Renovating to sell

It’s a natural urge to want to present your home at it’s best before you sell but can I ask you to pause before you start a full scale renovation?

Definitely spruce things up; a lick of paint, a tidy and declutter, clean the gutters tidy the lawn, bring in light, clean carpets and cupboards and ovens.

We all know if there’s an obvious visible fault that a potential buyer will use this to try and drive the price down far more than the cost of the repair. So obvious and inarguable faults really should be addressed but it’s not always necessary to spend money on big ticket items for a number of reasons; and of course this depends on your market. Things like a new $50,000 kitchen might be crucial in an upmarket location but unless the kitchen upgrade is really essential in some lower price points you may find it will cost you more than the value it adds to sale price.

It also may be that the buyer doesn’t share your taste and wont appreciate your upgrades at all, remember a lot of buyers want to put their own stamp on a home & not everyone shares the same taste so always be mindful of your potential buyer, especially if you are purely completing the renovations for the sale.

Lets call in an agent and see what they think – will you recoup the cost of the work and then some? If not, is it worth your effort? Are there elements they see more value in, for example you may want to update the bathroom but the agent sees more value in you spending your money on built in wardrobes or paving the outdoor areas. The most divisive feature seems to be a swimming pool – love them or hate them your agent has the low down on what criteria a buyer is looking for in your suburb.

The worst bit, I think, is that you’ll fall in love with the fresh new place and that could make it very hard to leave…or is that really a bad thing at all?

https://issuu.com/weekenderpenrith/docs/prop18nov/16