Present2Sell - By The Dart April 2009

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Refurbish - but keep selling in mind

You may have been discouraged from putting your property up for sale because of the slowdown in the market, but keep thinking property. For several reasons, this is a great time to consider updating, extending or refurbishing.

Providers of all the associated goods and services are keener than ever for your business for the moment. In the longer term, the UK property market is bound to turn around since the housing shortage has not gone away and populations are still rising.

If you're planning to sell to move up the market, you'll want to do that as soon as prices start showing signs of recovery so that you can buy your next home before the market start escalating. VAT (applied to extensions and not new-builds) has been reduced to 15%, a further incentive to get ahead of the game during this period and ensure that your property will stand out against the competition.

Do your research well to get started. There's a good deal of helpful advice available online as to which improvements add most value; for example, OurProperty.co.uk. Ask a few estate agents for a valuation of your property, and what your proposed refurbishment will add to that price. A quick cost/benefit analysis over the relevant timespan will give you a good base point. Then get details of prices of new and second hand property in your area to compare, and find out from Council Planning about any new developments in your area; it's important to know what you'll be competing against, and to have something different to offer.

Get an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) done on the property. You will have to do this anyway when you sell and you might as well make use of the information now. You get a 6 page report on current performance, with costed recommendations on improvements and it's valid for 3 years so can be slotted into your HIP when it's time to sell. For more information, visit www.direct.gov.uk and search on EPC, or contact Exeter EPC on 07590555033 . They charge £75 per visit in most of Devon.

If what you want to do is re-style your home, you might have the skills and time to do the work yourself, or if not, you might engage an interior designer. Be aware that while soft furnishing suppliers have great strengths in making and installing they can tend to sell you only what they stock.

Do ensure that they have the design skills to visually elicit not only your practical requirements for things like space use, but also your inner dreams and aspirations. To provide a fully realised scheme that truly satisfies every time it's encountered, these aspects need to be creatively and correctly interpreted. A good designer will be able to incorporate your intention to later sell while also giving you this, and will save you a good deal of time, stress and money.

If DIY is for you, don't forget that although it's wonderful, creative fun to apply your unique aesthetic to your own home, do avoid anything which will be expensive to later neutralise for selling on.

For example, to colour the walls, use paint rather than wallpaper - it will be much easier to make colour alterations later. If painting seems a poor choice because of the blemishes in the wall, invest at this point in some good plastering, and whatever you do, don't resort to woodchip wallpaper, even in a neutral colour. Buyers know it's difficult to remove, but worse, it suggests problems with the underlying wall finish. A better solution, is to hang lining paper first horizontally then vertically, and then paint with good emulsion.

Invest more in the interior elements you can take with you, (furniture, artwork, lamps) than those which normally stay (floor finishes, sanitary ware), and do consider the external appearance of your property too, particularly if it's finished in a uniform material, or if the window frames are looking dated. Quite often a good, pressure-washing will brighten it up, but if it still seems uninviting, consider a part or complete makeover. For inspiration, visit BackToFrontExteriorDesign to see what huge improvements can be made, as illustrated with this bungalow (see right).