Need to move - what shall I realistically do?

sarahe

Hello
Don't want to move but have to ...3 children, me and their dad love our 2 up 2 down terrace. It's lovely but just too small. Toyed with the idea of a loft conversion - but doesn't solve all our problems of being too small. The only way that two can share the bedroom at the moment is that they have toddler beds.

We have a great family set up - both of us only work part time and don't want to take on any bigger mortgage.

We know the house needs new windows, new central heating, new boiler, new bathroom, gutters cleaned, all rooms need redecorating and we have toys for girls and boys everywhere! Garden which is 12ft square needs a bit of a tidy too.

So what's the advice? Shall we move out for 6 months and do it all up and get the maximum we can for it?

Sell it as it is?

Do some things to make it get a slightly higher price?

We'd really need to replace 4 windows that are rotten and the outside where they have pebbledashed it to hide the kitchen extension is falling off in places too!

I'm already fed up thinking about it not to mention the stress.

I did make a start and bought packing boxes and stacka boxes to start parcelling things up - so they can be placed in storage for a few months.

_Andy_

Hi

Can you give us some idea of what budget you have to spend?

Cheers

mrcow

If the thought of doing it all up is doing your head in, then clear up as much clutter (I mean toys and the garden etc, and don't mean that in an offensive way at all ) as you can and get an estate agent round to do a valuation.

They'll give you an honest opinion of what it's current worth is and what work would be best to do (if anything) before selling.

Then you'll have an idea of what kind of new house you can afford and can start looking for three/four bed properties.

covbaldy

My advice would be to get an Estate agent to value your house as it stands then tel lhim about some of the possible work and see how much that would add to it in value.

New central heating and bolier would be £1000 for equipment and £1000 to fit(ish)

Windows say around £2,500

Bathroom suite and fit £600

Cleaning and redecorating would be your cheapest cost. We have found that Wilko paint is very good )

I think you need to weight up what the price difference would be.

Alan

Contains_Mild_Peril

If you have room in your loft, use it to store some of your belongings to keep the rooms fairly clutter-free and give you more room for redecorating etc. You can do a lot of the work while you're still living ther, but replacing central heating is a big job, and not really something that can be done conveniently around normal family life in an inhabited property.

ScoobieGirl

Declutter , get rid of as much furniture as you can to make the rooms look as big as possible and get an honest friend to come round and tell you what they notice and fix that before you get the estate agent in.

bobsa1

declutter and clean, give the worst rooms a lick of paint. If the bathroom is really bad do it, but otherwise I'd leave it.

sarahe

Hello thanks for all the advice.
My neighbours have got theirs valued and I reckon ours would be similar in price. I may have to read the endowment mortgage section as mine after 12 years is only £9,000 and is likely to be £24,000 short.
I went to argos and bought 20 boxes ready to stack in our loft, to declutter, I've filled all but 6 of them and had to buy stacka boxes for books as they were too heavy for the cardboard boxes.
We're in the middle of painting our bedroom - that did need doing as it has been plaster for 2 years.
I got someone to give advice on the windows and they gave some interesting advice about how to cut out bits of the wood like a jigsaw put new bits in.

Anyway thanks
Sarah