To renovate or To not renovate before selling?

[Lynchy]

Hey guys,

I am looking to sell my 2 bed townhouse in Mosman Park, WA in about 4 months time. I am tossing up doing a small, medium or large renovation or no renovation at all before I sell. I am having trouble though deciding what to do if anything.

The choices I have are

Knock out wall between kitchen and laundry to create larger kitchen and space for a dining room table. At the moment food has to be consumed in the lounge or courtyard. Washer and Dryer will be moved into the laundry pantry out of sight. The first thing you see when you walk in the front door is the end of a wall and a laundry on the right and a tiny kitchen on the left. Feels very blocked in.

Cost - $700

Knock out the wall between kitchen and lounge. Small dividing wall to be removed to make kitchen/lounge, 1 long rectangular room. Lounge doesnt recieve much natural light at all so this will also help brighten the place up.

Cost - $400

New flooring in the kitchen. Current flooring is very old laminate sheeting. Starting to curl up in wet areas so definitely has to go. What sort of flooring to get??!

Cost - ???

New flooring in lounge. Carpet in the lounge isnt that old (2 years) but has seen a bit of wear and tear. Professional cleaning would bring this back up looking ok. Upstairs carpet is fine.

Cost - ???

Painting - At the moment the colour is a pretty disgusting yellow throughout. As there isnt a whole lot of natural light downstairs I was thinking of doing the whole place white and maybe some light coloured feature walls

Cost - $750? Painting myself.

New Kitchen - Kitchen is original 80's structure that has had the bench top and doors relaminated. Ok structually but eye poor. Bench top is a poo brown with light coloured wood laminate on the doors

Cost - $4000 with installing it myself? (previous experience installing an IKEA kitchen)

I just have no idea if these are worth it or not and if some are which 1s to go ahead with.

I might see if I can upload some pics

 

[Lynchy]

Pics

 

[Lynchy]

 

[Lynchy]

 

[goonandtell]

Depends on the specific market i can't look at the pics right now but from the description sounds like the place needs a bit of help. And if you the owner are describing the place in this light i can't imagine anyone else giving it a better review.

With out knowing what renovated/unrenovated go for what you are describing is standard sorta stuff that i tend to do. Any time i can make one decent space out of 2 cramped dark rooms i will (except bedrooms), a refresh kitchen always does well and i am surprised with how much it lifts and old place.

On the other side your budget seems a touch soft. No holding cost, cheap paint by the sounds of it, no self labour costs, no allowance for trades for change over stuff in kitchen or tiling once cabinets are installed. My back of the napkin allowances would be 3 weeks doing it myself and probably double the budget if i was deciding to do it. I would also chuck in new (albiet it cheapish) appliances which would add to the cost.

 

[Lynchy]

It does need a bit of tidying up. It is quite dark inside as the kitchen is north facing and due to the wall seperating the kitchen and lounge no light can get through to anywhere apart from the kitchen.

I was allowing about $60 per tin of paint which is what I used on my partners place and I was quoted $1100 for knocking out the 2 walls, they are both non load bearing and single brick.

Everything else I was just using a very rough approx.

I wont be doing everything on the list as my personal budget won't allow it so I just have to work out what will bring in the most come sale date

It is hard to to guage what the price is un-renovated and renovated as the complex I'm in has only had 2 sales in the last 3 years and is the only 2 bed townhouse complex in the suburb.

The renovated apartments do sell for $20,000 - $30,000 more then the unrenovated ones and they are all done on the cheapish side.

 

[marg4000]

You may have to check with the council and body corporate (if applicable) for permission to knock out walls.
Marg

 

[Lynchy]

You may have to check with the council and body corporate (if applicable) for permission to knock out walls.
Marg

Done

Internal walls are all fine to go just have to bring the kitchen/courtyard one up at the meeting in 4 weeks time

 

[melbmeg]

If the budget were limited, I think I'd knock out the walls and repaint but perhaps leave the kitchen as is (and clean the carpet). A dark, small place is immediately off-putting and many potential buyers won't be able to get past it (they won't have the imagination to think of knocking out walls or will think it's too much work). A kitchen that needs updating, on the other hand, is pretty standard and easy to imagine away.

 

[xplosion]

Just also include the make good when you knock the wall out and the plaster, then waiting for it to dry prior to paint etc

 

[Lynchy]

So had the builder in last night to have an actual look at the walls. Came up with some very good ideas and must say im very happy with him. Ended up quoting $1500 to take the whole wall out between the kitchen and lounge you can see in the photo, knock the wall out between the kitchen and laundry and also re-do the plumbing. Have to decide by next sat whether I want the 2 pantrys to go, put the washer in the kitchen and open up a huge amount of space or open a slightly smaller but of space up and have the washer re-directed into the laundry pantry.



What would everyone else do? I quite like the idea of opening up the huge space and having the washer in the kitchen?

 

[gooram]

So had the builder in last night to have an actual look at the walls. Came up with some very good ideas and must say im very happy with him. Ended up quoting $1500 to take the whole wall out between the kitchen and lounge you can see in the photo, knock the wall out between the kitchen and laundry and also re-do the plumbing. Have to decide by next sat whether I want the 2 pantrys to go, put the washer in the kitchen and open up a huge amount of space or open a slightly smaller but of space up and have the washer re-directed into the laundry pantry.

What would everyone else do? I quite like the idea of opening up the huge space and having the washer in the kitchen?

If it was me, I would do the lot. New floors, kitchen, knock out the walls, paint. A laundry is a bit of a luxury in a small place, so as long as you've got a place for your washer/dryer, I would prefer room for a dining table over a walk-in laundry.

Talk a local RE agent about sale prices pre and post reno to get an idea of whether it's worth doing or not.

Remember that gardens/landscaping add value too.