Improvements in order to sell

ceegee

Leave it is it is!

It is a bungalow and the most likely buyers will be older folk. I am looking to downsize from the family home to a bungalow and have been looking at bungalows in various areas.

I have been struck by how many bungalows have been "modernised" with open plan kitchen/living rooms, laminate flooring, wet rooms and all sorts of other current/"fashionable" ideas.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't stand these "modernised" bungalows. I do not like the current "fashions" in house design. Maybe younger people do, but your most likely purchaser will be an older person/couple looking to downsize from a family home.

The bungalow is perfectly live-in-able as it is. Just keep it clean and tidy as at present. An older person/couple will be quite content to move into a clean and tidy house and "do it up" to their own taste and desires in due course. They are generally quite sensible about these sorts of things.

The housing market is in the doldrums as we all know, but February is the time when it picks up and there will be buyers looking for a nice bungalow.

Just make sure the price is appropriate.

Doozergirl

slopemaster wrote: »

True.
You said
"any developer would make money on your house" and that's kind of what I was thinking...

We've been looking at much more ordinary houses in the area where I live (2 bed terraces) and the ones that need new kitchens/bathrooms only sell quickly if £30000 below the done-up price. And we reckon the work to cost about £15000...

But then, my parents' house is a different animal and doesn't "need" improvement as such

Honestly, if you spend £15,000 doing up a house, you've scratched the surface, not fixed it. If a house needs the pretty things like kitchens and bathrooms replacing, what else have they neglected that isn't so pretty?

Your parents house is lovely, you can see it's been loved so it's not a property that needs doing up in the real sense. It's full of character - the walls do not need a lick of paint - it will not change the price. There are so many options for people at the moment, they can do very little to it, reconfigure the rooms by moving some walls or go the whole hog with extensions etc. As soon as you change the kitchen, you've made it 'finished' and you reduce your market immediately. The market for bungalows is widening, they are becoming fashionable. I think you run the risk of narrowing your market to people that like a certain kind of kitchen.

People are rarely in almost total agreement on a thread, I'd take that as a sign. As a developer, it's not primarily a developer's house - people already love it and everyone can see it's potential. Someone will pay appropriately for it, especially if it's in a nice area. Just be careful that you're not overpricing the 'finished' house in your heads and working backwards from the wrong point, because it won't sell if it's overpriced (the same as a reason why it won't let, so perhaps you're a bit prone to overpricing)

RenovationMan

Is that fireplace in the lounge serving any purpose apart from getting in the way of the patio doors? If not, I'd remove that and plaster it up. I'd also remove the kitchen tiles and put some plain and cheap tiles up, again this is a minimum cost item.

Lastly, I'd get rid of those built in black units and headboard in the bedroom and replace with a new headboard and stand alone bedside cabinets. You can remove these from the house once it has sold and sell on ebay if you don't want them yourself.

Basically I'd be looking to remove any 'stand out' features that detract from the whole presentation. You want the house looking as bland as possible so that potential buyers don't get distracted by poor features and concentrate instead on how they would have the decor, etc.

I wouldn't waste money on expensive items, it just needs a load of magnolia splashed around on te walls and white gloss on the woodwork to freshen it up and the removal/replacement of the bitsI have mentioned (plus any others that are not on the pics).

Kirri

I'd love a property like that! It does look a bit dated furniture wise but I'd agree with others and not go down the updating look, I'd rather buy and do up to my taste when buying. Some places I've looked at have totally put me off by the 'modern' open plan show house look and so many places now seem to shingle or deck the whole back garden too which is awful..

I suppose for letting as mentioned above, maybe get rid of the older furniture (the black cupboards in bedroom come to mind as rather stand out) and a bit of paint so looks updated but in keeping with the property.

Descriptions mention garden but no pics, that might help.

tyllwyd

I think that people are looking for different things when renting or buying - a renter might be put off by a dated kitchen, but there are buyers out there looking for houses to do up, and they might not be worried at all. I love the picture of the living room with light flooding in through the doors. I agree with the poster above that the black furniture in the bedroom doesn't look so good in the photos - I think it might be worth moving those out, and possibly a new headboard for the bed. Apart from that I'm another one voting to keep it as it is.

Doozergirl

RenovationMan wrote: »

Is that fireplace in the lounge serving any purpose apart from getting in the way of the patio doors? If not, I'd remove that and plaster it up. I'd also remove the kitchen tiles and put some plain and cheap tiles up, again this is a minimum cost item.

Basically I'd be looking to remove any 'stand out' features that detract from the whole presentation. You want the house looking as bland as possible so that potential buyers don't get distracted by poor features and concentrate instead on how they would have the decor, etc.

I wouldn't waste money on expensive items, it just needs a load of magnolia splashed around on te walls and white gloss on the woodwork to freshen it up and the removal/replacement of the bitsI have mentioned (plus any others that are not on the pics).

I couldn't agree with you less.

I would not remove the fireplace! I like it, some people will like it. If you get rid of it, they never have the choice of whether to keep it or not, you've made that decision for them. If someone likes the older, cottage style, which it clearly has with the windows and front door, they will probably want to keep characterful things. If someone wants to rip it out - they have that choice.

And to replace the kitchen tiles with cheap tiles? What for!? To make it look cheap and totally incongruous with the rest of the kitchen? I think it's fair to say that someone is going to replace the kitchen, never mind the tiles. What might happen though is that they may want to move the location of the kitchen altogether if they want to extend etc. in which case doing anything is pointless.

You're not improving the value by ripping stuff out of it and arguably, you're taking an immaculately kept, if dated property, and erasing the evidence of it actually being well kept by brushing over and erasing the evidence of that. A newly painted magnolia wall, when you can see it's not been that long painted anyway. If you paint the wall, you're inferring to a buyer that the wall was nasty to start with and that you're hiding something. Ditto with the tiles.

Changing the bedside cabinets because you don't like them won't really affect someone's initial thoughts of whether they want to buy it or not. It takes 11 seconds; it's nothing to do with bedside cabinets.

slopemaster

Old_Git wrote: »

have you asked the agent why it hasnt rented .
You need feedback from the agent .Is it the price or the kitchen ?

They just say the market is very, very quiet at the moment.
We have reduced the price and it now seems very sensible as it is an 'expensive' area. We did have a let arranged at slightly more than we're now asking, but they were selling and their house chain fell apart.

Generally the only negative comments we have had reported back from potential tenants are nothing to do with the kitchen, but are that the house is "too small". (We think it's quite big, but I suppose that says something about the area and the type of people looking.) One person did mention the built-in furniture in the main bedroom, and we had thought about taking that out to make the room look bigger. It is certainly not to everyone's taste, but very useful!

Just to clarify about the furniture, which others mentioned - the house is currently furnished as I am staying in it, but we have made clear to the agents that we would expect to let it unfurnished (but are flexible on furnishings if the tenants wanted to keep any items).

slopemaster

Several people mentioned paint and freshening up, but we have already painted the only room which needed it, touched up all the woodwork where needed, regrouted tiles, and replaced a couple of dated carpets. So all that basic stuff is done. We took the decision with the kitchen that it was all or nothing - decided not to mess about with half measures.

I would never take the fireplace out though!
It does work if wanted, and I think is part of the 'period charm' of the house which people seem to like.
I think that if we did do any major work, the challenge would be to modernise whilst keeping it in that period, cottagey style.

brightonman123

KEEP garage, change kitchen?

slopemaster

Doozergirl wrote: »

People are rarely in almost total agreement on a thread, I'd take that as a sign.

Indeed, perhaps I should!
Thanks all for the comments and advice; it's amazing to have so much feedback.