How much work to do on property before selling?

[catandpanda]

Bought a Victorian 3/4 bed house with small garden about 10 years ago which we may put on market in next year or so. Very good location close to tube / forest / shops / good primary and secondary. When we bought it, it needed a lot of work to point not mortgageable - we've done a lot of work including adding in fireplace and chimney in living room which is what made it unmortgageable before, new kitchen, dampproofing, new wooden floor in living room, removed concrete in garden put in lawn, took out 2 trees surveyor recommended. But still fair bit of work to do to make it perfect. Like bathroom would ideally be redone (white but dated), carpets upstairs are a bit eaten/black in places thanks to kids and cat. A few cracks in walls. Few places with mold bathroom and 1 bedroom. Roof is too short for building regs. Chimneystack needs repair. Garden wall needs repair. House needs repainting outside. Surveyor said structurally fine. Obviously we would need to price accordingly easiest thing for us is no work but would a buyer pull out on survey? If we do work what would you prioritise? We would have to put work costs on mortgage temporarily. Thanks very much.

Do the things that stand out as needing doing like replacing worn carpets and painting the exterior. Tackle the mould and cracks and repaint as necessary - it's probably caused by creating condensation and lack of ventilation.

None of those things should be too costly.

If you can I’d fix the chimney stack, mould in bathroom and bedroom and cracks in walls.
These are the things that could spook a buyer.

The carpets garden wall and repainting outside will seem less urgent and therefore not as much of an issue to more people.

However if you’re willing to price lower to cover all repairs and feel that the market is strong enough in your area to risk putting of some buyers then it shouldn’t be a problem.
Might be worth getting a few estate agents feeling on the value of the house and saleability pre and post hypothetical repairs.

Property isn’t selling very fast. Sounds like there’s still a lot to do. You would need to price very competitively because you are cutting out any buyers who want a house with no work to do. That’s a lot of people who won’t even consider it. Some buyers would pull out because of the survey and don’t forget when people are so busy at work, they have little time for organising building repairs and a new bathroom. Yukky carpets are just a no no too I’m afraid. Personally, I think you need to finish it.

What about the roof? Can you sort that out? Many buyers wouldn’t like a badly constructed roof that contravenes regulations. Damp is also a problem if you have not dealt with it. Repairing chimneys is a huge faff too for a buyer. If you did the work, would you get the money back?

Thanks very much - will definitely speak to estate agent and the guy here is quite sensible. Very useful to know what would bother others.

Houses in very good condition are selling for around twice what we have spent on ours so yes should get money back - think would cost around £45k to get perfect (plus costs of having two properties) but may get £100k back on that though guessing would need to ask estate agent. Pretty much everything on market here is in very good condition but pricey. Trouble is there's not enough work for a developer I suspect but too much for average buyer. We are getting interest only mortgage as buying a second property (until sell this one) but costs are only c£150 per month so not massive. The market is turning a bit here.

If the market is turning, do the carpets, fix the mould, the cracks, and paint. I would fix the chimney too. It is possibly contributing to the mould.

I would say it depends on where in London you are and what the market is like- areas like Waltham Forest still have a lot of buyers looking but not many desirable properties on the market, and haven’t seen a dip in prices (although they haven’t been rising as quickly as they once were). Most buyers in an area like this want to put their own stamp on houses, so agree with PP about structural repairs etc, but otherwise pricing it to reflect the cosmetic work which needs doing is likely to shift it more quickly than finishing it to your taste with a higher price.

Thanks very much. Prices have still risen here over last 3 months and last year but you are starting to see some price reductions now. As the prices are relatively cheap here by London standards its holding up more but there's definitely potential for it to start falling.

Roof is too short for building regs?? This will come up and cost you £££ if a buyer need to replace it

The roof alone would put me off buying it as it will be very expensive to fix .

Yes will come up as came up on ours (full survey) though we had a roofer into look at in and he said don't bother as more expense than its worth. But one way or another would anticipate paying for it either we pay for new roof or buyer takes off cost plus more. We did take £10k off for issues with roof when we bought after survey. I don't mind a buyer taking off money after survey or before, its them pulling out that concerns me or not buying. May ask roofing guy again how mcuh would cost. House should be empty for a while so maybe best we do it.

If they pull out, it’s because there is something better elsewhere. I think you are over estimating the people who want to do work on a house when they are busy. If you can make money on it by doing the work, will you price so others can make the money you do not apparently want. If you don’t want to do the work, why will others? Also if the house is empty, it will look a bit sad - and uncared did. Not a good selling point.

Uncared for!

Unfortunately I am quite ill (being treated / tested by 4 hospitals) so whilst we would normally do work its more difficult and I'm certainly not well enough to have people in house. Plus child with ASD and a critical age to get good schools quickly so moving first within next month or so. I don't know how many people would do work that's why I am asking. I'm happy for the people who do it to make a big profit on it for the stress involved, that's only fair, but there are more important things to us than making as much money as possible at moment. Appreciate other people are busy but so are we.

I think you need to do one of three things....

1. list it as is, as a project, priced accordingly.
2. fix the major issues - mould, chimney, sort building regs. Leave the rest as long as clean.
3. go all out, sort it all. Do it asap so at least you get a year or two of it nice. Then see whats what with the market.

We knew we needed a new bathroom in ours. No way would it have sold for even what we owed on it as it was falling apart. Weve done it and love it. Enjoying it before we sell.

Other stuff we are doing ahead of the EA photos next week - repaint woodwork, deep clean throughout, tip run for 40%of our stuff and fresh bedding.

Thanks very much - yes if we do list as is I would want people to know about work in advance and not hide it. The roof / chimney isn't obvious but I wouldn't want someone to pay for a survey to find out, also think someone is much more likely to pull out if that's a surprise. I think I need to ask estate agent initially differences in price and demand between options (1) (2) and (3). We are moving out fairly soon as daughter about to go into y8 so need a new school sorted pre GCSEs in y9 and waiting lists everywhere but glad you got to enjoy yours before you sell. Our cat will destroy all carpets though could go for wooden floors. I hope we will be able to do (2) but will see. Good luck selling yours.

An EA will ALWAYS say it's not worth doing the work. They want your property on the market and their commission. They couldn't care less about the extra £££ you'd get by doing the work as it makes negligible difference to their commission.

Yes I wondered that as when I had a flat before sold it needing work - 2 estate agents said do nothing, one said just change kitchen doors and put up some pictures of fruit as women like that sort of thing . Did nothing and took a year to sell and first sale fell through. If I had done the work I probably wouldn't have made profit on the work but would have sold quicker. I do think it retrospect they overpriced it, priced the same as flats in perfect condition. Got nearly four times what I paid for it but it was hellish having it on market so long and that was pre kids. We do know the local EA and his wife very well though so he maybe more helpful. Was very helpful when buying this. That is partly why I asked on here though as I suspected that might be case.

What exactly does the survey say about the roof? Depending on the age of the house, current building regs may not be relevant. If the roof is sound and not leaking why would you do work to bring it up to regs unless it was inherently dangerous?

When we sold, two years ago, we were up front about the flat roof coming to the end of its life. It didn’t leak, but was over 20 years old. The house was priced accordingly.
Our buyers tried to reduce their offer several times because of the roof, we refused to budge.
Guess what? The roof is still untouched and presumably still going strong after two years.
If the roof’s not leaking I’d leave well alone. Many old wonky roofs have lasted centuries.

I was also going to ask what do you mean about the roof? Most older properties won't meet building regulations today for some reason or another. There is no duty to make it compliant and if you (for example) needed to raise it, you could need to get planning permission to do that.

If the roof is sound, leave it. I'd look at the chimney and the cracks as that can be fundamental.

We’re hoping to move next summer and have had a couple of estate agents around to give us an idea of price etc. Our house is a Victorian semi in a very desirable school catchment. We did lots of work on it when we first moved (loft, side return extension, kitchen, bathroom) but that was 15-16 years ago so things are starting to look a bit tired. The demographic of people moving into the area has changed over the years and all the houses which have sold fairly recently have been gutted and completely renovated straight away.

The advice we got is that houses needing some work go for a certain price (ours falls into that bracket) - in order to move into the next price bracket which is about £150K above ours, we’d have to spend at least £200K which would only be worth it if we were planning to stay for longer and get some value out of the work. Any ‘half-hearted’ measures eg new but not really high-end bathroom would be a waste of money and still wouldn’t push us into the top price bracket.

We’ve decided we’re going to declutter ruthlessly, and fix anything that obviously needs fixing, paint the front door and probably the hall but other than that leave it as it is (and keep our fingers tightly crossed!!)

Thanks very much. Survey was 10 years ago but no sign of roof ever leaking or tiles loose. Think it said roof needed to be lengthened by 8 inches / 8cms ? to meet current building regulations. House is Victorian. We got someone to look at it whose a roofer (and on government approved list) and he said it would be extensive work to do that and personally he wouldn't bother. The only thing is I wonder if the black mold in the bedroom comes in from the window (though it could be completely unrelated and caused as it gets too hot in room too - DH thinks that and he's more knowledgeable than me on these things). We will probably get roofer guy in again for advice. I suspect someone will ask for money off for roof or pull out but then leave it. If they are prewarned hopefully it will just be money off at worst. We got money off for roof so not concerned about someone else doing same.

The houses on the market here are all done to an incredibly high standard - our kitchen and living room have been done to that standard but to get the rest of house like that would need solid oak floors upstairs and the 4th bedroom combining with the bathroom and a very upmarket bathroom putting in. Some people here seem to move out for 6 months give builders 100k or so and get everything looking amazing. As our kitchen is now 8 years old it will be hard to compete though fortunately choose solid oak floors and worktop and the cream solid wood units and big oven which are still in fashion. We definitely need some serious decluttering before we attempt anything, not a task I am looking forward to but will be good when done.

The previous owner said they had new roof installed so will be around 15-20 years old. Some work in house was bodge jobs, some done to high standard, said it cost them 8k.

There's your answer - if the roof isn't causing problems then an indemnity policy would cover the buyers against enforcement action by the council to make the roof compliant. I really wouldn't bother about it too much.