Selling house: things worth doing before putting on the market

Louise.H

Hello all,

House is soon to go up for sale as we intend to downsize but up location; currently live in Yeovil and are looking in the surrounding villages.

This is the listing for the house when we bought it getting on for a year and a half ago - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29523298.html
- We have removed all the carpets aside from downstairs hall and stairs, in the process discovered lovely original floorboards downstairs but up they are in a poor state.
- In the dining room stripped wallpaper, painted magnolia and opened up the fireplace.
- In the process of turning one side of front garden into parking as the road is narrow and on street can be a nightmare.

Now where I want opinions is what else do people think is worth doing - new carpets upstairs or leave the boards? Paint other rooms magnolia? Etc...

This will be my first time selling so I would greatly appreciate any input.

Angelicdevil

Your link didn't work, is this the property?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29523298.html

Louise.H

Yes, thank you for finding a working link. Will edit into my post.

Lovelyjoolz

Your link doesn't work, so I can't comment specifically on your house, but in general Magnolia is very off putting. It's too bland and bleurgh!

If the floorboards upstairs are bad, leave the carpet down. I'd have thought that was obvious...

Louise.H

Link should work now.

Magnolia is boring but given the current wallpaper I thought stripping it and giving a blank canvas was better, with the carpets they were stained and smelly hence the removal despite of the condition of the floorboards.

phoebe1989seb

Personally I detest the pinky hues of magnolia, as it smacks of houses *modernised* cheaply by a builder and prefer some colour myself, but if I wanted to create a *blank canvas* for selling purposes I would rather opt for a cream or off-white shade - something by Craig & Rose (or F&B)

If you have some nice area rugs for the downstairs rooms I would leave the floorboards bare, but carpet the bedrooms. On the stairs could you fit a carpet runner perhaps? We were looking for a temporary fix for the stairs in our project house and found an amazing length of Roger Oates on eBay for under £80 - retail value ten times that. With some stair rods it looks fab - so much for a quick-fix, we'll not be changing it now

Whatever you do will most likely only make your house more saleable - rather than add value - but if it stands out head & shoulders above the competition and attracts a quick sale, it will be worth it

Smith_007

Lovelyjoolz wrote: »

If the floorboards upstairs are bad, leave the carpet down. I'd have thought that was obvious...

I disagree with this.
We have sanded and varnished floorboards in our house and they are now beautiful....... if a little Scandinavian

Far better to spend money bringing out original features of a house rather than a neutral carpet in our opinion.

Mallotum_X

Smith_007 wrote: »

I disagree with this.
We have sanded and varnished floorboards in our house and they are now beautiful....... if a little Scandinavian

Far better to spend money bringing out original features of a house rather than a neutral carpet in our opinion.

The point was the floor boards are "bad" if they are full of cuts and scrapes etc perhaps when central heating or other work was done then no amount of sanding or varnish will make them anything other than bad