Is an estate agent giving us bad advice about tidying up house, and fitting carpet?

Rhubarb_And_Custard

My wife and I have a 3 bedroom detached house in Essex we have lived in for 20 years, but now both wish to move. We invited an estate agent around, and asked for two valuations.

1. With the house in its current state. This means carpet to the main bedroom, dining room and front hall. No carpet elsewhere.
2. With carpet fitted to all rooms.

The carpet, which was fairly good quality, is already paid for and in storage. We would need to pay the fitting costs to put it in any other rooms. Then all rooms which would need carpeting would have carpets on them.

In the second bedroom the carpet could go down immediately, as the room is fully decorated.

Other rooms require a bit of time (probably 6-8 weeks at the rate I work), and money.

• Around £200 spent in getting a bit of skirting board fitted, and paint. We have most of the other materials.
• Paying for the actual fitting of the carpet, as we have only paid for the carpet.

The estate agent valued the house at £370,000 irrespective of whether the rooms are tidy and the carpet is down or not. She suggested we market the house immediately, and take the carpet to wherever we might move to, as tidying up the rooms and fitting the carpet would add nothing to the value of the house.

The bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom need more work, and they are not something we wish to pay for.

Is the estate agent giving good advice, or advice based on her own self-interest to get the house marketed as soon as possible?

tealady

Hi you could put down the carpet, a potential buyer look round and think " that carpet HAS TO GO" . By all means market without carpet, you could offer the unfitted carpet as a sweetener. Some may like your choice, others loathe it.

kinger101

It might depend somewhat on local market conditions. But you're right it's in their interest to market ASAP. With house sales slowing down, and it already being August, I'd lean toward marketing sooner.

Decor doesn't add much TBH. Surveyors ignore it completely in their valuations. Most people want to redecorate when they move in anyway. It can help shift a house in a competitive market though, particularly among FTBs who might not have the cash left to redecorate the whole house quickly.

You can always get a decorator in to speed things up.

copperjar

We decorated a couple of rooms and put some blinds up on the advice of our EA. Two others said not to bother. We sold very quickly, but part of me wishes we had saved the money and spent it wherever we buy next because I haven't seen anywhere yet that wouldn't need freshening up

LittleMax

copperjar wrote: »

We decorated a couple of rooms and put some blinds up on the advice of our EA. Two others said not to bother. We sold very quickly, but part of me wishes we had saved the money and spent it wherever we buy next because I haven't seen anywhere yet that wouldn't need freshening up

But how do you know that you sold quickly despite your decorating and not because of it?

copperjar

LittleMax wrote: »

But how do you know that you sold quickly despite your decorating and not because of it?

Yes quite! Will never know. It probably did help to be honest - think I'm just bitter that we spent the cash on our old house instead of a new one!

upoiupou

I think it depends partly what the current state of the decor is. If the house currently looks shabby, run down or dirty or and a bit of paint would make a big difference, it could be worth it.

It also depends on what factors are most important in making your particular house "saleable". If it's best selling points are things like off-road parking and location, then a slight change in decor wouldn't make much difference. If you're likely to get a buyer/better price based on it's charm, period features or appeal to live in, then decoration becomes more important.

Either way, it should be very clean and as clear of clutter as possible. I'm a bit confused by your use of the phrase "tidy up" which seems to be for decorating. Definitely tidy up, whether you decorate is another matter.

Presumably you're asking more than one estate agent to value it and give advice? I think you need to find out what others say, unprompted.

smallholdingsister

Bear in mind the agent just wants you on the market asap.
They are April when they woo but December when they wed, to mangle an expression.

lynz68

I would be more inclined to put the carpet down I wouldn't expect it to add value though but it may get you a few more viewers.

I have recently started to look at houses in my area and to be honest I have skipped over a few with no floor covering and not given it a second glance I have however looked at some who's floor covering may not be to my taste but I could make do for a while.

AdrianC

What flooring's in the non-carpetted rooms currently?

There's a BIG difference between bare concrete or chipboard flooring, and nicely sanded/waxed floorboards...

yoshiyella

Depends where in Essex you are? I'm based in Romford (I know ) and houses pretty much get snapped up straight away!