Bother to modernise kitchen and bathroom? Or keep it cheap?

ashe

Hi everyone

Posted a thread recently about whether I should rent out existing house and buy a new house with my partner, or just sell and eat up the expected loss (bought in 2006 for 80,500, current values in the street seem to be about 64,000) and consensus was due to changes in laws etc renting out would be a nightmare, so am resigned to that.

Now the issue with selling this house is there are a number of things that could be improved so we are trying to decide if it would be best to do some minor rennovations or if we'd be better served leaving it.

The bathroom to the property is quite small with just a bath, basin and toilet. the decor of the bathroom itself isn't TOO bad but a little dated, the issue is more that the suite is an avocado suite so it looks awful.

The kitchen used to be truly awful, yellow wallpaper and everything. We've since stripped that, plastered and painted a neutral grey. The flooring is a pale wooden laminate that looks cheap and is chipped. The bathroom has the same flooring.

Our options at present;

1) Do nothing, sell as-is (I've requested some valuations so i can get an idea of what we are looking at properly)

2) Switch the bathroom out for a cheap white suite and re-tile walls and floor (its only a small room) to give it a more modern look. Leaving it bath only as due to shape of room its either shower OR bath and I've head having shower only is generally bad.

3) switch chipped laminate out in the kitchen, fit a more modern looking sink and replace hob, leave everything else as-is

4) any combination of 2 & 3

Is doing 2 & 3 likely to increase the sale price of the property? We are resigned to doing 2 anyway because we're going to be here at least another 6-12 months and it depresses us how dated the suite looks, were just not going to push the boat out on it. just tiles, cheap suite, skim and paint. Trying to decide if 4 will offer any return or if we'd be best leaving it as-is?

Can provide pictures if thats any help. Street is a mix of renters and mortgage, north east UK,

POPPYOSCAR

Why would renting out be a nightmare?

ashe

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Why would renting out be a nightmare?

Without going into the full detail of previous post, we'd need to pay additional stamp duty on the second property, pay income tax on the full rent received on the initial property, and it's not a great area (not a terrible one either), next door is rented out and it was on the market for 5 months before they got a tennant in at £450 PCM, a polish couple who did a runner after 2 months and stole all the white goods! Now back on the market again. Mortgage payment is £358 PCM now, so with an increase due to conversion to BTL, and the increase in tax/stamp duty/agent fees etc, seems like a lot more trouble than its worth vs just cutting and running.

Mossfarr

If you are going to be there 6-12 months I would deffo carry out the renovations.
Twelve months in a property you dislike is a very long time.

POPPYOSCAR

ashe wrote: »

Without going into the full detail of previous post, we'd need to pay additional stamp duty on the second property, pay income tax on the full rent received on the initial property, and it's not a great area (not a terrible one either), next door is rented out and it was on the market for 5 months before they got a tennant in at £450 PCM, a polish couple who did a runner after 2 months and stole all the white goods! Now back on the market again. Mortgage payment is £358 PCM now, so with an increase due to conversion to BTL, and the increase in tax/stamp duty/agent fees etc, seems like a lot more trouble than its worth vs just cutting and running.

That is not actually correct.


Residential properties

You or your company must pay tax on the profit you make from renting out the property, after deductions for ‘allowable expenses’.

Allowable expenses are things you need to spend money on in the day-to-day running of the property, like:

letting agents’ fees
legal fees for lets of a year or less, or for renewing a lease for less than 50 years
accountants’ fees
buildings and contents insurance
interest on property loans
maintenance and repairs to the property (but not improvements)
utility bills, like gas, water and electricity
rent, ground rent, service charges
Council Tax
services you pay for, like cleaning or gardening
other direct costs of letting the property, like phone calls, stationery and advertising

TBagpuss

I would suggest that you ask the agents when they come round. My experience is that agents won't say anything negative to you about the presentation of the house but if you ask specifically they may be able to give you some feedback.

When I sold my last house, I did consider whether to update the kitchen (80s orange pine) and bathroom - the feedback I got from the agents was that it would add a bit to the price, but having then got an idea of what the price difference might be, I decided that it wasn't worth it, as the cost of the work would be similar to, or slightly more than, the likely benefit.

Obviously that equation will be different for different properties, and if you are good at DIY and able to do most of the work yourself that may change things.

In my case, I was also conscious of the fact that the most likely buyers for my house would be FTBs or BLT landlords, so that a lower asking price and needing some updating might appeal to both. For what it is worth, my house sold faster than a neighbour's which was on for a slightly higher price but which had a newer kitchen and bathroom.

penguingirl

Can you not put a shower in over the bath? I think having a bath only would be very off-putting to both buyers or renters, most people need the option of a shower, and I don't think only have one bath/shower in a house is that unusual.

But for 12 months of living there I'd go with what makes it live-able. Would vinyl be an option for the flooring? We had it in our previous properties (never chosen by us), and I think it is preferable to bad laminate.

paddypaws101

Why throw good money after bad? I would do the absolute bare minimum and save the several £1000 towards my next property and decor.

AndyTails

As a general rule, the sort of cosmetic work you are talking about will cost about the same as the increase in price - it could be a bit more, it could be a bit less. The main difference that will be made is in saleability - the less work needed on a place the faster it will sell.


So, as long as you're in an area where houses sell quickly, it's probably not worth doing the work. If there are more sellers than buyers in your local market, you need to make your house look as good as possible, and it would (probably) be worth doing the work.


As an aside, I'll second the opinion that you should have a shower over the bath, with a shower curtain or shower screen to stop spray going everywhere.

xylophone

Make sure it is clean and tidy and price at "in need of modernisation/renovation"?

hufc2002

We are in pretty much the same scenario here and also in the NE.


Bought at the height in late 2007 for £107k and now probably worth £85-£90k max. Fortunately we owe £77k so least have some equity.


We replaced our bathroom a few years back but the room that depresses us is the kitchen. It was new when we moved in but definitely just a B&Q bog standard special officer. Units themselves are fine but the flooring needs replacing (vinyl that looks like tiles) and the built oven is beyond cleanable therefore we have thought about replacing both. Is it worth it?


The other thing we thought about doing was painting the ceiling and walls. Again is there any point?


We are both on leave this week so thought about getting it valued. Is it worthwhile in its current condition?