Or is dh over getting house ready to sell?

[Shitpipe]

Recently found out our extension won't be happening. So we need to move.

House is 1970s semi in popular area. It's a ftb house. We were ftb 15 years ago. Valued at 145.

To get ready to sell dh wants to:
Do new kitchen
New boiler
Laminate floor throughout whole house
Paint all rooms
Get rid of built in bookshelves
New wardrobe doors in our bedroom
Wallpaper hall and landing to hide the plaster crack

I accept new kitchen/boiler. Kitchen is no longer fit for purpose.
I think carpets could have a deep clean. Although they're a bit tufty where cats have had a go.
Agree with paint.

I think he's being over the top. H

I hate laminate. I love my bookcase.

I'd rather chose exactly what I wanted from a new kitchen, rather than pay for someone else's tastes. I chose somewhere which needed work for my FTB for this exact reason. Just give it a good clean and tidy and price it accordingly. Good luck!

Sounds like a family home.

Many people like to move if they can fit it in within school holidays or so they know where their child will attend school so want their address for applying, From putting on the market to finalising is a how long is a piece of string question. I would go for on the market ASAP for this. Just paint and de clutter.

I agree with everyone who says get the estate agents around and get their opinion. Am in the process of setting my house up for sale at the moment. I have spent the past few months repainting the whole house ( it hasn't been painted in 5 years) I repainted the kitchen cupboards. I have done a huge decluttering and preparing each room for photos. Himself has done a good tidy up outside, that's all we will be doing. I would do the same for you OP, repaint, good clean, declutter and tidy inside and out. Agree on replacing the boiler, this will be a more energy efficient one so could make you some money back .

Just how bad is the kitchen? You’re suggesting at one point that it’s not sound, is this exaggeration or accurate? Will need a working kitchen to be mortgageable and FTBs will want to be able to live with it for a year or two.

IMO the biggest off-putting factor is location, followed by external appeal.
You cannot change location, but you can tidy up the frontage, make that look appealing , hanging baskets and plants in troughs (you can take with you too). You need to get the buyers inside so they can envisage themselves living there (with their new kitchen).
I'd agree with EA though, get their take on what's worth doing and what isn't I would say boiler is more important than kitchen.

It would be crazy to do all that stuff for sale.
But so get the views of a couple of EAs. when we last sold, the first agent advised changing carpets, painting and doing some other bits. Another came and just suggested declutter if (we had very small children at the time). We went the second and got more than the first valued the house for!

I don't even agree about the kitchen.

When I view a house I want either:

• a kitchen I love
• a kitchen I don't feel guilty ripping out

A new, cheap kitchen would not be one I loved - or at least very unlikely to be.

I'd spruce it - you can repaint tiles and doors to make it look fresher without much expense - but not put in a new one.

I remember in a previous house, after getting a lovely new kitchen fitted we had the family round for dinner.

FIL walked in, DH said “what do you think?” and FIL said “I don’t like it, it’s not my taste at all, I’d have to rip it out and start again if I was buying the house”. He didn’t like the style OR the layout.

And that’s the chance you’ll take with fitting a new kitchen. Personally I wouldn’t be fitting a new kitchen just to sell the house. I’d knock some of the cost off the asking price instead.

Well if I bought a house with laminate all through, the first thing I would do is put carpet down. I think that is over the top.

Agree with everyone. Get a valuation and take it from there.
Doing all that work is madness. You'll be sick of it, lose any enthusiasm for doing up a new house, and miss the boat with property prices. If you sell very quickly you've still got an outside chance of buyers catching the SD deadline at the end of June (an added enticement).

We sold our house last week - it was on the market for four days.

It’s a small Victorian semi, dated kitchen, dated bathroom. I cleaned everything, painted the kitchen tiles and cupboards plus walls and ceilings throughout. Massively decluttered. The only new thing I bought was a set of matching towels from Dunelm and a £30 Habitat rug for one of the bedrooms.

I'm tempted to do the estate agent thing cos I'm not convinced it'll make that much difference.

What do you mean ‘tempted’? Surely it’s common sense and first thing you would have done before arguing with your DH, getting friends opinions and opinions from ransoms on the net! They are the ones who know the local market, what sells, what doesn’t, what you will get your $$ back on or what will drive up $$ and what won’t. Asking anyone else and arguing with your DH before you have this information seems odd.

I agree with a pp whose dm kept doing work "to sell".

Does OP's dh really want to move? His list of necessary improvements sounds like a cry to stay in the house.

EAs always say not to do a new kitchen just before sale. Chances are it won't be to new owners' tastes and they will not want to pay for privilege of subsequently ripping it out.

It also depends on your area. if you are in an oversubscribed school area, the condition of the house will be irrelevant as many families just want a house in that area and are willing to pay the market rate for a tired house (or even one needing serious renovation) just to be in catchment.

If the area is less sought-after, then you may well need to make the house more tempting.

Ask a couple of estate agents to value the house. See what each of them say then go from there.

When we sold a few years ago we did not bother to do the kitchen, as all of the estate agents said not to bother as it was clean and livable with. The buyers were more interested in the boiler and the roof.

We just cleaned and repainted the hall stairs and landing. A few bunches of flowers, and it sold.

having said that, no matter how desperate I am to be a school catchment area, I would never buy a house with laminate throughout...

Honestly don't don't do it!! We viewed lots of houses last year which had higher asking prices due to new kitchens/ flooring being installed but they weren't to our taste so we'd have looked to replace them anyway! I think a lot of people would rather feel like they've paid a fair price for a blank canvas that they can tailor to them, especially FTBs who are likely to have a smaller mortgage allowance anyway? Painting walls is fine if you really want to and they're really grubby, but ultimately I'd hold back from any big cost purchases that might not be to a future buyer's taste or style. Good luck!

@Henio

Don't wallpaper over a plaster crack, either get it repaired or leave it visible so potential buyer can see it needs repairing

Absolutely agree.

We bought a house covered in wallpaper. It was hiding a multitude of sins, which we learnt our lesson from. Plus, I hated the lot and it took us months to strip it all off and get ready to paint. I’d never buy a wallpapered house again. I won’t be the only one.

i think better to sell for less, as buyers love to feel like theyre getting it for cheaper even if they have to do work

Another one agreeing with others.

If the boiler is unsafe then replace it. If it's regularly serviced and is working then leave it. The new owners may decide on a different type of boiler altogether (like going from a tank to a combi for example), so you've spent cash you won't get back. If it's likely to be a mortgage breaker (i.e. unsafe) that's a different thing altogether.

How bad is the kitchen? If it's tired looking then you can paint the door fronts or even buy replacement doors if they are so bad (warped or really badly chipped). If the carcases are OK just do that. You say it will collapse soon. Is that doors falling off? It's easy to buy replacement hinges and they're relatively easy to fit. If it's a wall cabinet because fastenings have become loose you can always replace a wall cabinet with open shelves - easy to look at and easy to replace for a new owner.

Don't worry about wardrobes etc., Your DH is just adding his personal touches to the place - every property expert you see on things like Homes Under The Hammer warn against looking at it as your home. It won't be soon so his 'horrible wardrobe doors' is someone else's fantastic find. And if they don't like them, they'll choose something they want to live with, not his taste.

People want a clean house, sensibly priced. If it's obvious it needs work, that's fine. Those who are prepared to do the work will come and see it and those who don't will look elsewhere.

We always get much more money for houses after they have been freshened up. If anything I would be inclined to do a neutral paint job etc and Not do the kitchen. People are particular about their kitchens and they might prefer to choose. A new kitcken someone doesn't like will put them off the house.

We sold our house with a kitchen that was falling to bits. We freshened up the rest of the house by re-painting, gettting some v. cheap lightshades and putting a new carpet downstairs and on the stairs/landing (old one was at least 25 year old). Cost less than £2k total. We had 6 viewers in the first few days and sold it for asking price to the first of these.

The EA told us definitley not to re-do the kitchen as they could 'sell' a range of ideas to potential buyers, including moving it or expanding it. But if we replaced it, it could actually put off people who didn't like the kitchen but who wouldn't want to rip out any new one we had put in. In any case, we were told it wouldn't change the value so we'd just be throwing money away.

We ruled out some houses that had clearly been done up to sell as it wasn't to our taste and we didn't want to be paying a premium for someone else's taste/design that we would end up changing anyway.

The boiler is the only thing I would agree with him on, if it's coming to the end of its life.

If you post a pictre of the kitchen on a new thread Im sure there would be loads or suggestions and examples on how to brighten it up :) And I would love built in bookshelves!