Taking out a loan to increase value of home at sale?

Shedemei

My husband and I are working towards selling our house. It has various problems such as bathrooms desperately in need of redecoration, a damp patch, etc., and my husband wants to do the repair work on these as it will significantly increase the value of the house (based on his research it will vastly more than repay what we pay for the repair work). OK, makes perfect sense to me so far. 

The problem is, of course, that we need to come up with the money in the first place. His plan is that we just take however long it needs to save that money up (one project at a time), and stay in the house until all of that is done. My concern is over how long this might take. Now, fair enough, we're not looking to move out tomorrow, and it would fit well with other plans for all of this to stretch well into next year. What I don't want is a situation where we're still stuck here the year after, the year after that, the year after that... 

So, while I'm not thrilled about going into debt, I would like us to at least explore the option of extending the existing mortgage or taking out a separate bank loan. We're both employed in reasonably secure fields, not living hand-to-mouth, and could spare money towards paying off a loan in monthly instalments until such time as we get the house sold and can pay off the rest of the loan out of the proceeds. I appreciate it would add thousands extra in interest to the total cost, but that might well be worth it (at least to me) so that this doesn't drag on indefinitely.

I suspect my husband will be resistant to the idea, so I wanted to run it by people here so that I can get some impartial views on whether this falls into the category of 'has pros and cons but reasonable to at least consider' or 'terrible idea, don't even think it'.

Shedemei

Sorry, this is completely unrelated to the question, but I've just realised that when I signed up here some years ago I picked a username from a book I used to like, and since then have realised with hindsight that it's the name of a homophobic character written by a really homophobic author. I don't think there's a way to change it, but I apologise for a poor choice of username.

prettyandfluffy

Have you got any equity in the house?

Shedemei

prettyandfluffy said:

Have you got any equity in the house?

Quite a bit; we've paid off the majority of the mortgage.

Hoenir

Not dealing with maintenance issues such as damp will only lead to further problems in time. Property ownership unfortunately isn't just about paying the mortgage. 

YBR

I's suggest you deal with maintenance issues like the damp, but not redecoration except to make good after the maintenance. Most buyers will want to redecorate to their own taste and it will add little to the value.

Shedemei

Hoenir said:

Not dealing with maintenance issues such as damp will only lead to further problems in time. Property ownership unfortunately isn't just about paying the mortgage. 

Sorry, that one needs clarifying. The cause of the leak has already been dealt with, but the leak left a persistent stain on the ceiling, which has been very gradually drying out over time. My husband's plan is to get this replastered/painted once it's completely dried out. (This is one of several reasons why we would not be implementing all this work and moving out straight away even if we won a pile of money tomorrow.)

HampshireH

Your first post indicated repair works but it sounds all cosmetic now you have clarified the repair work was completed?

How much are you expecting to need /borrow?

Decorating doesn't need to be expensive can you do it yourself?

Even replastering 1 ceiling shouldn't be expensive.

I would suggest you write a list of every you want done and get some quotes (if you take measurements for example a plasterer could quote you over the phone only then would you know if it would be more sensible to save to do it (if you have no savings) or to get a loan.

Shedemei

HampshireH said:

Your first post indicated repair works but it sounds all cosmetic now you have clarified the repair work was completed?

How much are you expecting to need /borrow?

Decorating doesn't need to be expensive can you do it yourself?

Even replastering 1 ceiling shouldn't be expensive.

I would suggest you write a list of every you want done and get some quotes (if you take measurements for example a plasterer could quote you over the phone only then would you know if it would be more sensible to save to do it (if you have no savings) or to get a loan.

Thanks, yes, that last is what I want to suggest to my husband. What I'm hoping for on here is some advice on whether a loan should at least be on the list of options we consider, or whether it's a terrible idea that I should nip in the bud right away.

Shedemei

The work is things like dealing with flooring that's badly chipped (in the kitchen) or peeling away. Other stuff as well, but on that kind of level; looks bad in a way that goes beyond 'would this room look better painted a different colour'.