What we plan to do to increase the value of our home

how to increase value of homeWe know this isn’t our ‘forever home’, not only does it not have a garden but although it has three bedrooms we use one as a playroom. Our mortgage is fixed for 5 years so we’re hoping to be in a position to sell this house at a profit and buy something that will be more suited to our family as the kids grow up. There is quite a lot of work to be done to be able to add value to the house, although its location next to a mainline railway station will hopefully mean that commuters will always be interested in it!

Here’s a list of things we plan to do to increase the value of our property:
• Replace the roof. Our home is over a hundred years old and I really wouldn’t be surprised if the roof is of a similar age! We know that it has leaked in the past quite badly, and we’ve had to remove pigeons that have got into one of our attics in the last few weeks so there is still a hole somewhere! One of the things any buyer would look at it is the age and condition of the roof.
• Change single glazed windows to double. Three out of the five windows on the back of our home are double glazed, and one of the three on the front. I’m at a loss as to why the previous owners didn’t do them all at once, apart from one being a huge bay window and two very tall sash windows, it was probably a cost thing! Double glazing would mean it is quieter inside and warmer in the winter so would reduce the energy consumption for a future buyer
• New Bathroom. As I’ve written before the bathroom is really dated, wall to ceiling tiles (and not nice ones at that) and a dated bathroom suite. A new bathroom that makes better use of the space would definitely make it more desirable to potential buyers.
• New carpet throughout. All the bedrooms and living rooms are carpeted with horrible brown ‘tenant friendly’ carpet that was here when we moved in, as the place had tenants in before we bought it. We did seriously think about changing the carpets to something that wasn’t a) brown and b) ancient and sticky in places, but we decided that whilst we still had two young kids and not a lot of money to spend after buying a house that we would wait till we are planning on selling and then replace the carpet throughout. At the moment it means we just use large rugs to make it look more pleasing to the eye and don’t have to worry about playdough/food/goodness knows what else being dropped on it!

For more ideas take a look at Carpetright’s guide to buying and selling, at the moment they’ve got a competition running to win a hamper of goodies and £500 to spend on the site to get some new flooring for your home!

 

This is a collaborative post, all words and opinions are my own.

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