would you use your equity to make much needed improvements?

[RagingDull]

when we bought at the height of the market we bought a neglected, unlived in property, and used our savings/profits from last sale to do it up and extend it

the money didnt stretch far and we find ourselves 5 years down the line with some work left to do - the house needs a new bathroom and the outside needs doing - it needs a new drive, garage, and the garden while large and south facing could be wonderful, however is at present still a jungle in need of work, with a garage which is unuseable and needs some money spending, probably needs about 6k spending outside and about 3k spending inside (new bathroom from floor to ceiling)

we have enough equity in the property to use to do these things. However, that leaves us little for a deposit on the next house should we chose to move....

we currently have a couple of loans which when paid off could fund quite a good sum to overpay the mortgage and bring it down quicker (could overpay by around a further £300 per month) if we chose to use the equity - we could not save the amount of money needed for the improvement very quickly, and by which time, the children will have totally outgrown the need for a garden, and probably moved out! (one is on the way to uni now....)
the garden is bad - the front wall is falling down, the gates fell down a while ago and the neighbours have actually complained!

would you use your remainiing equity to fund the improvements - i have spoken to a broker and they have already confirmed we could do it....in fact they have a mortgage offer ready and waiting....we would still have about £20k equity left....but obviously this isnt enough to fund another move.

i wanted to move but having looked at what property is out there in my required locations, and having weighed it up, i think we could have a lovely home here if only we could ever finish it!

what would you do?

opinions please.....

oh!! for some reason this thread has posted twice! please just reply on this one - ive asked HQ to delete the other.....thanks

Is there a pressing reason for you to move? If not I would stay put, overpay the mortgage, draft a home improvements plan over x amount of time and do what you can on the house in priority of what would affect its market value. Fallen walls and gates sound particularlyimportant ie 'kerb appeal' .

How much can you actually do yourselves without needing to spend money?

For example, while you continue to pay off your loans, can you begin by tidying up the garden, re-hanging the gates (or at least putting them carefully to one side so that it's less obvious that they've fallen off), weeding the drive, scrubbing the bathroom to within an inch of its life, etc?

Then when you do have money available, you can start doing the work little by little.

for some reason i ended up with 2 threads.....

thanks,

the bathroom quotes have come in at double what i expected, but the garden isnt even something we could tackle as the drive needs totally re concreting, (at the moment is cracked and dangerously uneven - i broke my toe last year tripping over the drive as its like broken teeth....) the garage is made of asbestos, so nothing much we can do really - plus we would probably spend as much on skip hire as it would take about 5 - 6 skips to take up all the grass/shrubbery etc.

i know it wouldnt really sell while the bathroom and garden are in such a bad state of disrepair.
the bathroom leaks - every time someone has a shower water comes through the kitchen ceiling and through the wall on the landing.....this isnt just cosmetic- unfortunately.

decisions decisions.....

well, if its causing damage to the structure of the house, it sounds like youve got to get the work done, for the bathroom at least, and it's just a case of working out how you can most sensibly borrow between £3k and £9k, plus money for contingency.

Perhaps you could try going onto some specialist money forums and seeing what alternatives there are, and how much it's going to cost you in total?

Speak to some local agents. They will be able to suggest what will make a difference ie sorting something which would stop a sale. Also tell you prices before and after work. The difference in price might be smaller than you think..... Waiting in this market to do the work might not be a good idea if prices are going down. You might be better pricing to sell and cutting your losses. If you cant do that you will have to be prepared to sit tight for a few years.

cant sell at the price we were valued at anyway - so we have decided to go ahead with remortgage and do the work. we had it valued a year ago - the agent said open a bottle of wine and forget selling

then i am not bothered if we dont sell tbh - could overpay mortgage for a few years to get it back down again and sell in a few years.

if we do the work, i think i would be much happier to sit tight for a bit, a useable outside space would be wonderful, and a bathroom that doesnt leak when anyone showers would be a godsend. it all winds me up.

9k on the morgage would only make a different of £55 per month.