What improvements should I make to increase my selling price of my house.

Fire_Fox

edthevanman wrote: »

We need to sell fairly quickly at a maximum price...I know so does everyone.. what should we improve to give the house the WOW factor. The estate agent suggested a new kitchen, we are at the 250K area which makes matters worst. We have thought of a new drive (tarmac) not brick. Any suggetsions and help would be much appreciated. When is the best time to put the house up for sale?
:j

What's the house like now?? If you are able to upload some photos or link to your Rightmove page we can all chip in with ideas.

In general you should clean the place to within an inch of it's life, that means clean the carpets and sofa with a machine, hand scrubbing floors, washing down every bit of glosswork and probably all kitchen walls with sugar soap - a mega clean. Descale the toilet, sinks and taps so they gleam and get a grout pen to whiten grout lines (kitchen and bathroom). Clean windows inside and out and take down net curtains.

Then declutter: sell anything you don't need/ use on eBay or give to charity, pack away personal items like family photos. Make sure cupboards/ wardrobes/ loft/ shed are tidy and half empty, as you don't want the buyer thinking you have outgrown the house and therefore it's too small for them too. Vacuum pack winter clothes, duvets and spare towels so they take up less space.

Any walls that are a dark or bright colour or children's wallpaper paint in neutral tones. Any dark or bright carpet or flooring is probably worth changing so the rooms look bigger. Finish all the little DIY jobs that you never got round to doing!! Weed the garden, mow the lawn, trim any shrubs, get some tubs of evergreens each side of the front door.

In the kitchen ... well it depends how bad the kitchen is?? You can paint or change doors, put new modern handles on, change the worktops, paint the tiling, put splashbacks over the existing tiles, lay new flooring, install better lighting, new taps. All this is cheaper than an entire new kitchen and you are unlikely to need to do all of it to give your kitchen the 'wow' factor.

Jomo

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Devil's advocate - if you're around £250K, why do anything? Good kit can cost up to £10K, drive £2K, yet you need to keep price max £250K. So you could only realise £238K net if you spent all that money and remember that at least 50% of potential buyers won't like your choice of kit and would prefer block paved drive.

Do the bare minimum, fresh neutral colour schemes and floor coverings. Plus of course both house and garden clean and tidy.

I've just got a new fab kitchen for less than £4k (that includes all appliances and fitting).

mattwallisuk

Sounds like your aiming too high... If your house is worth £250k and you NEED £266k then you have a short fall, it would be quite risky spending out incase it does not add the value to your house and then you have a bigger short fall.

Somethings only worth what soemone will pay, and trying to add £30k-40k to a house prior to selling is very very very difficult especially in current times when those people looking for "wow factor" can also be the most shrewd!

dirtmother

Where is the money going to come from to pay for a new kitchen if you really need to get maximum price for the house?

With a kitchen ripe for replacement some buyers will be thinking "Oh goody, I can choose my own kitchen" Otherwise you are second guessing an unknown person's taste and if it is a new kitchen they may feel they don't like it but wouldn't be able to justify pulling it out.

DVardysShadow

dirtmother wrote: »

Where is the money going to come from to pay for a new kitchen if you really need to get maximum price for the house?

With a kitchen ripe for replacement some buyers will be thinking "Oh goody, I can choose my own kitchen" Otherwise you are second guessing an unknown person's taste and if it is a new kitchen they may feel they don't like it but wouldn't be able to justify pulling it out.

I would give triple thanks for this if I had sockpuppets.

pickle140584

de-clutter is the main thing
paint everything nice clean colours, few throws if you sofa isnt great
Can you clean the kitchen up - lick of tile paint or something

Doozergirl

None of these suggestions are going to add £16,000 to the price of the house.

A new kitchen is not going to add £16,000 to most houses, let alone one hovering around (below) the 3% stamp duty threshold.

Fact is, if the buyer paid £250k for your house without a new kitchen, it isn't going to be worth £266,000 plus an extra £5500 odd in Stamp Duty with a new kitchen in it. That's £21,500 for a new kitchen.

Frankly, to increase the value by that much you need to create a bigger house to sell.

How does grout pen and a sofa throw improve value exactly? It might help you sell but people aren't going to be paying more for grout pen.

mortgage_adviser_2

yes it will i have seen loads of tv shows were they paint the house put in new kitchen and then flip it for 50K. Mind you I think it may have been back in 2007 but not much can change in 2 years can it?

edthevanman

Do you think offering to pay the stamp duty would be a good idea or does it make you look desparte (excuse spelling) to sell. The estate agent told us the house is worth £260k but people will not pay stamp duty above £250k -you have to go to £275k for the next level -that is why we are stuck .
thanks everyone

DVardysShadow

edthevanman wrote: »

Do you think offering to pay the stamp duty would be a good idea or does it make you look desparte (excuse spelling) to sell. The estate agent told us the house is worth £260k but people will not pay stamp duty above £250k -you have to go to £275k for the next level -that is why we are stuck .
thanks everyone

It makes no sense.

Suppose I buy the house for 251k, SD paid. You now pay 7.5k SD, which means you get 243.5k. As buyer, I would say I would take it for 244k. You are slightly worse off because you pay SD on the SD the buyer would have paid. It doesn't look desperate. It just looks nonsensical.