We're not sure if we'll be in our house forever, so that is affecting what upgrades we do. On the one hand I think certain upgrades are selling points e.g an alfresco, facade and poly kitchen. Other things you pay lots for but are more personal upgrades such as wall niches, tile upgrades, kitchen additions.
So far we've done a few minor floor plan changes and added an alfresco. Polyu kitchen and caesarstone are in our promotional offer. Taps sinks etc are all nice anyway.
Landscaping crossed my mind - Alot of the newer 2 storey houses for sale in our area always have nicely manicured gardens and driveway landscaping but the inside can be pretty basic or have older fittings.
Has anyone got any comments on things they'd look for , and how to maximise profit. Is anyone else building to sell on?
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Browse Forums Building A New House Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 2Feb 28, 2008 10:24 am  bobbuilderWe're not sure if we'll be in our house forever, so that is affecting what upgrades we do. On the one hand I think certain upgrades are selling points e.g an alfresco, facade and poly kitchen. Other things you pay lots for but are more personal upgrades such as wall niches, tile upgrades, kitchen additions. So far we've done a few minor floor plan changes and added an alfresco. Polyu kitchen and caesarstone are in our promotional offer. Taps sinks etc are all nice anyway. Landscaping crossed my mind - Alot of the newer 2 storey houses for sale in our area always have nicely manicured gardens and driveway landscaping but the inside can be pretty basic or have older fittings. Has anyone got any comments on things they'd look for , and how to maximise profit. Is anyone else building to sell on? KERB APPEAL!!! Buying decisions are made as the buyers step out of the car outside your house. Internal inspections merely serve to confirm the first impressions so unless the interior is absolutely shocking, this is where I would spend the money. IMO Simon Building an architect designed home out of Insulated Concrete Forms on acreage in semi-rural SE Melbourne. Developer approval obtained, engineering complete, getting quotes Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 3Feb 28, 2008 10:32 am Quote: KERB APPEAL!!! Buying decisions are made as the buyers step out of the car outside your house. I agree, first impressions count. If you are building to resell I would keep interior quite neutral, and dress the place up with furnishings, that way the potential buyer has a blank canvas for their own tastes too add their own stamp on it. By neutral I mean classy not cheap eg tiles floors etc. Paula Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 4Feb 28, 2008 11:27 am A few suggestions:
1. Find a few friends/neighbours who never been to your house to come and have a look and ask for opinions 2. Get some real estate agents in your area to have a look and ask for opinions 3. Get an interior designer, this would cost extra $, but might worth it I also got this post on my blog about luxury cars could add 15%-20% extra value to your property ..... only if you believe that! see http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/2007/09/propertyinfo014-luxury-cars-could-add.html Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 5Feb 28, 2008 1:17 pm Hi, having spent three long, hot and humid summers in Kogarah Bay before moving to Canberra I would be after air conditioning if I was to live in that area again 
Other than that I agree re street presentation and neutral colours. enigma Thanks for your input 6Feb 28, 2008 5:57 pm Thanks for your input guys - We do have the air-con - and we've chosen a contemporary facade - unfortunately we haven't got the Mercedes in the drive - but I can see how that might work!!! It'd be Mercedes in the drive, Vinnies furniture inside though!!
We are on a battleaxe rear plot with an empty plot in front so that in itself is not ideal if we're talking kerb appeal (its not even on the kerb haha), we were just going to concrete the long drive down the side of the front property (currently grass) and then stencil concrete the area in front on the house - but now I'm thinking we might have to spend to stencil concrete the whole driveway to ...drive our mercedes down...!!! C&G -------------------------------- A new building chapter begins.. Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 7Feb 29, 2008 10:25 am If done nicely, you can cut costs in certain areas and spend the money elsewhere.
Eg. Concrete roof tiles instead of more expensive clay types - how many relly would notice this. Insulation - who actually checks (especially wall) and who would turn down a house for this? Lower capacity A/C - who askes the KW output anyway? Cheaper carpets and wooden flooring - most wouldn't know whether a new carpet was a bit cheaper - not too cheap obviously. Cheaper paint is seldom detected as long as the quallity is ok. Don't cut corners on kitchen appliances, benchtops, and anything that can be obviously noted as being cheap. A sense of Grandure seems to be popular at the moment. Lots of space or at least the sense of lots of space. A carefully laid out room can be made to look much larger. A few plants and newly rolled lawn add hugely to street appeal. A place to sit and contemplate in the garden is also valuable and can be done quite cheaply. A swimming pool can add value but only in certain types of houses and in certain settings. Multiple huge garages and sheds seem to be popular quite often - lots of people run their business from home and need the space. When building, choose a good fascade, it helps greatly when selling, just make sure that it provides something much better to look at. I don't think all of the above is totally ethical and haven't done many of them but really I am sure it happens all the time - especially by developers. When buying, it is really worth looking very carefully and asking all the right questions.  02 Feb 2007 179 Bronze Member Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 8Feb 29, 2008 12:14 pm I knocked back a house once because when I asked them about the insulation (it was a cladded home), the agent said the owner would check and get back to me. When they didn't get back to me, I had my answer 
I'd rented a similar house and winters and summers were terrible. If you don't insulate, some people will notice how hot or cold your home is compared to others - I guess you could disguise it with air conditioning though. All that said, I doubt you can get away with not insulating a home, given the current star rating and BASIX regulations. Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 9Feb 29, 2008 12:16 pm On the top of that, i would say, the facilities/items which could not be (or would be very expensive) added after the construction.
One come to mind is hydronic slab heating system, underground watertank under the garage, ducted vacuum/heater/cooling, etc. 20 Feb 2008 181 North West Sydney Bronze Member Re: If you're a home buyer what are the features you want? 10Feb 29, 2008 1:47 pm This is an interesting topic. For everyone there is going to be a different list of essential and desirable items. For me a few of mine are:
Essential Nice living areas with lots of natural lighting Quality Kitchen and Bathroom A feeling of quality Desirable Timber flooring Stone benchtops Cat 5e data cabling Decorative Cornices Increased Ceiling Height Domain and realestate.com are both pretty good sources for land. If you want to buy in a new area I suggest walking into the sales offices of the land agents. Goodluck 👍 5 3667 The problem with images these days you have to check to see if they are FAKE What part of WA are you from? (humour) 1 4775  I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 4103 |
