Are we doing the right thing? Re tarting up house

Marshflower

Hello all,

Just looking for some advice really. We have never sold a house before. The house (bungalow) we currently own is our first and was purchased with no onward chain in 2007. It had been completely empty for 12 months, was in a terrible state cosmetically and needed a lot of updating. Over the years, on a very tight budget, we have updated, cleared the ceilings of polystyrene tiles etc but have kept period features such as the fire places, picture rails, stripped the beautiful floorboards we found hiding under the ancient carpets etc. There are a few things outstanding such as the dining room ceiling needs re-plastering (it’s amazing the things you stop seeing after a while when you live somewhere which then suddenly leap out at you when you look with fresh eyes!).
Anyway, we are hoping to get the house on the market within the next 3 weeks and as such are frantically freshly painting, de-cluttering, sanding and repainting skirting boards, replacing blind in kitchen as existing one broken, replacing the rotten wood in the “lean-to” with fresh, treated wood and turning it in to a garden room, cleaning guttering and, the biggest expense, replacing the final 3 rotten original windows (not in any salvageable state or I would have kept and refurbished them as I love period features) with uPVC. This is costing us a total all in of £2000 and every spare minute we have between working and entertaining a pre-school age child. I have basically tried to walk around the house and garden as if I were a buyer and view it as critically as possible and made a (unfortunately large) list of what I would want to see if I were buying it all over again.
I am hoping that by doing this we might be able to get the best price for our bungalow, especially as it doesn’t have gas central heating but has storage heaters and point-of-use water heaters (which I actually find cheaper and more economical than when we rented and had gas but I know that’s not everyone’s perspective). We also have planning permission and plans already drawn up for a loft conversion for a master 3rd bedroom (already have 2 large doubles) with en-suite and kitchen extension, we just don’t have the money to pay a company do it all. We were planning on doing a lot it ourselves, hence going as far as getting all plans etc done, but it turns out that we are going to be needing an extra bedroom a little sooner than planned and I won’t be able to do any heavy lifting for a while, plus we just feel that the time is right for us to move.
But I’m digressing. Is all this worth doing? All this work? I really really want to get the house looking as fresh and clean and bright as possible but is it worth doing when the lack of GCH could be really off putting to some people? It would cost about £3K to put in but I think it’s a bit much to go to those kind of lengths prior to selling, especially as we much prefer the storage heaters and we have to live there in the mean time. Or would it add sufficiently more on to our selling price to justify it? I know we bought at the height of the property boom but we got a really good deal on the house so I know we haven’t lost money, plus we live in Bath so the house prices there just seem to keep climbing regardless of what is happening elsewhere.
When selling a house, in the experience of the seasoned sellers out there, is all this freshening and de cluttering and hiding of mess worth it? Does it promote a quicker sale and better selling price?
Any advice very welcome. I want to make our home as appealing as possible to attract buyers but just not sure if we are on the right track….
Apologies for rambling, I just don't really have anyone I can talk to about this.

LEJC

You are never going to appeal to the buyer who wants to move in and do no work,its more likely that its the builder or speculator who you are appealing to...ive just posted a response to a similar question on the board regarding my experiences over the last 18 months or so with a property we have renovated

Basically we never intended to sell but renovate to rent out we were given a figure of £x from an EA if we wished to seel pre renovation...completed a £40k renovation and obtained a current up do date valuation of probably what the house was originally valued at plus what we have spent on it...and basically the only difference now is that it would appeal to a different target market rather than the builders.

I have to also say that my renovation might not be a million miles from where you are located!!

It does take a lot of time to renovte and it can be very stressful so really its a matter of choice...but if your overall intention is to sell I wouldnt suggest that you do a great deal to the house as you are unlikely to recoup the money or time invested.

Davesnave

Putting in GCH would cost you time as well as money and you really want to be moving on. As the Bath market is pretty hot at present, I'd get it on with an agent, secure in the knowledge that I'd made the place look as presentable as possible.

Freshening up and decluttering is certainly worth it, but paying thousands for GCH and possibly stalling in the summer selling months doesn't seem sensible. Someone may well see your place as a forever house and the PP would be icing on the cake there.

hamster2013

you mentioned planning permission - so if that is your USP, then refurbishing is useless, as the building work will destroy all you are doing with the dust it will generate.

I moved into a house myself and partner loved - we did not see it from what needed doing, but from what the potential was - and how we would fit in the house and area.
That worked for us - and when we moved it.... we have been non stop for 2 months working on the refurbishment..... from the painting - which was a weekend job considering we did it whilst it was still empty - to changing door and windows to double glazing...etc
all in all, cost us around £5000k to do that.

If the buyer had done all this prior to us buying, i would not have paid him £5000k more...

so maybe it will speed up the sale of your house- but not increase in value.
The only things that increase house property in value, is getting the extension done.
Anything else will just help in pushing the sale faster.

Marshflower

Thanks folks. So, generally, do enough decorating to make it look fresh and decluttered and the odd jobs that are cheap but will knock money off if not done (eg DH to plaster ceiling, rotten lean to wood replaced) but not go as far as GCH?
I am relieved! The current tidying and freshening will mean living in chaos for a bit and take a couple of weeks but i know will be worth it as it's a cracking house and deserves to be preened and shown off in it's prime. But the thought of doing anything too drastic just to sell it was keeping me awake at night!
LEJC - I am now intregued as to where your property is!

Marshflower

Ps I know now the answer is pretty obvious and my post must make me look like a bit of a wally but I've been so bogged down in everything sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees!

hannhol

we have just bought a property that did not have GCH (well, technically it did but it had never been used or updated since original installation in the early 50s and only had two radiators). we were quite happy to buy on that basis, as it meant we could have a full new efficient system put in, with boiler and radiators of our choice. Obviously that was reflected in price, we paid £190k on an asking price of £210k, but the whole property needed redoing (we've had to rewire, plaster through out etc). Anyway, the point is, it didn't put us off

WestonDave

Bath is a good place to sell - you'll certainly shift it, and you may get lucky with a very good price. To some degree not over doing the work gives a buyer who is desperate to get on the ladder but not too fussy a chance to buy it and pay for the work as they can afford it whereas if you do it all they've got to pay up in one lump sum and it might be out of reach.

Pick your agent carefully though - be warned that some will quote very high values claiming they will get it from London buyers - fine for a punt but you need to be realistic that you may not get it and a more sensible price may be what you get. It will also depend where exactly it is as certain areas are more popular - you'll get more for the same house north of the river than south, and even then Larkhall tends to go for more than Weston (possibly due to the motorway access via A46 because people don't remember about Lansdown Lane - if you are Weston way worth making sure the EA mentions that route in the particulars!)

Marshflower

Thanks for the advice Dave. I know Bath fairly well - well enough to know that while our bungalow isn't in one of the "undesirable" areas (although having grown up a stones throw from Luton, the Bath definition of undesirable is frankly rather hilarious to me!), we are certainly on the wrong side of the tracks to command Larkhall-style/city centre "Bath" prices! That said, the road has certainly improved massively in the last few years (it was never dodgy, there have just been a few renovations etc that have smartened things up). I have rough idea of what it's worth given recent sales of bungalows nearby which have already had their lofts done and other 2 bed semis that are currently on the market with similar features. I also know what ideally we would like for it and am hoping that given my research, the 2 figures are pretty much the same. Just need to find an EA that values realistically around a similar figure. I may be pleasantly surprised or hideously disappointed by the valuation but I don't think so as have done research fairly carefully. I just think/am hoping that by doing things such as sanding and repainting ancient chipped skirting boards, freshing the kitchen paint up a bit, we could stand a bit firmer on our asking price as we would obviously like to get as much as we can for it.

On a slightly different note - how long does it take between selecting your EA (am planning on inviting 3 or 4 for valuation) and getting the property actually on the market?

ognum

Sorry posted in the wrong place!!!,

Marshflower

ognum wrote: »

Sorry posted in the wrong place!!!,

So many bungalows, such little time