basics of increasing home value

kexkez · May 17, 2009 12:09 am

post away Hels. someone at work said they bought a few scones from the bakery near their house and put them in the oven and rewarmed them prior to house opens. to give that baking smell. i used a tiny ( i mean tiny) bit of vanilla extract on a damp cloth and wiped along cupboard shelving in the kitchen. ( you'd have to experiment to make sure it wasn't too strong0

our agent told us to put a little bit of colour in the garden. we had lots of green. but our place was marketed as a family home not an upmarket trendy dinks house. i guess it depends on the best potential buyer market.

i always watered the garden beds to make the new mulch look nice and dark ( sellers mulch it is known as in the trade. the sort of mulch Fu would have a fit at) you have to make sure you don't wet the paths though.

King willy · May 17, 2009 1:20 am

Hi Helyn etal (and others)

My example was one I personally experienced. I was looking at 3 homes in the same area. 2 had no air con, small bedrooms in 1, and 2.4m ceilings in the other. In the end I decided to build. As it was less than they where asking. I also don’t like the free standing I got an inbuilt 900mm oven. There will be heaps of homes on the market in the next 12 months and after, so I think we must value add for when or if you have to sell. Having said that it’s hard to say what others will want. An agent told me 4 or 3 BR & a study sells best. As an investment in the present economic climate, please cut it out, no thanks. This one is for me. I’m going to put up my floor plan for some comments in the kitchen part of the forum. So please have a look. Helyn, I think your right I should building it for me, as I wont be going through the building process again. I would like to make a pool room out of the back bedroom by making it a bit bigger, which I could. But would a potential buyer see it as a plus. How knows, just do it and enjoy it, hey.

Joles, Thanks for the well thought out feed back. Some good points to look at in the lay out.

Think about the kitchen, laundry and storage, storage and more storage. It can be added later, but built in, thought out storage rather than just a random free-standing cupboard will always add value. Kitchens about 4 x 3.7 full of cupboards & the pot draws. Big laundry with built in. 3 of the 4 BR have WIR.
As silly as it sounds.... the layout. Can areas be closed off? Yes very expensive double sliding cavity doors. Can kids/adults get to the toilet without going through the whole house? Yes mum. Is the laundry in a convenient usable place? I think so.Is the outdoor area easily accessibly... both physically and visually if there's small kids? Yes, can see them from kitchen and living area. Is the garage usable and accessible? Yes Is it easy to get a mower/tools from the garage to the outdoor areas? I have rear access door.
Check out my floor plan, I would love to get your opinions.

Cheers to all.

The King………

Hels · May 20, 2009 6:38 pm

Following on from my post the other day, we are now on the market and have had some professional photos done of the house... very happy with them and all our hard work has paid off so far ::lol::

TheBoatMan · Jun 09, 2009 12:21 am

Another easy way to increase your homes value. I read it in a book:

onc_artisan · Jun 09, 2009 12:31 am

Hels · Jun 09, 2009 4:35 pm

TheBoatMan

Another easy way to increase your homes value. I read it in a book:

Pour a cement circle in your backyard, paint a white H on it and you have a helipad. Imagine the real estate advert. "4 bed, 2 bath with Helipad"!

BTW we sold our house after 7 days so thanks for the tips everyone, apparently they paid off

Yak_Chat · Jun 10, 2009 2:25 am

Quote:

Pour a cement circle in your backyard, paint a white H on it and you have a helipad. Imagine the real estate advert. "4 bed, 2 bath with Helipad"!

Paint the X it on the roof - "Built Like Brick Sh*&T0-House" and strong enough to land your own helicoptor on. :::

Jousting sticks - how much - nahh - tell him he's dreaming

Pebble · Jun 14, 2009 8:34 pm

It wasn't all that long ago we had a look at the house and yes the last nights dinner smell is one thing I noticed, but I kind of thought to myself "oh well that would be fixed when we move in anyway, I hope!", but still fresh coffee or bread doesn't seem such a bad idea.

It does depend on the place, if yours is an apartment in a complex where most are the same, then being bold in painting or renovating it can pay off. Other places might only appeal to a very limited market and like others have said it's just a matter of the right buyer coming along and falling in love.

I think it's good advice to do a little research in what part of the market you're targeting (like the family, the investor etc) to begin with.

9finances · Jun 14, 2009 10:54 pm

Drsimmy

Helyn

Quote:

And to keep the size 20 bonds undies off the line on that
day!

Oh, I so agree - underwear left hanging out in the garden - not a good look!! :lol:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj187/nurselovescoffee/PlantaBraPink.jpg

hahahah nice

Is that real? I can't believe it! :lol:

Helyn · Jun 14, 2009 11:13 pm

No its not real its just a booby trap :roll:

Cabinfever · Jun 16, 2009 5:43 pm

paintingprofessional

This is where its important to know people who work in the industry. Home owners while being moderately aware of what trade professionals can do, dont completely understand the full capacity of some professional's. Let me give some examples of the paint industry....
We do the following all the time....
Respray a tiled of galvanized roof for cosmetic benifet as opposed to a complete repoint/repair. A complete repair averages around $3000.00 a cosmetic clean up under $1000.00 (re-spray roof and pressure clean)
A total interior repaint for average sized home maybe worth around $6000.00 but repaint just interior walls with an economical paint under $1500.00 (plaster repairs are included in that price aslong as its not major e.g cracks/dings/scratchs.
Repaint all eaves/gutters/facia's upto $1500 could be done cheaper. for instance you could have the eaves/gutters/facia pressure cleaned for $300.00 then one coat applied to all in existing colour for around $700.00
Painter can arrange or perform wet area silicon work, re-dressing all current siliconing for under $200.00
Repaint grouting in tiles.

when you add it all up consider the benifets you would have :
Newly presented roof
Newly presented interior walls (these do take the brunt of the damage so it makes the entire home look re-freshed)
Fresh Silicon work in bath/ensuite area's and also main rooms in tiled.
Newly presented eaves/gutters/facia's/downpipes (everything exterior bar bricks on a basic brick home)

That would come to around $6000.00 and would practically cover most things visable.
(**this is not a standing offer an example only)

This is a great example of the sort of "cheap sales job" that I was always on the lookout for when buying. These sorts of tricks are always a giant red-flag-waving. If the owner has resorted to this sort of superficial treatment to get a sale, who knows what other sort of quick-fixes may have been done ? New light switches but old wiring ? A new bathroom sink but clogged pipes ? It instantly raises suspicions - and rightly so.

My advice is to stay clear of doing anything like this.

It's one thing to water gardens, sweep paths and put fresh coffee on the stove. It's quite another to deliberately try to trick people into believing high value work has been carried out.

piscean · Jun 16, 2009 7:44 pm

I cant see anything wrong with getting some paintwork done before selling. Many people paint before they put a house on the market and when you walk into a house that has a nice clean fresh coat of paint you know you dont have to worry about painting before or soon after you move in and it looks much nicer than a house with dinks and marks on the walls etc. as long as it's done well. It would definitely be a plus for me as a buyer.

Cabinfever · Jun 16, 2009 8:58 pm

Are you in Sydney ? You'd enjoy Meriton apartments :-)

piscean · Jun 16, 2009 9:11 pm

Im in Perth so that means nothing to me

I do know how much time and inconvenience is involved in painting though so I look at it from a different point of view, the owners are prettying up the place for sale and when I moved in I wouldnt have to paint, that saves me dollars or countless hours to do it myself. Plus I like colour and I hate white walls but thats my personal preference and I know that for resale painting everything back to neutral means you appeal to a much wider group of buyers. :wink:

tiling and changes to plumbing etc is a whole different thing but painting for resale is pretty common at least over here.

Cabinfever · Jun 17, 2009 7:38 pm

My point is really about doing a cheap "pretty it up for sale" job rather than a genuine lasting job.

As a buyer I'd prefer a raw original than to have had someone rush around slapping on one coat of the cheapest paint they could find.

As a seller I wouldn't slap on a cheap single coat because I think that's unethical.

shanec1980 · Jun 17, 2009 7:41 pm

When I see a fresh coat of paint on a house I want to buy. I wonder.. "What structural cracks have they puttied up and painted over."

Pebble · Jun 18, 2009 10:29 am

I guess the thing is weather "economical" means lesser quality! For all we know it could be the same (or similar formulation) to the "well known brand" of paint, but sold cheper in much higher volumes to tradespeople.
I'm sure builders use economical paint all the time for new houses.

Yak_Chat · Jun 20, 2009 9:07 pm

I understand your point cabinfever - just like a used car is prettied up by scammy car sales people. - but I do not have an issue with a new coat of paint being done to make a house look better than a scrathed and dented hallway if I'm selling it.

jmsbaum · Sep 09, 2009 1:25 am

Hi guys,
Just joined, but have read this thread with quite a bit of interest, and wanted to give my example and experiences, albeit that mine run in the reverse direction than the others here.

My fiance and I have recently purchased a a 4br 2 living area weatherboard in Ballarat, for around the 160k mark, (housing is much cheaper in ballarat than melb) upon purchassing the house it was quite tired, although very sound and sturdy, it had thick blackberries growing between the side wall and fence, (couldnt even walk down past them they filled the entire space) the 2 second living room was old masonite walls and a chipboard, yes chipboard roof, garden was there but wildly overgrown,. and the carpet throughout was threadbare. 3 months have past since settlement and we moved in 3 days ok, in the mean time, we have cleaned up the garden, nothing new just trimmed mowed and weeded the existing setup looks quite nice now, torn out all the blackberries, (my hands still hurt, even leather welding gloves didnt last) and conceted in a pathway down that side of the house so hopefully they cant grow back. the 2nd living room was replastered, and had one of its doorways extended and also recieved new light fittings, this only cost us materials and a few beers for trady mates, new carpet went down throughout, easily the most expensive thing totallly nearly 5k, and the whole house was painted inside.

the day before yesterday we had a agent come and value the house, just to see how we had done, no intention of selling, he gave us a sales figure of 190-200k so a value increase of 30-40k although i know agents are notorious for giving you a higher figure to try to get you to sell, but it still seems that our little effort has created some impact on the value.

now if i totalled up what we spent it might be more than i think, materials, carpet, skip, beers, lights, paint, couple of plants, so do you think we have done the right thing? the entire reason we did it was to make the house more comfortable to us, not because we plan on selling, but rasing its value was always a topic of conversations as well. bearing in mind, the only work done by paid proffessionals was the carpet, the sparky work was done by a pro, but he hasnt charged us im sure he will ask me to do some concretting for him sometime in the future.

King willy · Sep 09, 2009 3:04 am

JM
Welcome to the site. I did not think you would find much of a place in Ball. for 160k. If you are happy with it, that all that matters. People dont allways make money on property, you may not loose a lot but it long term.

FHOG ending 2010, means less buyers, intrest rates on the way up. A lot of ins and out cost with property. Basic stuff below just an example of your true costs.

$5260 stamp duty, intrest on morgage p.a $5000 min (borrowing 100k) carpet $5000, Other reno stuff say $2ooo legals + Tranfer + reg = $1500 total $18,760 approx Plus all the work you put into it.

Good thing is you will get a good rental return for it say $210 per week. Concratulations on your purchase and enjoy your home.

Cheers
KW...........