WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll ·
21/03/2021 22:55
There was a similar-ish thread to this recently, where OP's DH wanted to do major works to their house before selling it, in the hope of getting a much better price and/or secure a sale - very interesting thread, but I didn't want to hijack it.
We have an inherited house to sell and it's in need of quite a bit of TLC before somebody new would want to properly move in, but it's basically sound. The valuer is coming next week, so I shall grill politely enquire of him/her, but although obviously a professional, it's still only one person's opinion - plus they could make suggestions based on timings to suit them in marketing it rather than us in getting a better price.
It will need rewiring, a new kitchen and new bathroom - as per the other thread, we figure that whoever ends up buying it would want to choose their own and maybe get sockets put wherever they want, depending on if they knock down walls or reshape rooms etc.
It has stinky, manky, stained, threadbare old carpet throughout - a different hideous colour/pattern in every room. We plan to take this up and to the tip, to leave bare floorboards as a blank canvas for the buyer.
Otherwise, it has an extremely dated old gas fireplace - a kind of unit/suite with little shelves and everything, with the 'beautiful' old fake plastic log that lights up - which we plan to leave as is, rather than mess about with gas, as the buyer will doubtless want to replace it with their own choice and get a gas-safe engineer to do the removal and instal at the same time.
We're going to get the boiler checked and serviced (it was new in 2017) - with certified proof to present to the buyer, of course.
There are only two things we're not sure about. The walls are painted in garish colours that were never properly applied, so you can see bits of all three from the last redecorations over goodness knows how many decades all at once (with some rough-shaped bits completely missed where an easily-moved piece of furniture wasn't moved before painting) - except for one room which has horribly dated wallpaper. It looks really terrible and off-putting and wouldn't take too much effort or cost to repaint in boring blank-canvas colours, although areas would obviously need to be redone post rewiring, even if the new owners chose to keep the neutral colours we painted it.
The other thing is the decent-sized garden (bungalow on a decent-sized corner plot), which is mainly OK (needs a bit of tidying up), but there is an additional part that would naturally lend itself to being a 5 or 6-car drive (there's a dropped kerb) - obviously a really big selling point - but which currently is covered with tall weeds and doesn't really look at all like a potential drive. Also, there is a dated, very unattractive style wall around the whole property, bits of which are crumbling away and some have already fallen down.
Sorry, that was quite long - but what we're really wondering is whether it's worth repainting the house inside (thinking probably yes) and also whether to get the wall replaced with a simple picket fence or similar and to get the 'drive' part weeded and tarmac laid over it.
We don't live particularly near to it and won't have huge funds to invest in it, but we don't want to lose massively on how much it sells for. Obviously, it's worth a lot less with needing this work, so we aren't expecting top-condition market value; we just don't want to potentially lose out on tens of thousands when we could have avoided that by spending a few thousands initially. Equally, we don't want to waste time and money if what we do won't be wanted/appreciated/make much difference to the buyer. A similar property nearby, but without all the work needed, is up for around £300K.
If anybody is in the trade and/or has any experience of selling or buying doer-uppers - or just general suggestions as to what would or wouldn't put them off if they were buying, I'd really appreciate any input, opinions and suggestions - please be frank (and brutal if need be!). Do you agree with our decisions above, including the things we've so far planned to leave as they are? Any idea how much less each job/all of them together might reduce the value by? What's worth our while doing/not doing - or should we just accept that it will be bought as a doer-upper for a fair price and leave it completely as is for a new owner to do all of the jobs themselves, to their own tastes and specifications?
Lastly, do you think it's likely to be bought by a developer or by the intended new residents/their family - and will that make a difference as to how much we could expect to get. Just don't want anybody to get/feel ripped off - us or the buyers!
Many thanks in advance - for your input and for reading all of that!