Do up my Flat before I sell it?

sl_jones

Hi all,

Me and my OH bought our first flat almost a year ago now and i have to say i hate. I know we are lucky to be on the property ladder at the age of 28 but i can't wait to sell it. I suppose it because i went from living in a big 3 bedroom house with my mum and dad, to a smaller 2 bedroom flat with my OH.

I have checked on Zoopla, and they have estimated that the Flat is currently worth 185K, which is good as we only paid 175 for it. We have added in build in wardrobes since we bought it but I do not believe that the kitchen and bathroom has been redone since the flat was built.

Currently everything is still livable. The bathroom is a fair size but looks small due to the fact that we have a walk in shower, which is rather ill designed and hard to clean. I would like to change it back to having a bath and re-tilling it as it is a very dark blue and the bathroom has no window.

The kitchen is a bit less modern but again, is still livable and the last person who lived there put a brand new boiler recently. It is just again not designed in a way that makes used of it's small size.

So the real question is do we update both the bathroom and the kitchen? I have heard that redoing stuff like bathrooms and kitchen don't really make that much of a difference now a days. It's going to cost us around 7K to do it all, but i don't think it would add 7K to the property and is it ultimately worth using that 7K to doing a new property up?

vuvuzela

Personally I'd ignore the zoopla estimate, they don't tend to be that accurate.
I wouldn't update in your situation, that way the buyer knows what they are getting and can start anew - lots of people would want to do this anyway, even if it's been newly done. As you've only owned it a year, any money you put into doing it up would be dead money, there's no way at all you'd make it back.

19lottie82

Firstly, don't take Zoopla as gospel, it's not overly accurate. Your property may be worth more, it may be worth less.

I wouldn't advise replacing the kitchen and bathroom in the hope you will make a larger profit, chances are you wont. It's a very risky gamble.

Nobbie1967

You won't get your money back if you spend 7k on the bathroom/kitchen. Save your money so you've got a larger deposit for your next place or do the bathroom/kitchen to your taste if needed.

J_i_m

Don't do it. Let the prospective buyer put their own stamp on it if it needs modernising, it'd just be a waste of money you doing it.

Surrey_EA

There's no exact formula, but generally speaking improvements of the type you describe are unlikely to increase the value of the property by a greater amount than they cost you. So, if you're likely to be selling in the near future, don't bother, save your money for the next place.

Also agree with the advice not to pay too much attention to Zoopla's estimates.

lessonlearned

I agree, save your money.

By all means freshen it up with a lick of paint and then dress it nicely, maybe a couple of new plants, some flowers etc.

But generally just a thorough clean and make sure that it doesn't look cluttered and cramped.

Red-Squirrel_2

Agree with previous posters. New kitchens and bathrooms are jobs that you only need to do to sell if the existing ones are seriously devaluing the place and stopping it selling, like units hanging off the walls, or cracked avocado suites!

Spend a bit of time and money presenting it as well as you can the way it is, that will get you the best return most likely.

ethank

It is surprising how good your flat will look after a couple of weekends and a few tins of paint to freshen up.

I lived in my flat for 9 years and all we did was decorate ourselves and got a couple of grand under asking back in 2013.