Doing up house prior to selling?

good_advice

Hiya
When we were choseing a new home a few weeks ago, location was the most important. Followed by a list of must have.
We soon narrowed our choice down by looking on Right move. Make sure you have good, uncluttered photos on the site. Grass cut.

When we did request to look inside houses it was more to see space, windows double glazed. State of roof and guttering. Age of boiler. State of garden. Add up cost of items that needed to be renewed against the asking price.

X2 houses we looked at could have been shown much better.
Crayon all over walls. Things hanging off walls. Doors punched in. Dirty washing on floors. Garden a mess.
Those houses are still for sale.

Your question about lino. If it is badly worn with holes, I would replace.
Painted area,s just make sure they are clean.
Declutter whare you can.
Good luck in finding you buyer.

Pixie5740

Why not take the advice of the estate agent over your brother? It's in the estate agent's best interests to get the property sold quickly and for as much as possible so they're unlikely to give you advice that would prevent these things from happening.

Red-Squirrel_2

I'd say if you're marketing at FTBs then they (generally) tend to place a lot of value on being able to 'just walk in' and not do any work. Most of them have no spare cash after buying anyway!

My flat was a bit worn out and neglected as I'd had no money to spend on it for years while retraining for my current job, so I spent about £1500 on it before putting it on the market. New floor, new furniture, new light fittings, painted everywhere, fixed everything that was a bit broken. I reckon that investment has resulted in me getting about 10K more for it than I would have if I'd just put it up as it was, based on sold prices nearby.

I'd say have a look at the sort of prices achieved by similar houses in varying states of decor/modernisation and see if a small outlay might bring you a decent return. If not, then just clean like mad and do a bit of 'staging'!

Missus_Hyde

We're in the process of selling my late mother's house and obviously wanted to get the best possible price for it ( it's in an affluent area where houses sell very quickly.) We didn't want to spend a fortune up dating the kitchen, bathroom etc. so we stripped out all the furniture, cleaned everywhere to within an inch of it's life (I scrubbed out the toilet and although I say it myself, it's so clean you could eat your dinner on it! )We then repainted the whole house including the outside, put in new cheap doors on the kitchen units, replaced the worn carpets with new nice looking but cheap carpets and gave the garden a thorough sort out and tidy and renewed the broken garden fence. The whole exercise cost us very little in money, although the effort nearly killed my husband and sister (neither of whom, like me, are in the first flush of youth!:p)

However, it made a substantial difference to the price we were able to get, plus we found a buyer before the house was actually on the market, so the effort was worth it.

I would agree that there's very little point in gutting the house as any prospective buyer will want to make their own changes and in fact could well be put off by the sight of an expensive kitchen they instantly hate and have to rip out.

The most important thing is presentation.

Fireflyaway

I agree about the de-cluttering and making the photos look good. I nearly didn't view this place myself before we bought it, as the right move photos made the place look so small.
On the plus side we have had the wall painted and the boiler is quite new. There is nothing structural wrong. Planning to clear the work surfaces and get rid of photos and nick naks etc.
This is the first time I have sold a house and I feel nervous. Mainly as I don't want to leave but we have to - its too small.
Yes I suppose it is in the estate agents interest to achieve the best price. He has sold our neighbours place and the one opposite so I guess he knows his stuff.

TBeckett100

Fireflyaway wrote: »

Funny thing is there is an identical property already on the market and they have bright red carpets so I am quite hopeful !
Yes its first timers or investors. Will be doing a lot of cleaning. I think maybe I have become oblivious to bits and bobs like you do over time but people new to the house will pick up on.

I will give you one piece of advice. Never buy a tester paint pot the same colour as the room you are touching up. For some reason, it is never quite the same colour. I was dabbing around and was very pleased until next morning:eek:

NICHOLAS_2

Probably a waste of money, especially if the existing kitchen is dated and would probably be ripped out.

But estate agents always advise people not to do stuff, it's so you get on the market quicker with them.

You can increase the salability of your property greatly by improving its look but you'd probably need to spend more than £500.

Fireflyaway

TBeckett100 - good tip there thanks! We painted the bathroom ceiling and it looked great till it dried and now I can see loads of patches......

Fireflyaway

Thanks NICHOLAS. I think you are right. If I moved in here now as a first time buyer I would be looking to change the units. Based on that the floor might not go with whatever the new people pick etc. I think it probably is a waste of time and money altering the floor. I plan to take a load of stuff to my brothers so it looks less cluttered. I think people will buy it based on the area and room sizes not the d!cor.