Being stupid?

tim_n

Bought our flat in Essex for circa £110k in 2007. To date I've spent around £3,000-£3,500 on it. It's a 1 bedroom with living room/diner, kitchen with breakfast bar, bathroom and study (you could fit a cot in it, it was originally advertised to us as two bedrooms but that was a bit of a joke really.) It's ideally suited to people downsizing and first time buyers, so we've kept that in mind when doing the renovations by keeping it plain and simple.

Have I done the right thing by paying out £3,500ish to try and keep a property at its original buying price in 2007?

When we moved in we replaced the lime green walls with magnolia, refreshed the gloss and took all the hideous waterproof wall paper off the walls and again, replaced it with magnolia paint (took forever and a day!)

I've now replaced the kitchen floor, put new cupboard doors on the kitchen cupboards and boxed in the boiler which is an oldstyle glow worm which didn't do the place any favours.

I've also insulated the loft myself and put flooring down for storage.

The bathroom was !!!!!! - not only did it have grey tiles to waist heights, the bath, sink and toilet were from different suites (and eras it seems). The bath was enamel but chipped, the sink got smashed (my fault) and the toilet was leaking - I've got the builders in this week for a complete refit (tiles from floor to ceiling, new suite, all got from B&Q in their 27% off sale). The builders aren't cheap to my mind (£1,800 for a small bathroom) but they're well known as doing a good job, trustworthy etc and I can't be about to watch over them and they could do it this week before their next job as they'd had a cancellation (all the other builders are booked up like they were until end of feb)

We're going to dress the house as we have 'free' storage at my parents.

It's now a pristine 'show home style' flat. I hope the effort is worth it.

I'm thinking of trying to sell it privately in a hope of minimising costs.

moromir

tim_n wrote: »

I've also insulated the loft myself and put flooring down for storage.

Did you make sure to check the lease before doing either of these/inform the managing agents/get their permission in writing before doing the work if required by the lease? A lot of the leases I've seen recently include stipulation about the flat remaining carpeted (opposed to 'wood' or other hard flooring and would require the loft insulation to meet certain standards (especially if there are any light fittings sunk into the flat ceiling).

Might be a potential hiccup if you come to sell?

Tuscan

not sure it will still be at the 2007 price now, we live in Thurrock Essex on a new'ish estate with flats and houses, in 07 my neighbour sold his house for £217,000 and id say it would be sub 200k now, and would need to be 180-190 to have much hope of any serious interest at the moment...

Wickedkitten

The only way you are really going to know for sure is by getting someone to value it. A person could easily say that putting 3.5k worth of stuff into it isn't going to raise the value by 3.5k, but I'm sure that isn't what you want to hear.

Fire_Fox

I agree with Moromir: is the loft even yours according the long lease to board out? Usually if you are allowed to take over the loft space you also take over maintenance of the roof ... expensive.

CloudCuckooLand

Getting rid of horrid paint is more likely to increase interest than pay you back, although the bathroom sounds like it needed doing badly and might be necessary to avoid putting people off.

Not much chance of getting the same price, I'm afraid...


[IMG]http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/houseprices/housepriceindex/report/default.asp?g=1&gt=1&a=Essex&s=01 January 2007&e=01 November 2009&t=1[/IMG]
Depends when in 2007 you bought, and how good the deal you did was, but it looks like roughly £100k.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

But at least yours will be the most likely to sell out of two places, one similar to how you took possession of your own...

tim_n

Technically the bording only goes over the communal corridor (which is also in the loft space above my flat, and 'no one knows' who installed it. The insulation is a different matter - there was 4" above my flat and I told the housing association that I was going to do it for warmth in the winter, cooling (it's a south facing flat so gets very warm all year round) in the summer and to stop some of the noise which passes so easily over the loft cavity. It's really helped actually and I can barely hear my neighbour unless he's got his windows open.

Downside is that he's put a brick through his windows and his door was recently kicked in so the adjoining flat is a far less good state which brings down my area. I've been on at the housing association for about 6 months about it now, nothing has still happened because the tenant can't afford to pay to replace them.

tim_n

Similar flats in the local area were going for £127-135k, I couldn't understand why it was so cheap until my neighbour started acting up.

sarah_elton

I bought a 2 bed flat (usually easier to sell than 1 bed due to having a wider market) in Essex in Jan 2006 for £115k and spent around £5-6k on it (replaced the windows, plus painting, light fittings, carpets and floor tiles). Sold in Feb 2009 for £103,500.

Market has risen again a few percent since I sold. Might have got £110k if I'd sold it now, if I got lucky and found an over-excited buyer. Unfortunately they're in short supply at the moment.

But OH and I are looking at houses (we've been renting since I sold) and they've dropped by more than my flat did.

The state of your neighbour's flat will be a big turn-off to buyers when they view and probably will affect the offers you receive. If there's any prospect of the HA doing something, I'd wait to sell till they do.

tim_n

Thanks sarah - it's good to get the opinion of someone localish to the area. We'll have to see how it goes, I'm not in a mad rush to sell, I'm hoping the quality of the flat oversells the neighbour as the HA is moving very slowly. I might even offer to get him a new front door and replace his double glazed window to boot.