Home Improvements

You may be one of the lucky few that lives in a perfect home where nothing is left to be done and any changes would be a serious mistake. For the rest of us there's more than enough ideas to improve our homes whether we are planning to sell or to stay. The difference between these two is important and the type of work you do will depend on whether or not you are going to be there to appreciate it.

Improving your Home to Sell

When prospective buyers come round to view your property they will be getting quick impressions not detailed information. Your job is to make sure that you make your home look its best for the least money. Even if your generous nature leads you to spend a small fortune on a new oak staircase what's to say that your buyers won't paint it green to match the new carpet they put in to replace your £50 per square meter new carpet. You can't control other peoples taste and you've as much chance to impress with a £500 improvement budget as a £50,000 one (a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point).

'Eliminate the negative'

The first job is to remove anything that will cause a bad impression. You may be used to that small patch of peeling wallpaper but your buyers won't be. It's amazing how we filter out the things we get used to, especially if fixing them takes effort. Take a close look at your paint work, just how grubby has it become over the last 5 years? It'll take about a day to freshen up that room with a new coat or two of paint and will help to sell at the right price.

Our top ten put-offs for prospective buyers are:
Damp, pets, powerful decoration, smoking, too much furniture, worn fixtures and fittings, empty or messy bathrooms, frayed carpets, moldy or dirty window frames and too much clutter.

People won't be looking at the structure of your house, they won't see your expensive marble fireplace, they'll see all the mess on top of it. The most difficult of the above things to fix is the damp issue and that can be helped considerably by boosting the heat in your room with a portable heater during particularly cold or wet spells.

'Accentuate the positive'

If you've got it flaunt it! Don't run off to the DIY store with a wad of cash in hand. Stop, look and remove. The vast majority of us have a collection of useless junk that we have just got used to. Thin things out a little, let your buyers see just how roomy your home is.

What's the first thing you see when you come into a room? It should be:
Kitchen - clean pans and fresh vegetables
Dining room - flowers in the middle of a partly set table
Lounge - cushions and three magazines
Hallway - absolutely nothing apart from a large mirror
Bedrooms - towels on the bottom of the bed, bed sheets folded open in one corner
Bathrooms - Fluffy towels, loads of different coloured bath gels and plenty of sparkle
Loft - Floor boards and space
Cellar - Light and space

Most people are not too worried about the state of your garage. Move all the junk into boxes and into the garage. This also says that you are serious about selling.

Improving your Home to Enjoy

If you plan to stay where you are for a long period of time then it's ok to start spending and you'll be in good company, with one in eight people spending over £5,000 on home improvements. If you want to keep an eye on the future and see your home as a long term investment then it's time to look at your kitchen and bathroom. Spending up to 10% of the value of your house on a new kitchen and up to 5% on a new bathroom can be a sensible investment and make your life just that little bit nicer.

Web Links

This area of home improvements is a subject that deserves a web site in its own right. To save our typing fingers here are some links to a few of the best home improvement web sites we've found...

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