Sprucing up the house for sale

[hwjm1945]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but want to do something other than tax return, so here goes.

How much does having a nicely newly painted interior actually add to the value of your house? How much does de cluttering add?

In a good market, which I understand the current one is, will people look beyond dated decor, and look at room size etc, or do you think that this would have a big effect on price?

All fundamentals are sound, just a bit tired.

I think in a good market a 'tired' house will sell itself, and wouldn't bother to do much beyond a good tidy up.

If the market is slow where you are, i would tidy it up by painting and decluttering to give it the edge over competitive properties.

We're about to put our property on the market and are doing a de clutter and just touching up a few things to show its potential. I don't think it adds any value but it just makes it a bit more sellable if you know what I mean.

I don't think it adds value necessarily, more that it will make a house more sellable. People mostly tend to see through decoration if the house ticks all the other boxes.

You could ask the advice of an Estate Agent in your local area.

And a big yes to decluttering- you'll need to before you move anyway!

I would declutter, but not worry about painting. The less stuff you have, the easier potential buyers will be able to imagine themselves living there. Tired paintwork matters less imo.

I think the difference is that, in a strong market, a smartened-up house will sell to one of the first five viewers whereas a scruffy place might take a little longer. Many buyers have no imagination and are surprisingly unable to look past a bit of dated décor.

Yes, declutter. We are looking atm. Lots of places have been Ok but seemed very very small and hectic because they were full of stuff.

I can see the potential with houses and frequently go for the worst, oldest fashioned, needing the most work - and it was putting even me off.

But don't decorate beyond covering up any drawn on areas etc. Not unless you're going to do it really well in neutral colours and so on.

Places that sell best are done in good taste, and to a very high standard in terms of workmanship.

If someone has cobbled in a new kitchen but not finished the gaps at the back or put it together properly etc, it will lower the value for me - as I'll have to rip it out and start again. So either do it very very well, or don't bother.

Whenever I've been house hunting I've usually just looked past superficial paint colours and stuff like that, but manky carpets/grotty kitchens that needed replacing would make me consider how much I'd be willing to spend on it

I have de-cluttered and had a good old deep clean, but I wouldn't bother repainting the whole house in neutral colours (unless the paintwork was minging and chipped)

Think of it this way. Two houses same neighborhood, same floor plan and price.
One is cluttered and dingy, one looks like lots of care has been taken, sparkly clean, tidy, fresh neutral paint and spacious due to de-cluttering.
Which will sell faster and for closer to the asking price?
I know which one I'd make an offer on. It would mean I could move in an even before I could move in.

If you have orange walls with green woodwork, then paint! If decor is safe, then just de clutter. Make the house look as cosy yet empty at the same time! No toys in lounge, worktops clear etc etc.

Check out the property forum .... you can share the joys (what joys!) and tears of moving house! Good luck!

Depends how good the market is locally. Our estate agent advised us not to waste any money doing anything to the house before it went on the market (and we got 4 above-asking-price offers within 3 days).

If it's a bit slower though, it might help. But it depends whether you are fussed enough about it taking an extra few weeks to sell to spend the time and effort, I guess?

As long as it has a decent garden and the right number of bedrooms most people buy houses on the basis of kitchens and bathrooms.

If you have a grotty kitchen and skanky bathrooms people start costing in ripping the whole lot out and starting again with a total refurb as we did with our house . That costs a lot of money and time and they just knock all that cost off their offer.

If you can persuade them that a total refurb of kitchen and bathrooms is not necessary they will make a higher offer.

Definitely declutter - however, the problem with decluttering (especially with DC about!) is that it's an infinite task. We always said we'd declutter before we moved but never felt like we'd even scratched the surface and it was so hard finding the time free of DC and exhaustion.

In the end we moved into rented in the new area we now live in, so the whole house was empty. The paintwork and carpets were "tired", the kitchen 30 years out of date as was the bathroom. Sold in two days for nearly asking price.. although this was London to be fair. So much depends on the market. If we'd known how easy it was going to be we would probably have moved sooner and the decluttering may have made no difference at all. Then again perhaps the fact the place was empty helped!

We've decluttered loads since then in a bigger house with more room to temporarily store stuff we're working through!

Tricky one really

I have been looking at rightmove and I do agree that when you see pics of lovely, light, uncluttered, modern looking houses, I lean forward with interest, but the floral carpet ones or very cluttered, I really have to pore over to get a feel for what they might be like
I am so idle really that the idea of all this work is v off putting, but equally, do not want to lose cash cos of laziness!

The absolute least you should do is to give the place a good clean. We flip houses every year so I'll usually go for the manky old houses that need work but then obviously I'll factor in the cost of that to ensure a profit. For normal buyers I think it's more important to ensure that there's nothing to scare them off. As posters above have said, if there's vaguely neutral decor in place, just have a VERY good clean and a tidy and make sure that dirty plates etc are banished whenever you have viewings. You'd also be AMAZED at the difference a few bunches of fresh flowers can make. De-clutter and try to leave all tabletops and counters free of all detritus. Whilst those that want to do work will look beyond the decor, there are a lot of buyers out there that really just want to move in and not do much work. And for those that don't move often, if they perceive there is a lot of work to do, they may be put off.

I deep cleaned my flat, put down fresh carpets and painted those rooms that needed repainting (every room bar the kitchen and bathroom!). I had lots of views and good offers immediately.

Two other flats in my block were on for a lot longer.

I spent less than a month's mortgage payment, it was well worth it for speed. Four days of hard work saved lots of time in the selling of the flat.

Clutter is hard to see past, as are dark and manky carpets and walls.

If everything is in good condition, neutral and relatively clean, then no point redoing it though!

We are just looking to do this too with a view to putting on market in March. We had three agents in to give us a view of possible price and what they would consider worth doing .

They all said the same thing- our decor is relatively safe so leave that. Teenagers bedrooms are quite bright colours on a feature wall each, but other than that they are clean, plenty of storage so they said to leave.

They said the biggest things for us to ensure "kerb appeal" ie garden needs to be a bit neater, demonstrably lower maintenance ( it isn't- its big and one of the reasons we are moving now little kids don't want to run around it anymore) and things like front paintwork neat as first impressions count a lot.

No clutter in hall way so people can move around freely. We have two small and not particularly smelly dogs, but there is definitely a faint doggy smell in the areas they use so suggested a carpet clean and banish dogs for viewings.

And finally to make sure each room has a defined purpose - so our "nothing room" is becoming a study/hobbies room etc

I'd rather take on a kitchen and bathroom from the 1930s than something 'modern' that hasn't been done very well indeed and to my own taste.

The thing is you do have to break eggs to make an omelette and that means whoever put in that new kitchen etc, has had to do some damage in the process. However small. And that means when you have ripped it out, the place you have left to work with is less good than if it had just been left as 1930s..or 1960s or whatever.

School, I agree on the dogs thing (sorry! I'm sure they are lovely!) - I cancelled a viewing for a potentially very good bargain because I googled the street and found the owners, who would be showing us round, had a dog which had attacked a little child in their street recently.

I am sure your dog isn't in the papers! But still, it can be a worry for families who aren't good with animals or have children with them/are nervous of dogs.

Also a recent viewing was a complete fail due to piles and piles of un-cleared up dog shit under the trampoline on their patio. It was GRIM - and the dog was an aggressive sort, and was in the house, and I just wanted to get out of there asap.

Normal dogs and normal hygeine wouldn't be an issue though!

You may as well declutter - if you seek you'll have to pack all that stuff up and takeout with you, so you might as well clear out now!

As others have said, if decor is neutral and in good condition don't worry, but freshly painted skirting really waters up a room, and peeling paper makes a room look unloved.

I think clean and fresh smelling is more important, particularly on bathrooms and kitchens.

Oh, and think less about price and more about speed of sale. Being on the market a long time is awful and would most likely cause you to reduce the asking price.

When we sold our last house, the solicitor came round and gave us a list of things he thought we needed to do. It included re-carpeting the entire house a neutral colour (we had different rooms with different coloured carpets). It made a massive difference to how the house looked and emphasised all the redecorating we had already done. It sold in 1 week.

Decluttering is also very important imo. Make sure each room fits it's purpose e.g if you're advertising 4 bedrooms make sure that's what the buyers see (not 3 bedrooms and a playroom for instance).

Also, if you have animals in the house remove them for viewings and make sure you air the house well.

Depends on area I think. Houses here sell fast if they are 3 bedroom. I looked more at the floorplans than anything else as space and room to extend were more important than decor. But yes kitchens and bathrooms matter most and declutter if you can.

I am going to paint the whole house magnolia & have a good clear out & fix anything broken. That is all that needs doing, I had double glazing put in a few years ago & I replaced my back fence a few months ago. I don't expect to pay anymore than £150 for paints & materials.

I think people are more likely to put an offer in quickly if the house is smart & needs little doing to it. I put a. Offer in a house before I bought my current one & had to pull out because:
The vendor knocked the chimney Breast without support & permission
changed the direction of the windows from horizontal to vertical without consent
built a downstsirs extension & converted upstairs bathroom into another bedroom without consent

As it was a listed building, the council wanted us to apply for retrospective permission without guarantee of permission being granted. I wasn't prepared to take an additional loan of £20k+ to make it all good, so I pulled our.

So vendors, make sure that you have all the permissions & safety certificates required otherwise it could cost you a sale.

Six bedrooms for £300k in Liverpool, mysteriously still on the market.

Very clean too.

.

My experience is: in certain markets, people will buy any old rubbish, but markets like that don't come along often.

Most viewers have zero imagination and will be put off by irrelevant detail ... I once had a viewer say to me that he wouldn't go for house x because he didn't like the (freestanding) cooker! Clutter makes it difficult to see the wood for the trees.

A house which is neat and tidy and has all those little maintenance jobs done suggests care and gives viewers confidence that there will not be any hidden untended problems. It is also simply creates a more comfortable viewing experience.

For the same reasons, either leave the agent to conduct the viewings or, if you really must do it yourself, DON'T TALK TOO MUCH and let the people have some time on their own so that they can discuss things freely.

Let me put it this way, I buy up cheap houses when I can afford to. I choose houses that have double glazing and a passable bathroom and the Kitchener with everything in the right place so replacing it is easy.

The houses I pick up look unkempt and messy, sometimes stinky. I'd have to paint them magnolia and put in hard wearing neutral carpets anyway so I go for the cluttered ones that need painting if the room sizes are right. I can decorate a house and bung in a new kitchen for about £4k and then see an immediate return on my investment. People have no imagination.