Should we extend before selling?

[minkersmum]

Or would that be crazy?!

We have a cottage. 3 beds, lounge, kitchen, bathroom, utilty rm, cloakrm wc/whb, conservatory and attic playroom/tv room. Garden 1/3 acre.

Kitchen/bathroom etc all modern and recently fitted.

We have permission to add a two bed extension which would give us an extra public rm and 4 beds. We could probably do this for 10k with the help of my Dad who is a retired builder.

It would maybe put the house up from around 185-195k to 220-230. Is it worth the hassle if we are moving? Dh yhjnks yes as will help get a foot up for what we buy but I feel it is so much work and maybe harder to sell. Plus my Dad is almost 70! Think he'd feel less enthusiastic about helping if we said we'd be selling on completion.

What would you do? Tia.

Do you mean 2 storey extension? We're about to do one. Everyone keeps telling me an extension will generally only add the cost of building it to the value of the house. Once we've added in the cost of decorating, including the bits that need tidying up in the original house where the alterations will be, ours will cost more than the value it will add for now. Plus redoing the drive and garden after the builders.

I would have thought selling with pp will be a better option, make it a selling point? Plus a lower price with less stamp duty to pay, and less estate agent fees might make it an easier sell.

If you could really do it for 10K I think it would be well worth while - but I think you should give your Dad a good share of the profit!

If you're going to be there and have the use of it for a couple of years so, then yes but you do it for yourselves. You can't guess what buyers will be looking for though. Some will be happy with the size of the cottage as it is, others will be looking for something bigger. If you leave it as it is, having planning permission to extend is a great selling point as you can still attract others who want a larger property.

Can't see a 2 storey can be done for 10K to be honest.
I don't think it's worth it. The planning permission in itself adds to the value of the house. Someone will buy it who wants to do the job themselves.
An extension is a LOT of aggro if you won't get the benefit yourself and the increase in value you suggest doesn't sound much to me for the size of extension you are talki g about. Becomes even less worth it if the costs are higher than 10K which I suspect.

The planning permission in itself will be a selling point, and may secure you the higher end of your price bracket. Also, the difference between that and the price band that it would put you into could easily be eaten into if you come across problems during the build particularly if you end up paying for stuff your Dad can't do, particularly if you then only get lower end of the bracket offers.

A lot will depend on the state of your local market, so maybe get the opinion of some local estate agents, so you can do some best case and worst case scenario figures to see if it would be worth the risk.

We are doing this- we don't move for another 15 months or so and desperately need the space! We asked an estate agent and surveyor whether they thought it was worth it, and both thought we'd get more than cost of our extension back when we sell it on. It also means I get to see how all our ideas work in real life! Builder can do whole job in 6 weeks (he says) as he has big team and they'll not be dotting about working on other jobs while doing ours. That's really important as I imagine it will be hellish living through this but I can cope if it's only for a relatively short time.

Is it worth the hassle if we are moving?
For a potential profit of 15-25K, assuming you have the 10k, it will only cost 10k to do it, and the profit would give you options where you want to live, then I'd do it.
However, you are essentially going to ask your Dad to put in a lot of low cost or free labour so you can benefit from it. I'd be pretty up front about that and offer to share in the proceeds at the very least.

It is a single storey extension. I would be more than happy to pay my Dad or givevhim some of the profit but no way in the world he'd take it. Pretty confident we could build it for 10k. My Dad estimated 7k. We did similar before.

Even more convinced we shouldn't do it.

I too would sell with planning permission and save yourself the trouble

I'd take the advice of the best local estate agent before committing to anything.

Depends on what your area is like:

How sought after are 3 or 4 beds.
Have you looked at turnover/prices
Is it an area that 'holds value' to an extent...

The reason I say, especially the latter, is that there is talk of house prices rising in a bubble then the interest rates to slow it all down. I am not in the indistry or no expert i just thought better to sell now rather than later whilst mortgages are there to be had and before it becomes tought to sell.

So sell with planning - plough your 10K into your next home

Nah, save your dad for the new place! He WILL put his heart and soul into whatever he does for you so let him do it somewhere that he'll get to bask in its glory for years to come.
Have always felt rotten about the lovely patio my dad built us before we decided to move out of the blue.