - £150,000 if in tip-top condition and with all modern features. This is based on net searches of similar properties (£120,000 - 2003 and £140,000 - 2005). Since I haven't the money to accomplish this I am trying my best with what I have.

The outside is reasonably respectable, newly painted gates, clean but bare front garden. UPVC windows were installed about 10 years ago. Front and back doors wooden and in need of replacement. Roof is sound. The guttering could do with replacement but is otherwise OK.

The interior is the problem. The electrics are obviously old (fuse boxes), but there have been no problems that I am aware of. Rewiring may be necessary to aid selling but is this not required to be done by a qualified electrician? How expensive would that be?

The house had electric central heating and most of the radiators are past it. Some storage heaters have been fitted. As mentioned, the bathroom suite is pink/peach, reasonably tidy. A shower in the bath needs replacement. The kitchen units do need replacing as the wall units are very shallow and full height which is rather stupid since you need a stool to reach the top ones. A few new units and replacing all the others with matching doors might be an option.

Cavity-wall insulation has been installed as has loft insulation.

The house is built on a raft with raised wooden floors. Is it worthwhile sanding and varnishing any of the rooms?

Thanks

Steve

[Andy Hall]

I think that the first two things to do are to contact an estate agent and get valuations with and without refurbishment and indeed ease of sale.

I wouldn't necessarily assume that first time buyers wouldn't want to fix the place up.

If you could sell it as is for £120-130k or at £150k after a fix up, is it worth it? You would probably spend £10k or so on materials and then a great deal of time. WIth a rewire etc. it would be difficult to see getting very much under £15k in terms of outgoings. In other words not very worthwhile.

OTOH, if it were only worth £90k without refurbishment, the result would be much more worthwhile, provided that you are happy to invest the time. One view of that could be as a learning exercise.

I do think that if the arithmetic makes sense that it could be worth taking a small mortgage on the property to fund buying decent materials (doesn't have to be outrageous) and if need be the labour on certain aspects like rewiring if you don't want to do it. What wouldn't make sense is to try doing the whole thing on a shoe string with crappy materials and it ending up looking like a cheap dog's breakfast. That wouldn't give the outcome you want.

Once you know the sums of money and the work required, I think it would be much easier to know what makes sense to do.

[Owain]

And how much is it worth in its current condition?

You have to consider the difference in value, the cost of the work, and whether the resulting profit is worth it.

Anyone is allowed to rewire; if you are not registered with a Part-P organisation then you'd need to make a building regs application to the council, in the same way as you would if you were replacing the windows yourself. They will test and certify the wiring as part of the application fee.

Most of the work of rewiring is labour in lifting floors etc (although in a bungalow with a loft and a below-floor crawl space it can be much easier) and in redecorating afterwards. The materials cost is quite a small part, which is why it's likely to be profitable to diy it before sale.

Oh dear.

The biggest single improvement you can probably make would be gas central heating, even if it means bringing gas in from the street.

Without wiring and heating being in order, any prospective purchaser will be considering the work and inconvenience involved, and will view the property as a fixer-upper - and will expect to pay a reduced price accordingly.

That's quite nice as it avoids the dirt trap on the top of the units. However, if the place has to be ripped apart to put in new wiring and a heating system (of whatever sort) no point in doing anything with the kitchen.

Only if the carpet's really manky and the hours of work of sanding, varnishing, and cleaning the dust out of everything else is less than the cost of cheap plain carpet.

Owain

[Lobster]

There are some that would, for sure, but these days I'm afraid the vast majority of FTBs want somewhere in showroom condition that they can move straight into, and not have to think about doing anything to it. They have far higher expectations than people did a generation ago, and as we've discussed here before, they don't have the diy skills (or interest in learning) that their parents did. And no imagination whatsoever.

This was brought home to me personally when we recently sold a small terraced house which we'd been letting out for several years. Initially, we put it on the market pretty well as-is: clean and in good condition but a bit 'tired' looking and with a blue bathroom suite. We had 30-40 viewings over 2 months, but not one single offer, both of which implied to me that the asking price was not at issue. We let it out again instead, and after the next tenant had quit 9 months later we decided to have another go at selling. This time, I spent about 2.5K on refitting the bathroom, updating the kitchen a bit (new worktops and replacing the freestanding oven with a built-in hob/oven combo) and fitting dirt-cheap new plain beige carpet throughout, replacing the sliding wardrobe doors with trendy mirrored ones, plus gave it a fresh coat of magnolia to to bottom. In pretty similar local marketing conditions, at the same time of year, we had loads of interest again, and accepted an offer of the asking price within 2 days of going on the market (and that's what it sold at).

David

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Constant repetition of the same phrase is another sign of brain damage through drug addiction. I plead with you to seek help before it's too late.

[Doctor Drivel]

Boy you are a plantpot and really should eff off.