Best way to add value to a home

somethingcorporate

In terms of a remortgage valuation unless you are doing anything substantial (like adding bedrooms etc) having the garden grass or hard-standing will not make any difference.

Who are you with? We're with the Nationwide and they have been indexing the value of our house so the remortgage was really straight-forward. We bought at £310k in July, they tell us it is now worth £327k based on movements in average house prices without having to come out to do a valuation.

Firemunchkin

My husband and I are in a similar position at the moment. Our current mortgage deal (fixed rate) ends in August and we will look to remortgage on another fixed rate deal.

When we moved in, there was a wheelchair ramp up to the front door. It was rotting so we've removed it. It left half a front pathway. We are currently arranging for a new front pathway to be put in.

The front garden is basically a huge lawn, nothing on it at all. We're going to put a raised area with sleepers and put in large green shrubs.

There was a brick shed in the back garden, right outside the back door and blocking all the light into the back of the house (south facing). We've knocked it down and will put some decking over the foundations, going right up to the back of the house. The bricks we are reusing for a brick pathway round the side and building a BBQ in the far corner. We won't have a shed for a while, but eventually we will get a new one in the other far corner, with a lean-to greenhouse and some raised vegetable beds, lavender bushes etc.

I had hoped all this work would add a little value to the house, but from the sound of this forum it probably won't.

We were also considering whether to get D/G throughout - currently S/G, or French doors in the dining room leading out to the garden, or separating the (large and wide) front bedroom into two. Trouble with those latter options is they're hugely expensive and we can't afford to take on any more debt right now (and clearly don't have the cash).

If nothing else, I suppose, we're making our gardens more pleasurable for us in time for summer - which is fine for me. Would have been nice to think it would add a little to the value, especially as our neighbour told us the brick sheds (which were built on all the houses in our area during the 1960s) devalue the place!

trailingspouse

If you're planning on staying there, then adding value isn't what you need to be doing. It's probably more important to sort the house out so that it works for you (as long as you don't do anything completely mad that would reduce the value!).

Why do you need to remortgage? Would it not be better to use the money that you're planning to spend on doing up the house, for whatever you need the remortgage for?

For example - you spend £5,000 doing the place up in the hope of getting a second mortgage on it. It takes 6 months to do it up. You then apply for a second mortgage, which you may or may not get (and which you will have to pay back, with interest). If you don't get the second mortgage, you've also no longer got the £5,000 available to you.

Or you leave the £5,000 in your bank earning 4% (and add to it over the next 6 months). Then spend this money on whatever you needed the second mortgage for.

Babbawah

The reason why so many struggle to find a good builder these days, is the fact that they make more £money, with a lot less hassle, by property developing, even on a small scale.

A builder I have an immense amount of respect for, does nothing more than buy 3-4 bed properties in the Notttinghamshire town of Southall & extend them to 4-5 beds.

Any other improvement to an average house makes it nothing more than easier or likely quicker to sell.

It is the adding of bedrooms that adds the easiest value increase to cost effectively achieve.

After deep interrogation involving mind altering drugs (real ale). He assures me that £30k's worth of work will add at least £60k to the value in this particular town.

He does on average 2 every year, which puts him on a £60k pa 'ish wage.

Liverpool85

My friend has just got new valuations for the purpose of getting a new mortgage product on her house after his fixed rate period of a HTB mortgage had run it's course.

They just did a "drive by" valuation and a desktop valuation and neither went in the house they just went on other sold prices in the area etc.

So doing those things probably won't add any value, in fact significantly reducing parking could reduce it I would assume.

I would just spend the money on whatever improvements you would enjoy.

cazs

Babbawah wrote: »

The reason why so many struggle to find a good builder these days, is the fact that they make more £money, with a lot less hassle, by property developing, even on a small scale.

A builder I have an immense amount of respect for, does nothing more than buy 3-4 bed properties in the Notttinghamshire town of Southall & extend them to 4-5 beds.

Any other improvement to an average house makes it nothing more than easier or likely quicker to sell.

It is the adding of bedrooms that adds the easiest value increase to cost effectively achieve.

After deep interrogation involving mind altering drugs (real ale). He assures me that £30k's worth of work will add at least £60k to the value in this particular town.

He does on average 2 every year, which puts him on a £60k pa 'ish wage.

I very recently read an article in the paper about adding which room adds the most value and as per the above pretty sure the winner was an extra bedroom.

Babbawah

cazs wrote: »

I very recently read an article in the paper about adding which room adds the most value and as per the above pretty sure the winner was an extra bedroom.

The 3 golden rules of property are : Location, location & location. It sounds corny but it really is true.

Many developers have failed by chucking £money at a project & not actually increasing the value.

In any given location, the more bedrooms generally means the higher value.

Mistral001

pearson27 wrote: »

hi all

if you wanted to do up your house with the aim of adding value (if such a thing is possible in this day and age) would you:

Decorate

or

do up the garden - this would involve turning a car port at the rear of the house into a garden type area using fake gress, decking or paving etc

thanks in advance

First one maybe the second one definitely No.


Decorate by all means but decorating just to sell always looks like "decorating just to sell" and only impresses a few in my view.


Replacing a car port with fake grass? Maybe real grass.


As others have said valuations for re-mortgaging are rarely thorough. I was told by one surveyor who did them that he was only interested in aspects of the house that would make the house not mortgageable such having no bathroom or kitchen.