FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Watch Those Home 'Improvements'

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
February 13, 2003

If there's one subject that dominates dinner party conversations these days, it's house prices. Boring, I know, but since many people are likely to have to rely on their home for some of their retirement income, it's hardly surprising that property values have become such a major talking point. It makes people feel less poor.

Of course, you're never going to realise the capital until you sell up and move into something smaller and even then you're not necessarily going to get the best price unless you present your home to the market in the best possible light.

As someone who's about to spend a sizeable sum of money on making our house look less like student digs and rather more like a comfortable family home, the subject of home improvements is close to my heart. As Sarah Beeny, the presenter of Channel 4's Property Ladder says over and over again, the aim is to get maximum profit for minimal outlay.

These rules don't just apply to the people she counsels who are having a go at property development ie: buying a run-down house and doing it up to sell at a profit. They apply to your own home too. It's said that, on average, people move house every seven years so it's worth remembering, every time you spend money on your home, that you're unlikely to be living in it forever and that one day you might want to sell it. So be careful where you spend it.

Let's face it, some people have execrable taste, very little common sense and make huge mistakes with their home 'improvements'. This is fine if you're selling to someone who has those qualities but it's not so good if your target market has more discerning tastes!

Now, I may not be able to get Sarah Beeny round to my house to advise me on how to spend my home improvement budget but I can get the next best thing – a friendly estate agent.

The one who came round this morning sold the house next door a few months ago so she knew how good our house could look with the right sort of improvements. And she also watches Property Ladder so she knew exactly what we were after – more bang for our bucks.

You don't need a new front door, she said. Just change the glass for something that is delicately frosted so you lose the coke bottle effect. Get hold of some nice reclaimed railings to put on top of the low wall at the front of the house and paint them black. Grow a clematis up the side of the shed so it stops looking like a big box at the bottom of the garden and blends in with the landscape.

The big thing she suggested was that we turn the spare bathroom back into a bedroom and have an ensuite in our own bedroom instead. Personally, we can't stand ensuites but apparently everyone wants one so why not consider it if the eventual intention is to sell? (When I told my husband he looked crestfallen until I reminded him that we could leave that final touch for a few years and only install it just before putting the house on the market).

Anyway, she gave me the particulars of a similar house she'd sold only last weekend for the full asking price. Apparently the owner had watched just about every home improvement programme there is after her house had failed to sell a year ago. She learned how to 'dress up' the house in just the right way for her target market and only two of the 15 viewers saw through it.

Top tips from the estate agent included de-cluttering and being fairly conservative with the colour schemes when redecorating (my vivid red bathroom being a case in point!)

"The finish is the key, "she said. All those little jobs such as the dripping tap, the plug socket that hasn't been fixed properly to the wall and the tatty skirting boards in the upstairs hall need to be done because buyers will notice these things even if it's unconsciously.

I knew all this, of course, but it helps to be reassured by someone in the know. Having installed a new kitchen 18 months ago, I was a bit worried that she wouldn't like what we consider to be the really nice bit of the house. What if it turned out that we had execrable taste and little common sense and had made a big mistake?

Thankfully she said our kitchen was 'superb – really attractive'. Phew!

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