WWYD: If you had just £10,000...

[SaJoRo]

...what would you spend it on to make the biggest return on investment for your property?

This is not just hypothetical. I have a three bed semi that I want to spend some money on to increase value, without over-capitalising. Eventually, I want to demolish the derelict garage and replace it with a side extension (spare room + en-suite + utility room) but can't borrow enough yet. So I'm trying to decide what I can do in the short term to improve the value of the house.

House already has a gorgeous conservatory and lovely garden. Bedrooms and lounge need decorating. Kitchen is ok but could be better. Bathroom has been given a cheap makeover by previous owners but is nothing much to look at. Loft is not converted.

Any thoughts?

If I was doing anything, it would be to make the conservatory less...'conservatoryish'.

I really don't like them at all, but with a tiled roof they can be passable.

I'd save the money for the extension.
But if you are moving in the next couple of years why extend ?

Breakfast, we’ve done that when we extended our semi. We had an L shaped extension done. So all along the back, and side, a little bit into the garage (garage was quite long to start). The space from the garage went to make a downstairs loo and utility room. So glad we kept some garage space, we’ve got bikes in there, lawnmower and other gardening stuff, loads of tools, ladder, sledges, camping stuff, sports equipment. I’m not sure how people in noises without garages manage, especially if they have a garden.

No way would I be wasting 10k on tarting up a house which you will be extending. Believe me, you will want to save every penny you’ve got for the build as they tend to go over slightly, because you change your mind about something along the way, or decide on a higher spec something than you had planned.

There are not many things that add value to a house. I think I read somewhere that a conservatory doesn’t add much at all. I’m not hugely keen on them and it would put me off buying a house actually. Be very very careful how you use that money.

My guess is that doing nothing is the best plan too. Although maybe getting planning permission in place for a two story extension might be an idea for potential buyers Have other properties on the street got two story extensions?

If you are moving in 2 years then don’t do ANYTHING just hold on to the money.

Ok paint your daughters bedroom but that’s it (and buy copied paint)

What is the ceiling price of similar houses on your road and your area? You are unlikely to be able to increase above this especially with the current stagnant market. I. E. You could end up doing a load of work and not actually adding anything to the house price.

Keep the money towards the deposit for a place in Sydney. It’s unlikely you’ll make back enough profit for all the disruption to be worth it.

Wow fudge already mentioned this but I missed it on the first trawl

Oh and if you only do the minimum when you extend, due to budget limitations, then you would put off people who would want to buy the house to extend it with a larger budget.

People don’t want to have to knock down a “make do” crappily-built and designed DIY extension and start again. It’s what we had to do and it was a pain in the arse and added on demolition costs.

We only viewed our house once when we bought it. In hindsight it was a bad idea because if we’d done a second viewing in daylight we would have seen that the utility extension was more like an outhouse with damp etc and probably not bought the house. We have had to spend loads on it, which is ok as we’re living here long term and we bought 15 years ago when housing was affordable.

But Im this day and age, when houses are so expensive you have to think carefully about changes you make to your house and whether a potential buyer will want to keep that change.

eloise I want to extend because I want to make some money out of the house for when we move back to Sydney. Just trying to maximise value. Also the garage has to come down anyway.

TooMany I've just started looking into the planning permission. Hope this isn't a stupid question, but do you need architect drawings to apply for planning permission?

We are the only house in the street that has the space for the extension. All the other semis have the garages at the back. Some have done the loft. The house that sold two doors down had been knocked through to create lounge/kitchen, but much less floor space than us and it sold for £60K more than we paid two years ago.

Thanks, Assasin, there is a small shed in the garden that could be replaced with a bigger one for storage. I wonder if that would be enough for buyers?

I’m not saying that yours would be a crappiky built extension by the way. Just that if you only extend by a small footprint, but viewers are wanting a house that has had a larger extension but is maybe unaffordable to them, they may prefer to buy a cheaper one that hasn’t been extended at all, and then extend to their wishes when they CAN afford it.

Thanks GeneticBunny, all good questions and ones I will put to the real estate agent tomorrow. It's the house down the road that got me a bit excited. Seems house prices are going up in our area.

Yeah Assasin I do know what you mean. But if I'm going to do it, I'll do it right.

I think the addition of a utility room would surely add value for a buyer at least?

Do you have side access to the garden or do you need to go through the garage ? If it’s the latter then do not lose the garage / turn it into living space unless you can put in a side access , there is nothing more annoying than having to drag garden waste through your house or garden supplies back the other way . Putting a roof on a conservatory will cost a lot more than 10k so that’s not a goer at the moment . I’d also save the money .

I'd make the house look as smart as possible by decorating, carpets etc and make sure the front drive/back garden are attractive

Conservatories put me off buying a house as often they are too hot or too cold and take up a lot of garden, so I'd make sure that yours is as usable as possible with good heating and blinds for summer.

Not sure that you can guarantee getting back what you put in with an extension when you have to factor in a loan with interest payments and the big unknown of what Brexit might do to our economy and property market. Perhaps worth asking your estate agent, and also getting at least 2 more valuations to ensure a realistic picture. We're moving and had valuations varying by £50k..

I would save the money and probably not do an extension just to sell. It's a lot of hassle and mess and not sure you'd add much value compared to what you spend. If your house is the only one in the street that has space to extend, you also need to consider there will be a ceiling price for that street.

If you are certain about going back to Sydney in couple of years - please do not waste the £10,000 by doing anything structural

I would pay more for a house that has potential than one that has been done wrong (not to my needs or desires or the way I want to live or use the space)

Yes deffo get planning permission for a double height extension to increase bedroom sizes and to convert the conservatory into a useable space 365 and 24/7 although obviously not 24/7 iyswim

I was confused in the photo about a huge TV on the wall, I now know they are old photos but if it is sunny how did the old people watch TV?

Also loft conversion planning permission if you want - especially if your bedrooms are small and others have it in the street

Also get price breakdown from several builders, (explain to the builder why he is quoting cos if they are busy they might over inflate prices) but in bits, like this room would cost this and then when you sell if people ask you can tell them how much the plans would cost ( use the cheapest quotes obviously)

I would myself prefer a solid walled and ceiling/roof room with velux Windows and large windows with thick curtains and/or blinds rather than conservatory, due to heat loss/gain and light control

So the thing is that different people live in a house differently - the one we live in now for example - it had a double length garage and a conservatory in garden, we pulled down the conservatory,

Out of all of that we built a bedroom, wet room, utility room and TV room plus huge extension to the sitting room, dining room and kitchen in place of their conservatory

The thing is, our house came with huge potential to extend to what we wanted so we paid more for it cos we wanted to make our choices rather than have somebody else decide for us, what to build where etc

One house round the corner had been extended BUT they had the downstairs bathroom at the front and the bedroom at the back so completely wrong for the way we wanted to live - you had to walk thru utility and past kitchen to get from bedroom to bathroom

So get planning permission done and decorate your DD bedroom and save the £10,000 to convert to $$$$$

OP we are SSTC and moving back to Melbourne, not as expensive as Sydney but still eyewatering and we wanted a decent deposit too.

We thought about an extension 3 years ago but decided the cost and effort was not worth it.

What we did was work with the footprint we had. We put French doors in, painted the house white and new floors. OMG the difference with just that. We also updated the bathroom which the real estate guy said was a good way to add value without spending too much.

We also got lucky having bought in what was considered not a great area of South London that now is suddenly 'affordable' and has improved hugely .

Are you in London?

I wouldn't do anything, given your future plans. But, if I were extending it, I would consider bring the garage forward to make the house L shaped, this would give you room for more living space behind.
Yes, you do need proper plans to get pp, but they can be done by a plan drawer. You don't need an architect if you know what you want.
We had a similar set up with a very sturdy and well built garage on the side, which had to be demolished to make way for a 2 storey extension. It was very expensive - over 100k.
Save your money.

Kirsty and Phil's advice in these circumstances is to get some plans drawn up and maybe apply for planning permission too. You then sell the house with the permission in place to build the extension and you leave copies of the drawings for viewers to pick up. If you are moving in 2-3 years don't do anything structural as a pp has said. You'll likely need your £10k for your relocation.

Hi all,

Just thought I'd drop back in and let you know I had a real estate agent from Purple Bricks come by this week. She valued the house at £65K more than we paid for it 18 months ago! I know that sounds insane but the house two doors down from us just sold for around £55K more than we paid, so we knew the house prices had gone up in our area. The surprising thing was that she told me not to touch the house at all (as many very smart Mumsnetters here said too!) if we're planning to sell in the near future. She thinks anything we spend we won't get back as the house is already at the ceiling price for this street. So thanks to all of you who gave me the same advice!

cheers
SJR

Invest the £10,000 into premium bonds ready for your move over to Australia

You could if you wanted draw a sketch with measurements and photos and take them to planning dept and ask if they think it will get thru

They will give advice for free at certain timed clinics in the morning at town hall planning dept

Get appraisals from three EAs. Purplebricks have a terrible reputation for over-valuing and doing very little to actually sell houses.