Summer-Caitlin

I meant as I bought the house at 18, it is much older, 10 years older!!! *sigh*

Thank you all for your most welcomed advice, there are a lot of things to consider and I will definitely be thinking more about trying to go the cheaper route like doing many things myself.

As for only replacing the kitchen doors, it's an impossibility really, the carcasses are falling apart, and they are ... ahem... painted black, as are the tiles (don't ask) they even have some remains of glitter spray Remember I was very young when I got this house, so it was decorated to reflect my sparkly personality

My bathroom suite is white, not that old but needing a good decorative touch. I will definitely be replacing the lino, maybe not the carpets, but I might get some good left overs as our rooms aren't that big.

I am very grateful for all your advice, plenty of food for thought!

techwizard

Hi,

Not sure if I can provide much in addition to what the others have said, but from experience (I sold my flat in Scotland in 2 days in July this year), I would suggest the following when you do get round to it -

The estate agent - Check out the ones that serve the local area, but make sure that you ask where they advertise your property, e.g. local press, internet sites, etc. Always keep in contact with them - a good estate agent will have statistics on how many people accessed your property on the internet - S1Homes and Rightmove are two that estate agents can get stats from. Always make sure they keep in contact with you, as a good estate agent is one who will call you at least once a week to let you know what is happening.

Two other points I would make - when you get the schedule made up, always check for spelling mistakes and errors, e.g. missing items. A friend of mine could not understand why his property was not selling after being on the market for 6 months, and when we looked at his schedule, it has EIGHT spelling mistakes. Needless to say he was on the phone straight away getting them corrected. Get them to e-mail the schedule before it goes up in the shop or on the Internet, and check it.

The other point is photos. The person who comes out to measure up will also probably do the photos. If after the property has been on the market for sometime and it has not sold - look at the schedule again and if it could not be improved with different photos, e.g. different angles etc.

The property - I will not say much about colour schemes or work you can carry out, but what I will say is declutter as much as possible. Temporarily store large pieces of furniture before getting the photos taken, as it will make the rooms look bigger.

The garden - make sure the garden, front and back if you have one, is tidy and looking nice, even if you get a gardener in to do some tidying up work. It is surprising what some pot plants and hanging baskets do to brighten up a garden.

Hope this is of some help.

Best wishes and good luck.

GW

moondevil

HEY im mid 30 and still feel young
I would still buy a house and do it up, as long as the house was in the right area and was what we was looking for

Look in papers and ebay for deals to make your house look fab...there is some great bargains on there at moment from people moving away

Paradisefound

I would get it valued as is and a price with work completed and go from there. I did up properties in the UK and the last one with new everything took 2 1/2yrs to sell. It would have sold straight away as it was not that bad, for reasonable money without doing it up. It was a property taken in part exchange and I just wanted it to look great to sell. It turned out to be a waste of time and expense by delaying getting it on the market. So instead of Sep 2003 it went on in April 2004. January is not a good time to put a property on. I would say now or wait till March. Does it need new wiring? If so for get doing decor etc and sell it for someone else to do the work.