Doing up a property to sell (high spec)

[Freetodowhatiwant]

Hello, I have the opportunity to do up a property and due to the area would like it to be high spec. Have you had experience with doing something up high spec, whether that’s for re-sale, rental or to live in? I would love any tips on how to save money but still have that luxury feel, what to concentrate on, what works, any thoughts really.

You need to spend a lot of time on decorative website like Houzz, looking at what's on trend, what is expected in a property at the high end. For example is underfloor heating expected, real stone flooring not tile, bespoke kitchen, dressing room as part of master suite, solid doors, hidden switches, fully planned lighting scheme, fully wired ethernet etc

You also need to research the ceiling price for houses in the street.

Honestly the way to feel high quality and expensive is to get stuff in that’s high quality and expensive

No amount of tips will make MDF cupboard and Dunelm rugs and Ikea cabinets feel more expensive

What is the property for and where?

We have flipped a few properties. It’s about shopping around. Ie our bathroom suite is from Facebook marketplace. Online is then best place to look for most things. Driving kitchen prices down and always getting 3 quotes. Let everyone know you’re getting 3 quotes.

We have found people buy a dressed house - take a look at new build show homes etc. You dont need to spend a fortune. My DH has an eye for this thing. I unfortunately don’t!

All about the quick wins too. Don’t spend a fortune on something that doesn’t look much better than a cheaper version. We find neutral, pastel colours work well.

Everyone thinks we have spent a fortune on things and we real haven’t. We spend what they cost - but often that’s much less than people expect.

Labour is a massive cost so spend a bit of time getting some good workmen on side and really set your expectations and push them a bit. I’d advise against day rates!

There's high spec and high spec, if we're talking Mayfair or Cheshire footballer's WAG level with acres of marble and a swimming pool in the basement then no I have no experience but I have refurbed several more 'normal' properties middle-class type properties for sale. I would say if you are doing this for profit the most important tip I'd give is that you need to be very business minded about the whole thing, it's very easy when you have a huge (to you) budget and it's 'high end' to get carried away making the most lovely perfect house ever (particularly if you are creative and enjoy the design side of things), but it's arguably just as or even more important as with a low-end property to work out and stick to your budget or you can end up putting an awful lot of work in for not that much return. So you'll know the starting value of the house, you can work out a realistic 'target price' from sold house prices of a similar style and square footage in the area and from this you can work out how much you can realistically spend on the refurb to give your desired profit margin. Don't be tempted to think that because of the high end finish you'll achieve more than the ceiling price of your area (this is largely determined by square footage and location not finish) and remember to go off sold price not advertised price, houses often actually only sell for 90% of their advertised price, it may sound obvious but if it's a £100k house then that's only £10k difference whereas in a million pound house it's £100k which makes a huge difference to your budget for the refurb. Don't forget to count sales costs and tax into your budget which will be substantial on a high end property and really eat into your profit margin, also if the house is mortgaged you'll need to set out a realistic timescale and count mortgage interests payments for however many months as a cost. Allow yourself a 10% contingency as well as something always, always comes up you weren't expecting!

Then when you have the budget you need to take a very critical look at your plans - e.g. that massive extension may be necessary to achieve your target price but if it's going to take up 75% of your budget leaving you very stretched on the rest of the house then is the whole project viable? One solution depending on the market can be selling the house 'as is' with the planning permissions and plans for the refurb draw up but not actually completing the work yourself - lower sales price of course but much less cost so can still work out profitable.

Other things I'd say are you need to consider your target market and the type/style of house it is very carefully, and not just go off your own taste. A victorian villa demands a very different style to a modern executive home to a sprawling countryside house for instance. Certainly at the high end people expect good design and a sense of style and uniqueness to the property, but you also have to make sure you don't go too far and appeal only to people with a very particular taste if that isn't common in your area. I tend towards going for more classic/neutral styles on things that can't easily be changed like flooring, kitchen etc to appeal to the broadest possible market and try and make it stand out with more high end fixtures and fittings - bonus being you can take some of these with you when you sell for your next property!

My one thing I would say I've learnt from doing refurbs at the higher end is don't forget or underestimate the importance of the outside space and that looking as good as the interiors. I've certainly been guilty myself of prioritising kitchens and bathrooms etc and not budgeting for proper landscaping and gardening work which can be surprisingly pricey to get right (particularly if you are looking to preserve existing mature plants and trees etc)...

The above advice only applies to refurbbing for sale of course - it would be very different if it's for you and your family to live in, or for rental. I have little experience of high end rental but I would have thought similar applies to middle/lower end, i.e. you need to be prioritising durability and reliability over looks, on things like fittings, appliances, carpets etc - so not the cheapest possible as it will be a false economy and need replacing all the time, but I wouldn't ever put super swanky appliances or beautiful expensive fittings into a rental whether that's to millionaires or council tenants, people are all alike and what they are is dirty and careless with things that don't belong to them, millionaires if anything are worse than council tenants in my experience as a greater sense of entitlement so that would be a quick way to flush money down the (gold-plated!) toilet....

Don't have any experience of doing up a property myself, but maybe consider that your idea of tasteful high spec maybe someone else's idea of tacky.
Have been to see several properties to buy. One older couple added on 10k to price as they had just had bathroom done up to a high spec - except I have very different ideas to a 70 year old on modern taste. Another man proudly showed us his entertainment system that he had built in throughout house - I'm not techy at all and wasn't a selling point for me.

High quality tradesmen
You can but the most expensive materials but if the tradesmen aren't very good it will show

@maxelly says it all really. Know the ceiling price and work backwards.
I think what makes a house stand out from the usual refurbishment is integrated fridge/freezer, dishwasher and washing machine, decent carpets and flooring, interesting (but still neutral) tiling, and putting blinds up from an online custom blind company (about £75 each but looks so much nicer). I also dress the house with furniture, artwork and nice accessories. I don't stick to bland colours - last house I did urban tropic was in so I had a deep teal wall in one bedroom and a deep green one in the other. Bed linen was a large green tropical leaf print. Artwork was posters on board - Georgia O'Keefe desert flowers which fit the colour scheme.
I put bistro table and chairs if there's a deck or patio area and add some pots of colourful flowers. You could always price the furniture for sale (but include the blinds as part of fixtures snd fittings).

This depends a lot on what you mean by high spec and where the property is. To some, high spec is having big standard bifold doors. To others it would be the sort of house you see on the front of a design magazine (not just a home magazine).

It’s often only worth doing the latter in London or other premium areas.

I think a good starting point is to have an appraisal from an estate agent and have them guide you as to expectations for prospective buyers.
We had to renovate ours before putting on the market and I was really surprised as to what made a difference and what really didn’t. We would have wasted significant £££ on things that didn’t need doing

We live in a very expensive area, but it’s expensive because of the location, not the spec of the house, so I would be very mindful of going for quality but not ‘designer’ as such. The former will look good no matter what, whereas the latter can too easily veer into personal taste.

I would go for:

• natural hard finishes like wood and stone (no products that mimic those things) in a neutral palette. Think solid medium-tone oak floors with a natural grain (much cheaper than no/low grain but still feel quality and expensive) in 5-7 inch width planks, stone worktops in the kitchen, stone bathroom tile, etc. Details that some consider ‘high spec’ can be very expensive and are too taste-specific to get your money back, so don’t invest in things like sound systems (the tech will get old too quickly), all Phillips Hue bulbs, crazy lighting, designer bathroom vanities, etc. Above all, have your hard finishes installed by skilled professionals who come highly recommended. A finish will only look as good as the installation. A house with quality (but not crazy) materials and excellent finishes is superior to a house with very expensive designer materials and poor finishes.

The same principle of quality but not designer applies throughout. Think Siemens vs Gaggenau, Next 125 kitchen range vs Poggenpohl, etc. I know someone who sold a house recently and the buyer promptly ripped out the gaggenau hob to install an aga. Tastes are just too personal in the kitchen to spend crazy money there.