New kitchen to sell or not - it's really bad

[irishmist]

Worried that our kitchen is so bad we need to.
We hope to put our house on the market in March but debating whether it's worth installing a new but cheap kitchen to sell.
DH thinks it's not worth it but I'm worried our awful kitchen will put viewers off - laminate peeling off etc - grim.
We did other work in the house - it's the only room that lets the house down, I think
I haven't tidied the kitchen so please ignore mess.

Agree with everyone, this kitchen wouldn’t put me off but a cheap new one would as I would know you would have reflected that cost in the price of the house.

I also agree with everyone. Don’t spend any money on it. Give it a wipe over and put it on the market.

@Bluntness100

The ideal scenario for me would be a kitchen I could justify ripping out and enough in the budget to fit a new one

Really? Not a kitchen you actually liked? Wow. You must love getting work done,

No, of course I don’t love getting work done. Who does? If we’re playing fantasy house hunting in an imaginary world then yes, a new kitchen and bathroom just exactly as I would have chosen for myself would be ideal, and I’d happily pay a premium for that. In the real world that’s highly unlikely and rather than paying more for someone else’s idea of a perfect kitchen I would prefer to buy a house with a kitchen that’s seen better days and can be justifiably removed, assuming the house is priced accordingly. I don’t think that’s a wildly unusual stance.

We have wondered the same but decided it's not worth it, no doubt whatever kitchen you put in would not be to the buyers' taste.

Oh god don't bother replacing it! Your buyers will undoubtedly want to change it (and it's not even that bad anyway).

We moved into a house last year that had a new, shiny - and entirely revolting - kitchen installed to sell. We ripped it out within 3 months. I felt pretty bad about the waste (and even our kitchen fitters commented on the new-ness of the fittings they were removing!) but it really was horrible, badly designed and depressing. I would have felt better about it if it hadn't been as new.

Leave it as it is. Sensible buyers will be able to see the potential in that lovely big light room you've got.

No don't. But make sure the room is well lit when to have the professional photos and i might consider a smaller table. The large table (however practical) takes up a lot of the room.

I would just paint it.

I like it, and would advise against painting it, because the kind of buyers who can't live with it will rip it out anyway, it would take time to do a decent job but that's just me. Painted tiles look a bit crap imo. Have a really nice coffee machine out on display which you can take with you, and some lovely ceramic storage jars on display, vases of flowers and a bar area with fairy lights if there is an alcove

This was a quick update of the kitchen in our old house. Same kitchen units. A quick lick of paint can make a huge difference.

Wow that’s amazing @Rainbowshit. We’re the unit doors spray painted?

A mostly done-up house with a bad kitchen would be my ideal because I would feel wasteful ripping something cheap but new out. Kitchens are so personal that the chances your cheap new kitchen would suit the taste of your buyer are slim, and most buyers these days have the imagination to see what they could do there to make it their own.

If you are worried, you could always have plans for a new kitchen mocked up so that you could show buyers what it could become?

If you really feel you need to sort it, straighten the doors, replace the worktop and primer, paint & seal the units. Floor looks fine

I'd happily buy a house with it as is, it's clean and that to me buying a place is far more important than aesthetic's

Just replace the dated looking blinds with some plain ones from Ikea and it will be fine. There is one style of modern kitchen that i cannot abide and whist I'd buy a house with a kitchen like yours I would not buy a house with a new kitchen I didn't like because I'd feel so guilty about ripping it out.

I would have no reaction to this kitchen - it's old, it could do with replacing - reflected in price - great! My choice.

I would be highly irritated to see a quickly-installed, cheap-as-possible glossy plasticky thing clearly put in to be 'new' and 'modern' that was never going to be, even if ok, the thing I would have actually chosen... and to pay the premium for it.

Definitely leave it, you'll put off more people than you appeal to.

I actually like it. Don’t change it.

@Bluntness100

When we bought this house the kitchen was over thirty years old, and we have replaced. I suspect the ops is much older than thirty years old, maybe forty or fifty, it looks seventies or eighties to me. The agent did say to me at the time a lot of people were put off and said the kitchen was old and needed done, and they were correct. There is no doubt a very old kitchen will put some folks off, not everyone is up for replacing, either financially or in terms of the work involved.

No it doesn’t. That’s a 90s kitchen. Even early 2000s.

I have recently put in a new kitchen to sell but that is only because the old one had a mould / damp problem and was in really poor shape (e.g leaky sink, no insulation, weird artex ceiling, uneven floor, ancient gas oven, weird layout etc). Mine was also quite a small kitchen so it didn’t cost the earth. I did it in a very neutral, modern smart style without too much individual taste. And honestly I think it is what helped sell the house so quickly.

Yours looks fine though and there is lots of good advice on how to improve it. I wouldn’t replace in your shoes