Home improvements worth it?

saajan_12

pledgeX wrote: »

I'm slightly surprised that a lot of the comments allude to the fact that generally the only way to increase the property's worth is to increase the footprint. I'm sure a house with a dilapidated pink bathroom suite with cracked tiles, mouldy grout and dirty floor* would sell for less than the same house with a freshly renovated bathroom.

Yes, all else being equal, then it'd sell for less. But usually very little less, not nearly the cost of the work.

If you think about it, comparing
a) price of a dilapidated house + cost of renovating
b) price of a newly renovated house
a > b because with (a) the buyer has the choice to renovate to their taste whereas with (b) your 'newly renovated' could be a buyer's 'meh' decor. Also, newly renovated now will also start to get old by the time you sell.. Say if a new bathroom lasts 20 years and you sell it 5 years after decorating, you can't charge teh full premium of a new bathroom as the buyer will have to redo it in 15 years compared to 20years if they were to do the work and not pay the premium.

bouicca21

Actually when I was looking to buy I found that places that were structurally sound but needing to be dragged into the 21st century commanded something of a premium just because the buyer could do them up to their own taste. Of course the market was buoyant then ...

In terms of renovations/refurbishment, I would say that you have to factor in the value of your own comfort to the cost. In other words you may well not be able to recoup the monetary cost but if it has made your life better, then it may still be worth it.

Doozergirl

I’ll go against the grain. It will absolutely depend on how large that bedroom is and house values in your area, but a smaller 3 bed will usually sell for more than a larger sized 2 bedroom because there’s always someone that has to compromise.

Adding a shower will add some desirability, all other thingd being equal, but probably won’t pay you back.

Don’t even bother thinking about hiding the bulkheads of RSJs and lintels. We all live with them, the richest people included. The utter mess, risk and cost of the alternative is not worth it to most people. A waste of money.

Houses that need work ‘lose’ their value. They aren’t worth as much as a perfect house. Do the work, spend the money and you’re where you should be. Actually adding value comes from finding space. That almost always comes from physically adding it in the form of extensions or conversions, but reconfiguring houses can help if your net result is a feeling of more space without a compromise of losing it elsehwhere - and the value of land where you live.

spadoosh

pledgeX wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback folks.

We're not interested in a proper extension, as doing so would be a) expensive, b) take up too much of the garden, and c) the house would still be too small for a 'forever home'.

I'm slightly surprised that a lot of the comments allude to the fact that generally the only way to increase the property's worth is to increase the footprint. I'm sure a house with a dilapidated pink bathroom suite with cracked tiles, mouldy grout and dirty floor* would sell for less than the same house with a freshly renovated bathroom.

I'm not trying to convince myself the work would add value to the property. I would just like to have a better idea of how it would affect the price, if it won't, then it's perfectly fine.

* mine's not that bad, honest!

I bought my property in 2011. At the time the ceiling price for properties in the area was about £120,000. I bought for £104k. In that time house prices have increased according to the UK house price index to such an extent my house is apparently worth £118,000 (averages of course). On the same scale the ceiling price is now £136,000. Ive got£18,000 to play with to get my house to top spec.

My new bathroom cost about £2.5k (high spec, self fitted)
A new kitchen would cost about £10k (including electrics, wall removal between utility, and patio doors)
The new boiler cost £1.5k
Ive replaced a couple of windows and a back door. Cost about £1k.

Theres £3000 to play with before i hit the ceiling price. My house should be to the required standard to get that but thats also excluding the cosmetic decorating thats happened in the 6 years since i bought.

So ive got to spend £15k (on top of the misc costs along the way) and i might get the ceiling price, bearing in mind ill be competing with properties that have maybe a slightly older kitchen and bathroom and need a bit of a touch up which people can tailor to their needs.

Or i can do nothing and get £118,000.

I dont know what my buyer will want in a house so i cant possibly make those decision for them. I know what i want in a house so ill work to that, if someone wants to buy my house and convert it to two flats, my choices of refitting the kitchen will probably not be any value to them so why would they be willing to pay for it.

Planet_Switzerland

My view is you need to look at it from a buyers perspective. People say to me put in a fancy kitchen, give your garden a makeover etc and you can put 100k onto the value, but in reality if all that had been done to my property when I viewed it and it cost 100k more, there's no way I would have bought it.


As for extensions, I live in a one bed first floor flat and the ground floor flat has a small extension out the back and is therefore 2 bed. They are trying to sell it for 147k more than I paid for mine 18 months or so ago which I thought was optimistic. Six months later it still hasn't sold.


I've no idea how much they spent on the extension and obviously it should be more expensive than my flat, but to me its too expensive for a first time buyer, but not big enough for the second rung which is basically the reason they're trying to sell it.

pledgeX

saajan_12 wrote: »

how big is the current back room.. wasted space? how big would the split rooms be.. too small to be usable? In theory not expensive to just put 1 wall up, unless you need to move around additional walls, heating.. depends on the layout.

Missed this first time round.

The back room is currently ~5m x 3.5m, with a chunk taken out of one of the corners. Splitting it in two will leave one average-to-small room which would be a decent size if it had a single bed in, a double bed would fit but there wouldn't be too much floor space.

The other room would be very small. No chance of a double bed, but enough room for a cot/single bed or perfect for a study.

Doozergirl

pledgeX wrote: »

Missed this first time round.

The back room is currently ~5m x 3.5m, with a chunk taken out of one of the corners. Splitting it in two will leave one average-to-small room which would be a decent size if it had a single bed in, a double bed would fit but there wouldn't be too much floor space.

The other room would be very small. No chance of a double bed, but enough room for a cot/single bed or perfect for a study.

Doesn’t sound great.

Perhaps you’d be better using some of that space to make the bathroom larger instead of messing with the stairs.

AnotherJoe

Given the fact you’ll be moving anyway having endured all the disruption and hassle it seems to me you’d be better off buying something now that’s either more suited to what you want or could be turned into that.
The changes you’ve outlined don’t appear as if they make you any money so in effect they would be for little point since you won’t have much time to get the benefit of them before you move.

RobertoMoir

pledgeX wrote: »

The back room is currently ~5m x 3.5m, with a chunk taken out of one of the corners. Splitting it in two will leave one average-to-small room which would be a decent size if it had a single bed in, a double bed would fit but there wouldn't be too much floor space.

The other room would be very small. No chance of a double bed, but enough room for a cot/single bed or perfect for a study.

If this met your needs really well and you planned to stay there then fine, but this won't do anything for the property value when it went on the market. As for starting a family there, I think kids need lots of room especially when young. I think it would work poorly for a couple of kids once they were both out of the cot.