How much work to do before putting house in the market?

[MindatWork]

Just that really - our house was pristine when we moved in 4.5 years ago but is in need of a bit of tlc. Mostly freshening paint, fixing a bit of missing plaster from where stairgates have ripped it off etc.

We’re also considering putting in a tiled splashback around the kitchen as it’s currently just painted wall (kitchen will be repainted regardless).

A fair amount of the double glazing needs replacing but is still functional; glossing could do with repainting, wooden worktops could do with a bit of tlc etc.

Just wondering how much you can just say ‘sold as seen’ and how much is actually worth doing (thinking more about the decor as people often want to redecorate themselves). We are not good at diy, both work and also have a 2 year old so planning to get someone in to do any work.

Our situation is complicated by the fact that we have the potential to do a house swap with someone in our village who might be looking to trade down to a smaller investment property, so they’d be looking to rent ours out.

Is there a general rule of thumb about how much work you should do before selling your house or is it a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question?

It really depends on the actual condition, the buyers and the value of your property, and how much of a hit you’re happy to take on it not being pristine.

If your potential buyers want to paint the entire house black, they won’t give a damn if you’ve just redecorated.

As a minimum you need to fix them plastering issues, have a good sort out and clean. Step back and take photos. Is there anything that catches your eye that doesn’t look so good?

Compare it to other properties on the market In your price range. How does it compare? All positive and negatives.

I’d expect the worktops to look nice but wouldn’t be bothered if the walls were scuffed as I have never seen one other person With a house in my budget decorate exactly as I’d like so I’d be re doing it anyway.

Thanks @Scaredykittycat - yes the plastering will be sorted (literally two small spots) but the other issue we have is that our living rooms has the stairs going up out of it so all the walls including up the stairs are the same slightly off-white colour. The owners didn’t leave any leftover paint (despite assuring they had) and we can’t seem to colour match it, so there’s no chance of doing touch ups - the entire downstairs/stairwell needs repainting .

The house needs a good clean but will scrub up beautifully once we’ve decluttered and hidden toys etc. There are also a couple of spots where toddler DD drew in the walls in lockdown 1 so another reason for the repainting...

We haven't done anything to ours
But we have put it on for £5k less than than ea valued it and £2k less than we paid for it
It was a new build 5 yes ago

When the agent came around to value ours we asked how much we needed to do in the week before they came to do photos and start booking viewings.
He said nothing, it’s all cosmetic and whoever buys it would want to put their own stamp on it anyway. It sold within 12 hours of being listed to the first viewer.

We did loads of improvements, minor and major, but it in a was in a rough area and the house had to work a bit harder to be more sellable!

Ask your EA when they think. I was advised not to do anything. If your buyer is renting it out they will probably paint it all one colour anyway.

Paint, touch up, repair walls and splashback and sand/oil worktops as a minimum. Dirty paintwork, damaged plaster and an unfinished and worn kitchen give the impression that a house is unloved and the occupants don’t take care of it. Subconsciously, that can make viewers wonder what else you haven’t been maintaining and keeping in good order - have you neglected to service the boiler or clear gutters etc. Scruffiness can give off the - possibly incorrect - impression that more work is needed than really is. Whilst a fresh coat of paint and finishing off rough edges isn’t going to increase the value, it will help viewers see the house in its best light and you’re less likely to get very low offers “because there’s obviously loads of work to do.”

Even if you have the potential to “swap”, the person who wants to rent it out is presumably either going to need a mortgage, hence you want the house to look its best for the mortgage valuation so the lender agrees it’s worth what you want it to be; or they’re going to be a shrewd business person wanting a good deal who’ll use all the maintenance needed as justification for offering as low as they think they can get away with - so either way, making the house look neat and tidy applies just as much as selling on the open market.

Meh, I’d paint and redecorate everything anyway. Holes take seconds to fill.

I would say do everything cheap but time consuming - fresh paint, clean carpets, fill holes, garden looking fab. But don't do things that aren't that visible or hugely expensive as you are unlikely to recoup costs.

Thanks all, useful advice - yes I figured we’d get a better deal out of the potential buy to let guy if it was in a ‘ready to rent out’ state. It was more the tiling in the kitchen I was wondering about. I know the decorating needs doing - to be honest we’ll probably just do everything in white emulsion. I’m just trying to talk myself out of it as I barely have the headspace to put one foot in front of the other but we’re desperate to move.

And yes, holes take seconds to fill but a bit more time to repaint the entire downstairs when you don’t have matching paint for touch ups 😆. God I hate DIY....

I'm currently getting our house ready for sale at the end of January. I'm doing this with the aim of making everything look presentable, the idea being that the buyers could visualise themselves moving in straight away without having to do any work.

I'm also doing a bit of staging; bought some new bedding, as well as cushions to put on the beds and a couple of throws for the feet end.

I've cleared every surface so they look nice and clean, and limited ornaments and pictures (to minimise personalisation).

With all the decluttering, I ended up with more space than I actually needed, so bought a new armchair to decorate one corner from IKEA (so it was very cheap, but looks expensive).

Spent about £500 all in for the extras.

@Starseeking that sounds lovely - we’re hoping to do the same but with both of us working from home and a 2 year old, quite a bit of our sorting/decluttering is going to have to be last minute as most if it will have to come back out again as soon as the valuation is done (we have a conservatory which we’re going to stage as a playroom but most of DDs toys currently live in the previously-super-grown-up living room).

Honestly this house was like a show home before we had DD, I was so houseproud. 2 years later it looks like a bomb’s hit it .

Our estate agent told us not to do anything to a buy to let we recently sold, he said the new buyer would more than likely redecorate, change kitchen etc anyway and end up ripping out our hard work. He was right.

Possibly worth storing toys etc in the loft, someone's spare room, storage lockup etc because lack of space/storage might be off putting.

[quote MindatWork]@Starseeking that sounds lovely - we’re hoping to do the same but with both of us working from home and a 2 year old, quite a bit of our sorting/decluttering is going to have to be last minute as most if it will have to come back out again as soon as the valuation is done (we have a conservatory which we’re going to stage as a playroom but most of DDs toys currently live in the previously-super-grown-up living room).

Honestly this house was like a show home before we had DD, I was so houseproud. 2 years later it looks like a bomb’s hit it .[/quote]

Haha, I wish I'd taken pictures of our before! We have a DS4, and a DD 3, plus both working from home, which is why I've given myself the whole month of January to do it, though I'm way ahead of schedule now. The DC had built up a 4 year toy mountain x 2, which I'm still ruthlessly reducing.

I should also mention we tidied up the garden; trimmed hedges, cleared borders and washed patio slabs with some cleaning stuff and hose. The house is becoming so lovely that if we didn't need to move nearer to my parents, I'd want to stay here!

Oh my goodness @Starseeking you’re a better woman than I! Right you’ve given me an inadvertent kick up the behind, I’m going to make a list of everything that needs doing.

To be honest it’s not the decluttering/garden/cleaning that bothers me, it’s more trying to calculate how much the plastering/tiling/painting is going to cost...

Best of luck with your plan!

Im about to put mine on the market....the back garden looks fab as that was done during the summer....EA also said to get some blown double glazing fixed and get the gutters cleaned and roof fixed....I have a huge list of jobs to do before i sell....im almost tempted to sell it a bit cheaper rather than try to do the work myself.

We've just moved and our house was spotless when we put it up for sale. However, it had a new extension (3 years old) and was a top price for a semi detached as it was a very large semi. Therefore we were selling a lifestyle- ie here's a huge lovely house, yes it's expensive but you can just move in and it's much bigger than a new build..
We got asking price, so it worked.

We've bought a project in a sought after close. The interior is irrelevant as we're going to fully renovate it. Any painting the previous owners did was a waste of their time.

Do let us know how it goes @MindatWork.

The thing I did at the start was to make a room by room list of small changes I wanted to make and jobs that needed doing. Every few days, I'd tick off another item, more at weekends. They were even small things like swivelling beds so that the room feels larger lol. Breaking the tasks down in that way made it appear less overwhelming, and easier for me to tackle the mountain of mess.

Good luck with it!