Couple (me & the mrs) with modest 2 bed semi in North West England considering selling. Property is in need of ‘some modernisation’. Previously the house would have been valued at a shade over £100.000, but with the price drop a rough estimate from an online valuation site suggests a current value of around £76.000.

The work needed to bring it upto acceptable standards would cost around £8.000, that includes new bathroom, new combi boiler, a couple of new windows, back door, soffits & fascias and a basic driveway re-flag.

Work would have to be done with a loan. Current Mortgage outstanding is around £50.000

Is it worth spending that at this point or should we just say sod it and try to flog as it is for a lower price?

Looking forward to your opinions.

I’d do the work. Try and increase the mortgage to cover the work. You’re adding value and so ‘should’ profit from it. If you try and sell it now prospective buyers will see the work that needs doing and will knock more off than the work would cost.
I’m not an EA (my brother in law is), so take this with a pinch of salt. on the Other hand, if the house is in Chester ignore everything above, don’t do the work as it’s not worth it and I’ll buy it 🙂

Get some estate agents round and get a proper valuation. Ask them what would need doing to make the house more saleable.

None of that will cost you anything.

Do what works need doing.

Then sell your house privately.

At the start of last year, when prices were still mental, someone did the maths on upgrades, and compared the cost of doing the upgrade, with the amount of value it would add to the house. At that point, you lost money on all the ‘upgrades’ (new bathroom, even a cheap one you could lose something like £2000 by doing it!). Now, with prices dropping somewhere between 10-20%, the calculation is way worse, and you’d probably be an idiot to do any major work on a house just to sell it.

Things like new bathroom, are also pretty taste related too – you’re obviously thinking of bunging in quite a cheap one if the cost of all those bits is £8000. If someone comes along and wants a nice bathroom, putting in the new cheap bathroom will just have been wasted effort.

Bear in mind, if you sell, you’ll typically get about 10% less than the estate agent’s valuation too (that’s the average accepted offer at the moment).

Joe