Would you sell or do the house up?

[MrsBarlow]

We've only recently moved into our house (4 months ago) and planned to do it up, stay for a few years and then move within the area but closer to the centre. The house needs general decoration as well as new bathrooms and we were planning on knocking through the kitchen/dining room. We were going to have to save up to do the work but suddenly have the funds to do it all now - just as the perfect house in our perfect location has come up for sale! What would you do? Would you sell and put the money into the new house purchase or do the house up and sell later down the line? We could quite easily decorate and replace bathrooms without spending too much before selling but wouldn't do the kitchen work. Opinions needed please

Have you got the funds to buy the other house now? It my sell before you can get your saleable and sold?

We'd have to sell ours to buy the other house so yeh it could sell before we'd sold ours, hadn't even thought of that, just got excited it had come on the market!!

It depends if the new house is going to stick around on the market whilst you get yours either straight on the market and get a buyer (might be difficult if needs work still), or spruced up on the cheap, marketed and, again, wait for a buyer. How quickly do they tend to sell in this other location?

If I was in your position I would sell and move though be ready when potential buyers ask why you're selling on so quickly......that would make me suspicious.

I would sell and move.

sell and move - you never recoup what you spend on improvements.

but I'd also be suspicious as to why you were moving so quickly, and it will cost you ££££ in stamp duty, fees and so on.

you never recoup what you spend on improvements - I really have to disagree with this statement. Of course, it depends on what the improvements are and what the quality of work is, but assuming both are good then I'd say that many, many people recoup and more, what they spend on improvements.

you never recoup what you spend on improvements

This isn't set in stone imho. We've been on both sides - 1) restored (proper high end, period restoration, not mere renovation!) a lovely old Tudor house in a less than perfect location, sold up three years later and not only did we not recoup money spent on the work, but we sold for considerably less than we'd purchased for. All the EAs we had round said we had merely made the house more saleable and to prove the point we went SSTC within 10 days, when neighbouring (poorly & non-renovated) houses were taking upwards of six months.

Otoh, 2) did a similar restoration job on a rural Georgian house that was previously unmortgageable. When we sold three years later we expected to recoup the extension costs, but not expenditure for other 'improvements' (windows, bathrooms, flooring, rewire etc etc). However we got all our investment back and some. Again sold very quickly compared to average for area.

OP, in your shoes I would want to sell and move, but it does depend heavily on how quick you can get yours listed, how fast it will sell and how long the other house will hang around.

When we bought this house in 2014, we viewed it before ours (the Georgian one above) was on the market. Put in an offer that wasn't taken seriously, so we got ours listed, went SSTC in 5 weeks and put in second offer that was accepted on the new house (but that was in a very slow moving area). Moved in about nine weeks later

One other point to add - one of the questions solicitors have to answer for lenders or at least used to (assuming your potential buyers will need a mortgage) is whether the house was purchased in the last 6 months. Some lenders won't lend on a house that has been owned by the seller for less than 6 months.

Obviously if your buyers use a lender who doesn't have this criteria then you're fine, but even if you do put the house up for sale so quickly, you might find that the transaction isn't quite as straightforward as it would be normally, and that may impact on how quickly you can progress the "dream house".

ok, sweeping statement; fixes, renovations, wiring, hole removal etc are of course good. Snazzy kitchens with butler sinks and surfaces that show every mark, bathrooms with double sinks and uncleanable free standing baths against walls, that kind of rubbish will never earn back value as....rip...

double glazing used to be on the fence, not sure where that would fit now.

I don't agree specialsubject. Some of those things shouldn't add value, but lots of people are swayed by the snazzy kitchen, double sinks and the free standing bath.

You need to do your research OP (bearing in mind my earlier point). Is it not to your taste, or is it falling apart? Will people walk into the house and think, no way, its too much work, or will they think, love the house, its something we could improve over time. If its the former then you may need to do something to improve your chances of it selling, but you won't necessarily increase the value by general decoration. Bathrooms perhaps.