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To renovate or not before putting house on market
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RelievedSheff said:I wouldn't be spending huge amounts of money on a property I was selling.
Declutter, tidy up, deep clean and perhaps give a few key areas a lick of paint and tart up but nothing other than that.
The people that buy it will have their own ideas what they want to do.0 -
Hi
Personalky I'd sell as is but I'd have a chat with local estate agents to ask what they'd value it as is & if you do some work on it to help you make a decision.
However the other thing to consider is somethings may not add value but they do make a property more saleable.
Jen2 -
I'm not clear why demolishing the conservatory (which sounds like a good idea) means also decommissioning and demolishing the toilet. It sounds like the toilet building itself is sound, as you suggest possibly integrating access to it into a new conservatory. Personally I would not be put off by buying a house with an outside toilet.3
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We looked at a fixer upper last year. It made us laugh because the estate agent was very insistent over the course of the viewing that if we did £10k’s work on X, £10k’s work on Y and £10k’s worth of work on Z we would add £30k to the value of the property no problem….
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Grizebeck said:gazfocus said:I would agree with others in that I'd probably reskim - cracks can easily scare ftb's off so for what it will cost, getting it skimmed is a no brainer. The rest, I'd leave as it is and sell it as it stands.
We hid big cracks with a wardrobe and a mattress1 -
We are in the process of buying a doer upper at the moment and it has been really difficult to find a house that's been priced with its condition in mind. Most houses at the moment seem to be priced based on their size and don't take into account the condition (i.e. I posted a while back about two houses we'd seen...one needed the kitchen stripping back to the brick really and re-doing, the other was immaculate...both in the same area, for sale for around the same price).0
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Thanks everyone for the responses, it seems like the general consensus would be to market it as-is and price it accordingly.
Like others have mentioned on here there's a lot of property on the market where the pricing doesn't reflect the (poor) condition. That might have worked when things went silly in 2022 but certainly wouldn't work now and I'm well aware of that.
We'll get some valuations done and take an 'average' of them, and then consult a mortgage advisor to work out how much extra we could realistically borrow to fund the next purchase. I'm hoping we can port our existing mortgage to the new property and take out additional borrowing to cover the difference as the existing mortgage is fixed until 2029 at 2.6%. It's with HSBC and it does state it is portable in the agreement but I haven't re-read the small print yet.2 -
I'm in a not dissimilar position, although my 2-bed 1930s terraced house was bought in 2010 and I have done no major work to it at all - I've just not had the money. That means everything that needed sorting then is another 13 years older, but I've tried to maintain it as best I can in that time.
I would have to move out to do the work it needs and that's not a possibility, so I'm planning on selling it as it is - and a narrow market it'll have to be. I might re-wallpaper a few walls so that it doesn't look as 80s as it currently does, but really it needs gutting in every room and starting again, rewiring, new doors/windows, new kitchen and bathrooms etc, which isn't going to happen.
I'm planning on realistic pricing - I thankfully have decent equity in it after paying the mortage for 13 years and a steady increase in the market in that time (current LTV probably roughly 35%-40% depending on eventual valuation) - but am aware that my market is basically skint first-time buyers desperate to get on the ladder like I was, or as an investment property (rental demand is very high in my area) so I'll just have to see what happens.1 -
SensibleSarah said:I'm in a not dissimilar position, although my 2-bed 1930s terraced house was bought in 2010 and I have done no major work to it at all - I've just not had the money. That means everything that needed sorting then is another 13 years older, but I've tried to maintain it as best I can in that time.
I would have to move out to do the work it needs and that's not a possibility, so I'm planning on selling it as it is - and a narrow market it'll have to be. I might re-wallpaper a few walls so that it doesn't look as 80s as it currently does, but really it needs gutting in every room and starting again, rewiring, new doors/windows, new kitchen and bathrooms etc, which isn't going to happen.
I'm planning on realistic pricing - I thankfully have decent equity in it after paying the mortage for 13 years and a steady increase in the market in that time (current LTV probably roughly 35%-40% depending on eventual valuation) - but am aware that my market is basically skint first-time buyers desperate to get on the ladder like I was, or as an investment property (rental demand is very high in my area) so I'll just have to see what happens.
When this house came on the market in 2012 at lower asking price than any others nearby had sold in my old home town, my father had an endowment mature which had a modest surplus and he kindly gifted me that to me to clear the negative equity on the flat and put towards this house. With that HSBC were willing to lend me just enough money to buy it! Just lucky timing really else I would have been stuck living in a flat in an area I didn't particularly like.
Since then a number of life events, plus bad financial choices due to poor mental health happened which cost me a fair bit, then remarried and started a family so like you I have only had enough money to do the most essential maintenance/repairs. Thankfully being a practical type I could do most of the work myself to a good standard but since an injury in an RTC a couple of years ago I can no longer do any heavy work i.e. construction or groundwork. The good news is at least I didn't have any adverse credit events. The fear I have now is that with 3 dependants the new affordability checks might restrict my additional borrowing below what we need to upgrade to a 3 bedroom house. We shall just have to see what the mortgage advisor says and pray!1 -
littleteapot said:Sounds not too dissimilar to my situation. My first purchase (bad move) was a 2 bed flat at the peak of the last bubble in 2007. It didn't take me long to realise I hated living in a flat (being a practical youngster who was used to spending lots of time tinkering with all things mechanical and oily in the garage when I lived with my parents) and so when the bubble burst in 2008 and the value plummeted I just sat on it and saved as much as I could in the hope of eventually moving.
When this house came on the market in 2012 at lower asking price than any others nearby had sold in my old home town, my father had an endowment mature which had a modest surplus and he kindly gifted me that to me to clear the negative equity on the flat and put towards this house. With that HSBC were willing to lend me just enough money to buy it! Just lucky timing really else I would have been stuck living in a flat in an area I didn't particularly like.
Since then a number of life events, plus bad financial choices due to poor mental health happened which cost me a fair bit, then remarried and started a family so like you I have only had enough money to do the most essential maintenance/repairs. Thankfully being a practical type I could do most of the work myself to a good standard but since an injury in an RTC a couple of years ago I can no longer do any heavy work i.e. construction or groundwork. The good news is at least I didn't have any adverse credit events. The fear I have now is that with 3 dependants the new affordability checks might restrict my additional borrowing below what we need to upgrade to a 3 bedroom house. We shall just have to see what the mortgage advisor says and pray!
The affordability issue certainly is a worry when trying to get somewhere bigger. I'm probably going to need to compromise on location to get what I want within budget (single income mortgage and now self-employed so income can fluctuate a bit) but I've no issues with that compromise now that I permanently work from home and don't have a commute to consider. No kids to think about schools and not reliant on public transport, so I can hopefully get a bit more for my money by moving to a less popular or well-serviced area.
What this current house has taught me is that I'm not the kind of person that can do more than a bit of light decorationso another fixer upper isn't really on the cards for my next home. That is obviously going to have an impact on what I can afford, along with what I get for this place.
Thankfully, me moving to a bigger place is a 'want' rather than a 'need' - so I'm not under a time pressure really.0
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