WWYD: renovation outpricing house value

phoebe1989seb

It's a really difficult one to answer - I can't actually bring myself to vote, having seen both sides of the coin......

If you really do intend to stay decades, I think I'd get on and go the whole hog, then sit back and enjoy your beautiful home.

A word of warning though - like yourselves we had previously (nearly) always made money on our house sales - until the last place, which we also over-spent on as a result of not knowing/researching the area at all. Having sold our large family home and been as a result able to become mortgage-free at just over 40, we fully intended this to be our *forever* home.

Unfortunately it was a huge mistake and a month in we were left with making the decision of whether to do the work or put it straight back on the market.

It was a gorgeous one-off, period detached (400 years) that hadn't been touched since the '80s - think green kitchen sink, louvre doors everywhere and salmon artex There was absolutely nothing locally to compare it with and price-wise it was in a different league to neighbouring properties - which should have been a warning sign in itself!

However, we decided to do the work. Big mistake. £40+k later we sold for £20k less than we'd paid three years earlier. We could have hung out for more, but houses on the market in 2011 (when we sold ) in the same price bracket are still unsold. We were just glad to get away.

Otoh, our family home we threw £80+k at, loved living there for ten happy years.......and made a huge profit when we sold

Edited to add (having seen Dafty's post below) -

We also did/do a lot of the work ourselves on our major renovation projects (currently on our fifth) and have *saved* a fortune by doing this. DH recently assisted our plumbers to do two new shower rooms, having found a firm that were happy for him to do this. He did all the gutting, plastering, tiling, decorating and general prep work and vastly reduced the cost, although obviously the job took a little longer. We also shopped around before finding trades that would accommodate us in this respect - our sparky and the builders that did our 6.5 x 5m extension were chosen for this reason too.

Having gutted and restored a six bed, 350 sq m Victorian house that had previously been *squatted* in by a series of filthy tenants for best part of fifty years, I can sympathise with your situation, but agree that your proposed costs/level of work suggested sound unexpectedly high for a ten year old house. Although it was over ten years ago, our works cost no more than £85k which included a bespoke hardwood conservatory, natural stone flooring, high end bathrooms, new slate roof and timber style UPVC DG windows to rear as well as rewiring etc. We did have to put in a new heating system - to replace the economy 7 storage heaters - but all skirting, doors, architraves etc were salvageable despite decades of neglect.

lessonlearned

There are two ways to tackle a refurb.

The first is to throw money at it.

The second is to invest your time and take it slowly, doing as much as you can yourself.

Unless a house is actually uninhabitable I think it's better to live with it for a few months before you make any firm decisions. Mistakes can be costly.

Your budget does sound incredibly high for a 10 year old house, unless it has been the victim of wilful damage and has been absolutely trashed such as someone actually ripping out fixtures and fittings, smashing sanitary ware, kicking in doors etc, fire damage,allowing pets to use the house as a toilet damaging wooden floors etc.

My family home was damaged by wheelchairs, zimmer frames and careless carers dragging equipment across my wooden floors. Architraves and door frames were damaged, plasterwork was gouged and dented. I had to replace a bath and wash-hand basin.

I also inadvertently set fire to my kitchen - don't ask:rotfl:.

Replacement doors, worktops and light fittings to the kitchen - including labour, £700.

Replacement bath and wash-hand basin, including labour £450.

Sanding and refinishing floors - labour £320. I could have hired a sander and done it myself for about £50 but I had hurt my back at the time.

Repairing door frames and plasterwork I did myself - just the cost of wood fillers and patching plaster.

Then a complete redecoration from top to bottom, just the cost of paint.

The whole lot, plus a few nice new accessories came in at under £2k.

A 10 year old house should not need a rewire unless there has been serious fire damage. The consumer unit may need changing, especially if you go for a partial upgrade - i.e. additional sockets etc.

A new new boiler and radiators should cost around £3k (ish) depending on the size of the house.

Whether or not to build an extension is a separate matter. That's a lifestyle choice really, presumably to give you more space.

Generally adding square footage to a house does increase it's value, however, there is no guarantee that the increase in value is equivalent to the cost of the building works.

Davesnave

We have the same sort of problem. In our case it's an agriculturally tied bungalow with land & outbuildings. There's a need to completely re-jig much of the interior, due to previous occupants' mad choices of layout.

We also want to extend, because we'll lose useful ancilliary space demolishing add-ons, which are not fit for purpose.

On top of that, we don't want to be tied to oil for heating.

It's all very well for those who say 'Make it a home, not an investment,' but when it's not a house one might keep into old age or infirmity, then the question of what it might fetch is important.

In our case, not busting through the current £400k ceiling is tricky, because although the rules regarding ag-tied property are widely flouted, the potential pool of buyers is still limited, mainly to those who can buy for cash.

We'll be taking a middle road. Some glaring issues will remain, but we've coped here for 4 years with things as they are, and we're confident that our location and land cannot be easily bettered.

It's a very personal decision and I couldn't possibly vote for what you should do, but good luck whatever you decide.

tBagpuss_2

Given your comments that you expect to be there for decades, I would see it as a home, and do what you want to make it the home you will be happy in. If knowing that you spent the extra will eat away at you and destroy your pleasure in the property, don't do it. If it will stretch you financially and cause stress, don't do it.

But otherwise - you can't put a price on 10+ years of contentment and living somewhere you love - see it as an investment in future happiness rather than a cold, cash investment.

DaftyDuck

It really has to be a personal decision; there are too many unknown - and unknowable variables to offer a clear answer. However, a few points spring to mind.

You keep talking of "your builder".... how many quotes have you obtained for the work? Even allowing for the utter destruction you list, the budget is high - extremely high. I've just gutted a six bedroom 1930's house, complete rewire, re-plumb, replaster and refloor/carpet internally. Externally repainted, re-fascia/soffit & gutter. Repaired walls of double detached garage (no, not the s-word... definitely not... :shhh: ). That came to well under £40k, only going a little over if you add in a 9X4 conservatory and a new brick drive... and then only just....

I obtained multiple quotes, didn't necessarily go for the cheapest but the most economic, found workmen from different spheres who'd work together and who were more than happy to let me do the bits I could (so, for example, all floorboard lifting/relaying for electric & plumbing I did... neatly!, all redecoration by me... except repairs to moulding done by a plasterer "when he could fit it in between big jobs"). I was given a catch-all quote at the beginning of £65k by one large firm, and that work cost under £30k from using smaller contractors and doing the fill-in work myself.

So, on this front, I suggest making a very comprehensive list of jobs (mine was five sheets of typed A4) and discuss this with several small contractors, see how much you can save. See what you can tackle yourselves, and see what a builder may actually encourage you to do. There are jobs that take an age, are not skilled, and are difficult to cost.... and they may welcome letting you tackle these.

Mind you, I'm still perplexed by the need for new radiators and skirting throughout.... are you sure you are being well advised?

So, whatever the cost ends up being... you intend to stay. So, work out what the overspend is likely to be (say £9,000), work out how long you intend to stay (say 12 years), and work out how much that is per month or week... the above is £14 per week... for pleasurable comfort.

If you are intending to stay that length of time, the bathroom and kitchen are likely to need to be redone in that time, so those costs are not "fair" capital costs; they are more consumable, like carpets and paintwork over that timescale.

(More to add with an edit in a while... work is callong on the other screen!)

(Sorry, work is arriving in spades, so brief finish...) OK, so if you work on the basis of the spend divided over time, it doesn't sound like such a bad deal. If it enables you to stay in that house even one year longer than you otherwise would, the cost may well therefore be worthwhile on a "head" not "heart" basis.

(Darn the call of work... that's my lot!)