Cost to Update House

alidai

Hi everyone

After a few unsuccesful offers and people bidding higher than we can afford on places, me and my girlfriend have found a house in the area we like which needs a lot of updating.

Basically the house consists of Lounge, Dining Room, Smallish Kitchen, 3 Bedrooms and a Bathroom.

Our maximum amount available is 135k and the house has been on the market for a while at 130k.

The house is gas central heated and has double glazing. The works that need doing are:

Kitchen gutting out and new one fitted inc appliances, bathroom gutting and new one fitted, all other rooms stripped, mostly plastered and then simply painted.

The actual structure of the house seems fine so no work needs doing there, just mainly upgrades to bring the house up-to-date.

My question is how much will this generally cost us and at what price would you normally start the offers at. My thinking was to start at 115k giving us plenty left to refurbish. Completely refurbished houses in the area are going for around 135-140k.

p.s. This will also be our first house.

IveSeenTheLight

alidai wrote: »

Hi everyone

After a few unsuccesful offers and people bidding higher than we can afford on places, me and my girlfriend have found a house in the area we like which needs a lot of updating.

Basically the house consists of Lounge, Dining Room, Smallish Kitchen, 3 Bedrooms and a Bathroom.

Our maximum amount available is 135k and the house has been on the market for a while at 130k.

The house is gas central heated and has double glazing. The works that need doing are:

Kitchen gutting out and new one fitted inc appliances, bathroom gutting and new one fitted, all other rooms stripped, mostly plastered and then simply painted.

The actual structure of the house seems fine so no work needs doing there, just mainly upgrades to bring the house up-to-date.

My question is how much will this generally cost us and at what price would you normally start the offers at. My thinking was to start at 115k giving us plenty left to refurbish. Completely refurbished houses in the area are going for around 135-140k.

p.s. This will also be our first house.

First of all, its always a good idea to try and get the house as cheaply as possible. Just weigh up the market conditions i.e. are there any others interested in the house?, what is the market valuation? how many properties of similar status are on the market? etc etc

Replacing a kitchen and bathroom will really depend on how lavishly you want to do it up.
You could do it relatively cheaply by going to a DIY store and doing most of the labour yourself or you can get in specific trade companies to give you a high spec / high cost kitchen and bathroom.

For the kitchen, have a look at it again. you can refubish a kitchen by puting in a new worktop, changing some handles and giving a lick of pain. Of course chanfing the hob / oven / sink as required.

What you should consider is, is the house livable in? If so you can move in and slowly do it up then this can be cheaper. My first flat had the bed in the living room while we removated the bedroom. When we renovated the bathroom, for a coule of weeks we were going round to parents for a bath.

It seems like quite a good first time house, given that it is structrally sound, has DG and GCH (my first flat did not have these).

Its always good to get a first time house that needs a bit of doing up if you are prepared to and can move in and do the work as you can afford it.

Good luck with the purchase, I'm sure you will love having your own place

alidai

Cheers for the reply.

The house is liveable in so that would be a good start, as it has been lived in previously but i think by a very elderly lady and the kitchen/bathroom have basically gone to pot!

I don't think there are any others interested in the house as it has been up for a good while. We actually viewed it a month ago and dismissed it because we were looking for something to walk into completely finished. But after a few rejected offers and one sale fallen through i've come back to this one which i'm trying to gauge now how much it'd cost to do it up.

I've gotta say that we'd enjoy working on it together (well what we can anyway!). So it wouldn't have to be brand new for us to live in. Then again we are both at our parents houses at the moment so could stay there for a while longer to do it up.

IveSeenTheLight

Go for it then.

I still have fond memories of my first home, doing it up and having a real feel good factor on how much we improved our home.

One suggestion thought if you do buy.
Take absolutely loads of pictures before you do anything.
You will have a great time occasionally looking through these photographs and comparing with the after refurbishment pics

Good luck

alidai

Cheers for the info & help, i'm going to see how the viewing goes with my girlfriend then fingers crossed we'll make an offer!

ameliarate

Hi, my last house needed the same kind of work as you are talking about, an elderly lady having lived there. My kitchen was fitted by a friend's husband for me, it cost around £1200, not including tiles and flooring but including oven and fridge. The bathroom was £850to take out the old suite and replace with a new suite and shower, again not including flooring and tiles. The plastering I did room by room as I decorated because my brother in law plasters but it might be cheaper to get all the rooms done at once normally. I took photos and it was wonderful to see what I had achieved. It took about three years altogether. Have now sold and moved and am doing the same again with my partner, though on a larger scale! Put in a low offer, you can always increase it. Good luck.