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

He tends to think age and sex makes him an expert.

Ah so he’s one of these. It’s funny but I’m pretty sure having a penis doesn’t mean you’re a house selling expert.

We were told not to do the kitchen and I'm glad we didn't as the new buyer ripped it out immediately.
And as buyers we almost bought a lovely house with a brand new kitchen, which was in the way of works that would have made the house work better for us. In the end we didn't offer because we couldn't live with the beautiful kitchen where it was, but couldn't face the idea of ripping it all out.

I agree with many of the pp - when we bought our bungalow 7 years’ ago, it had the original 80’s kitchen. It was clearly good quality, and serviceable, but not my taste. I was thrilled! We had plans to knock down a wall, and then installed a fab new kitchen. If it had cost more to buy the property because it had a new kitchen, we may not have bought it at all. Fairly new boiler, regularly serviced, and property clean and clutter-free, was way more important.

I wouldnt bother either...mine is on the market and ive just had an offer £45000 over the asking price....houses are selling in a day here...its crazy.

I wouldn't bother. We finally completed our sale a couple of weeks ago and we didn't get back what we spent getting it ready to sell.
We replaced a couple of blown double glazed units, redecorated a couple of bedrooms and replaced a few carpets (cat damaged).
We ended up losing £10k on the asking price so really wish we'd not bothered spending a few grand first.

People will want a new kitchen anyway so no point replacing yours, no matter what state it's in. First thing we've done in our new house is order a new kitchen.

We are currently looking to buy....and have been forever. It is definitely not a buyer's market at the moment. All the cosmetic stuff wouldn't make a big difference to me. I can do that myself. I also cringe at all the ugly new kitchens I see. They are horrifically modern and not to my taste and I'd have to rip them out and start over. So I would definitely factor that into my offer. I wouldn't want a huge crack somewhere as I'd be concerned it might indicate something structural, so probably sensible to plaster and paint that, though anything structural would come out eventually anyway. As long as you aren't a hoarder and the rooms aren't packed with junk, that's really all I need.

Don’t put a new kitchen in. People want to choose their own kitchens not be stuck with someone else’s taste.

We ended up replacing our boiler shortly before selling because the wretched thing failed and was too old to be worth repairing. Didn't pay for itself at all, we were at the ceiling price for the road.

We bought the house as a project as first time buyers planning to live there long term. The only thing that survived our refurb was the kitchen - it was serviceable but not my taste and to be fair the lime green gloss was acceptable with white walls and black tiles - when we viewed there were no splashbacks and the walls were battleship grey with a chocolate brown feature wall, so I did a lot of research on painting it - was very glad that painting the walls white was enough for me to stop hating it as my research suggested that painting gloss units would never be as durable or look as good as the original.

Ceiling price was always going to get us short term as we had only decided to move on once we were 95+% done with the project - we did push the ceiling for our street up by about 15-20k but couldn't get above 200k which was definitely the hard ceiling for the area (30s/40s mostly but not entirely ex Council).

We did spend a couple of hardcore weekends touching up paintwork - long overdue 2nd coat on the stairs and covering scribbles by our lovely children mostly, which is worth it for the photos.

Definitely keep the bookcase!

Laminate is very cheapening too. Pushes your house down-market.

I wouldn't do anything at all except clean it.

How bad is the kitchen? Are you brave enough for a photo?

@Shitpipe your OH sounds very much like mine, I feel for you every day
is a constant battle of words and Micro Managing from him Stay Strong and stick to your guns :)

@Shitpipe the house next door to me hadn’t had anything done to it in 40 years. It had a 1970s kitchen, bathroom and carpets. It needed new windows, new central heating and rewiring. It sold within a fortnight of going on the market for not much less than modernised houses around here. The new owners have made it beautiful.

My guess is that when the estate agent gives you a valuation, they will already have someone in mind who will want to buy a doer upper while the stamp duty exemptions still apply.

@lottiegarbanzo

Laminate is very cheapening too. Pushes your house down-market.

Depends on the buyers surely?

As a family with young children, I wouldn't buy a house with carpets throughout. Same with pets.

Yes I forgot to say - whatever you do do NOT cover the house in cheap laminate flooring.

Laminate throughout? Urrgghhh that's awful. Especially upstairs. Don't do it!

I hate laminate - cheap, tacky and noisy in upstairs rooms. I like proper wooden floors downstairs, but laminate is nasty.

Needs to be good quality if laminate though. Agree cheap laminate looks awful.

Are these also the jobs hes embarrassed about and doesnt want any one else seeing?

We did do laminate downstairs and liked it, but would not want it upstairs - noisy! Also installed well it looks good but you need to take the skirting boards off to do it properly - DH spent hours making the lines line up including between rooms - and we had no issues with bowing even in the conservatory.

Our new house has some quite tired flooring - and most of the houses we viewed had at least one carpet we really disliked (think lurid pink or a garish tartan). We will replace the flooring at some point, preferably when toddler is reliably potty trained!

We'd let it slide a bit cos we were planning to gut it all when we extended. We've sort of been in stasis for a couple of years.

Laminate throughout is bonkers and would cost a fortune. I used to date a flooring guy and he said that you have to spend the money on decent laminate, the cheap stuff is not worth bothering with. So if you put cheap crappy laminate down chances are it would just need to be ripped out.

No no, as others have said, people want to choose their own kitchen, it's such a personal thing. Clean and freshen up, but don't start full on renovations.

Please don't pay for a new kitchen. Buyers will want to put their own kitchen in and you won't recoup the cost. Same with flooring - waste of money unless yours is in a terrible state. You may have a lower asking price but you won't be paying for loads of things you don't need. A friend put in a new kitchen to sell and within weeks, the buyers ripped it out. My friend was in pain at all that unnecessary cost and hassle.

Just do a total declutter, deep clean and mend absolutely anything that is a broken but don't do anything cosmetic except perhaps a lick of paint.

I am a very experienced professional property person. My current house, for lots of reasons, is in a bit of a state.

If I decide to sell, the very first thing I'll do is get the local good estate agent in, as he knows who's looking & what they're after. I'll take his advice on what to do.

Painting & generally tidying up, but no to kitchen, whatever you choose will probably be replaced as won’t be to the buyers taste, if you want to sell, just do the basics and get it on the market ASAP.

Yes we had to sell two houses recently. Tell him a bloke says save your money, the amount he wants to spend would be equivalent to half a deposit for a ftb.(joke)
The others telling you about declutter are absolutely right. Rely on experts who want it sold ASAP.
Cables and tv Boxes often need moving. If you can park any furniture that is not totally necessary with family or friend before you have photographs and through the viewings so much the better.
Make it look as if the space to live in is as large as possible.