Should we finish renovating before selling?

[housedilemma0]

Planning to sell our house sooner than expected. We've been here 4 years, over that time we've replaced all of the flooring, doors and radiators downstairs, put in a brand new kitchen and downstairs loo etc. We pretty much haven't touched the upstairs of the house other than painting. The doors are very worn, one of them has a hole in etc. the carpets are fine condition wise but not to most people's taste (mix of brown and blue ) and doesn't match at all with the rest of the house.

We have 3 options.

1. Finish upstairs to the same standard as the rest of our house which would cost about 5k for everything including carpets, doors, radiators, bathroom (DH is a plumber so can do lots himself)
2. Replace some things just so it doesn't look quite as mismatched (could get a cheap carpet in a nice colour that matches the rest of the house)
3. Sell it as it is

The estate agent has said not to bother and that it's fine to sell as it is but I'm thinking people won't want to finish someone else's project and that also we won't get as much money than we would if it was finished?

People want to put their own stamp in a place.
Shortly before we moved we had to replace a huge area with carpet due to an accident. When the people who put an offer in came round to measure up they told us they were ordering carpet. It was only 4 months old!

Save your money. Whilst there are some people who want to move strait into show home condition and do nothing, the major of people re do things once in.

I’ve also been watching a property on RM, it is overpriced so I delayed in booking a viewing. It then got pulled. It was delisted after being painted and carpets & other flooring fitted for 5k more. After no viewings at all, because people will now have to do exactly the same amount of work to rip out the awful shade of carpet and repaint the hideously painted rads, it’s been reduced to less than it was up in the first place with no work done.
It’s still overpriced. Price it realistically and it will sell.

#Re listed

I agree with the agent, save your time and money. Plenty of buyers prefer to be able to renovate to their own taste. I dislike carpets, for example, so even brand new ones wouldn’t represent a saving for me, I’d still plan on ripping them out immediately. And I’d be put off by a brand new bathroom which I didn’t like much, especially if the seller was expecting to command a higher price for having fitted it.

Save your money. People always want to put their own stamp on things. Just make it look clear and light - which you've done as you've painted it. When I first saw my modernist flat, the walls were covered in sparkly metallic gold and silver paper and it had various other features not to my taste at all - none of this affected my decision to buy.

We're in a very similar situation (five years here, have changed virtually everything so it's now unrecognisable) and are considering selling before we actually finish.

But.....the things we have left to do - eg, fitting new flooring in the living room (previously two rooms so flooring doesn't currently match), painting a few original windows (we have replaced most with hardwood, but the remainder are all peeling paint and rot) and landscaping more of the 0.5 acre garden, particularly the first areas you see on approaching the property - are vital imho. Without doing these jobs (we're DIYing as both very handy/experienced renovators) we are unlikely to sell as quickly or for the maximum price.

There's a few other larger jobs we were considering (dividing one space to create an additional bedroom and kitting out the ground floor cloakroom we've created as there wasn't one previously) and these are some of the things we might leave undone.

Our house was a repossession though and needed everything doing. The previous two sets of owners had done bugger all....badly and we've done the renovating to a very high standard (in-frame kitchen, oak framed extension etc) so imho selling with obvious glaring unfinished bits is a a potential no-no.

If yours is mostly just a few carpets and a bathroom that need done I can understand that it's not necessarily imperative to complete the renovations. However, in my fairly extensive experience of selling, estate agents always tell you to put the property on 'as is' which imho isn't always the best advice.

OP when we bought our house the vendor was obviously proud of her kitchen which was virtually new. It did not work for us. It had a breakfast bar but I wanted more storage cupboards. I wanted a Rangemaster but it only had a normal sized cooker. When DH casually said we would be getting a new kitchen fitted she honestly looked like she was going to cry. I was worried they would not sell to us but they did. We ordered a new kitchen more to our personal needs, and sold the kitchen in the house on eBay. The only thing I'd replace is the broken door. Carpets are to a personal taste. I have to have laminate because both DH and I are both asthmatic and carpets store dust.

I'd do the doors and maybe do a cheap neutral carpet if the one in is particularly garish. I wouldn't necessarily paint walls as people will want to decorate, but maybe if they are bold then again make them neutral.

I marketed mine on advice of the agent not to finish the utility or outside painting and a few people have commented there's "too much work" so now I'm doing them

I agree with not spending lots of money finishing the house before putting it on the market. However, I’d suggest making sure that the photos give a balanced picture. When we bought our house, the seller, a builder had put in a great new kitchen and new bathrooms but had left the rest in an 1980’s time warp….it was telling that there were no bedroom photographs. It didn’t bother us but they’d had poor feedback as prospective buyers had assumed it was all done.

I would normally say leave it but considering your husband is a plumber? If he can do all that for 5k I reckon it’s worth it as it will look a lot better for photos & viewings.

To a purchaser, the cost of doing the bathroom would be minimum £3-4k for a straightforward replacement refit with new fixtures with tiling, so if you and DH can do it all the jobs for £5k, I would say do it all. Always sort out damage like the door.

You may not sell for a lot more than the cost of doing the refurb work but the chances are you will sell quicker with the upstairs done.