A new driveway or not?

dinofabio

Hi All

I'm going to put my house on the market and would appreciate some constructive advise about whether I should get my drive paved or not.

To give you some background. The house is 4 bed detached, worth about £200K in today's market, and the house itself is well maintained and in good order both inside and out. The only problem is the tatty tarmac drive, originally layed when the house was built 20 years ago. It's breaking up in parts, and uneven. In all honesty, it's a mess.

The drive is about 60sq metres. I've had 3 quotes from reputable local companies, and it's averaging around the £3000 mark to get it block paved in standard block.

My question is: Should I cough up and get the work done, or just sell it as it is (with a price to reflect this)?

I know having it done will make the house more saleable, but I can't see it making the property more valuable (to the tune of £3000 anyway!).

I was thinking of just saying to the Estate Agents and prospective buyers, that I know it needs doing, but it's been priced to reflect this.

My attitude has always been, if you price something right, it will sell regardless of condition.

What would you do?

I'd appreciate any comments

doctor-dee

If I was looking at 2 properties each £200k and one had a nice drive but the other didn't (and that being the only real difference), I'd choose the one with a nice driveway.

If the same two properties were priced at £200k and £197k respectively, with the argument (sales pitch) being I could use the £3k saving to do the drive - I'd probably still go for the one at £200k just because it's less hassle as it's done already.

BUT... It would have to be done to a good standard, no point cutting corners. I wouldn't want to be buying it thinking that one day one of my jobs would be to improve the drive. In that case I'd buy the cheaper one as I'd want a nice design drive etc.

Mayflower10cat

My feeling, too, as already stated; it'll give your house greater appeal with the nice new driveway. It'll look very smart on the spec sheet and also as your viewers do sneaky drive-bys prior to making an appointment to view. I would also agree not doing the drive and lowering the price, might tempt potential buyers to try and haggle you down some more.

ukcarper

What about having drive resurfaced and edged with blocks. Not everybody’s that keen on blocks and they can look tatty after a couple of years.

gardner1

dinofabio wrote: »

Hi All

I'm going to put my house on the market and would appreciate some constructive advise about whether I should get my drive paved or not.

To give you some background. The house is 4 bed detached, worth about £200K in today's market, and the house itself is well maintained and in good order both inside and out. The only problem is the tatty tarmac drive, originally layed when the house was built 20 years ago. It's breaking up in parts, and uneven. In all honesty, it's a mess.

The drive is about 60sq metres. I've had 3 quotes from reputable local companies, and it's averaging around the £3000 mark to get it block paved in standard block.

My question is: Should I cough up and get the work done, or just sell it as it is (with a price to reflect this)?

I know having it done will make the house more saleable, but I can't see it making the property more valuable (to the tune of £3000 anyway!).

I was thinking of just saying to the Estate Agents and prospective buyers, that I know it needs doing, but it's been priced to reflect this.

My attitude has always been, if you price something right, it will sell regardless of condition.

What would you do?

I'd appreciate any comments

me and my mates will do it for £1000 all in using the in tarmac technology
it is layed 1 inch thick on well prepared 1 inch gravel using highly skilled operatives comes with 25 yr guarantee

contact-P1KEY driveways/tree surgeons/gutter cleaning/building services/plumbers and garden maintanace at local pub:cool:

silvercar

gardner1 wrote: »

me and my mates will do it for £1000 all in using the in tarmac technology
it is layed 1 inch thick on well prepared 1 inch gravel using highly skilled operatives comes with 25 yr guarantee

contact-P1KEY driveways/tree surgeons/gutter cleaning/building services/plumbers and garden maintanace at local pub:cool:

I actually agree with this. We were in a similar position a few years ago. We had a large driveway and the quotes were around 5-6k to block pave. We paid a dodgy fly by night £400 to re-tarmac. It remained in a decent looking condition for about 2 years.

tyllwyd

We've got a similar problem - our concrete drive is looking bad, but replacing it could be expensive because there is a small retaining wall that would need sorting out as well, and we don't have the cash sitting in the bank ready to pay for it, we'd be taking a chance that we could sell and pay off a loan with the proceeds.

In the current market, I don't think that doing work like that is going to increase the price you can ask for your house, although it would obviously make the house more attractive to a buyer (assuming there are any out there!) So if you need a quick sale and you can afford to effectively drop the asking price by the amount you spend, then I'd say do it - but it depends on your priorities.

gardner1

tyllwyd wrote: »

We've got a similar problem - our concrete drive is looking bad, but replacing it could be expensive because there is a small retaining wall that would need sorting out as well, and we don't have the cash sitting in the bank ready to pay for it, we'd be taking a chance that we could sell and pay off a loan with the proceeds.

In the current market, I don't think that doing work like that is going to increase the price you can ask for your house, although it would obviously make the house more attractive to a buyer (assuming there are any out there!) So if you need a quick sale and you can afford to effectively drop the asking price by the amount you spend, then I'd say do it - but it depends on your priorities.

P1key Building services £100 all in

shegar

gardner1 wrote: »

P1key Building services £100 all in

Do you accept travellers cheques???? !!!!:eek:

Jenniefour

Or give the bloke down the pub a miss - and go for a proper job on tarmac, if you like it. Mate had one done by a local reputable company about 12 years ago - still looks as good as when it was laid.

And although you won't get your money back it's a kerb appeal issue which might put off some potential buyers. And costs nothing to ask a local agent or two what they think.

hazyjo

I think people's tastes vary so much with things like this. Can't you just put a car/cars on the drive and let people see the house first? If they love the house, they'll probably forgive the drive. It will give them some bargaining power, yes, but seeing as everyone's making offers these days, it might not be a bad thing - you'd save the cost of actually getting it done plus taking a drop in price.

Not saying 'be sneaky', btw... A driveway's for parking on, so don't think it would be wrong having a car/cars on it. It's not like having a whacking great big hole in a carpet and me saying stick a rug over it and nobody'll know! If someone appears to love the house, you might even want to point out the driveway and say you realise that the driveway needs some work but other than that it's a hassle-free property. Do you have a recently fitted roof or anything that's been done that you can mention?

Tricky one... I'd be tempted not to get it done, or at least to test the market first. Depends how quickly things are selling in the area. Not sure you'll get that money back on a sale, but, as mentioned, it will make it more attractive to buyers.

Let us know what you decide to do.

Jx