How To Renovate

EP35 Renovating To Sell

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 35

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This week on the podcast, I’m doing something a little different, usually I’m talking about renovating your home to make it the best, most functional sanctuary for you and your family, but this week’s episode is all about renovating to sell. 

If you’re renovating a property, but you know it’s not your forever home, then this is a good one to listen to. It’s filled with tips and advice for when you’re renovating, but selling up is on on the horizon. 

I cover the 8 things that have helped me achieve the highest sale price on the street for all the properties I’ve bought, renovated and sold so far.

From knowing your target demographic to renovating intentionally and cleverly spending the budget in the correct areas, its all inside!  

Hit play to discover how a well-thought-out renovation can boost your home's market appeal and value.

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant.
Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


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Speaker 1:

Hey everybody and welcome back to the how to Renovate podcast. It's Tash here Now. In this episode I thought we'd talk a bit more about renovating to sell. I haven't done an episode or a discussion on this before and it's generally because I'm wanting people to renovate for themselves, to make their own homes better for them and their families to live in, and so that it's a space that works for them, functions for them. But of course, we have to be realistic. We don't all always stay in the same home for the rest of our lives. We do want to sell properties. Some people renovate specifically to sell. So I thought this would be a good topic to discuss this week.

Speaker 1:

So of course, there's a bit of a difference between renovating for yourself or renovating to sell In my experience. So my husband and I we've renovated quite a few properties now over the past 15 years, so we have bought and sold. So every property we've bought we've actually lived in as our own home with our family. So we always renovated with our own needs in mind. But because I was always so interested in renovation and because I was always helping other people to renovate, well also, whenever I was renovating I always had in mind particularly when we're doing those smaller properties, like the little one bedroom flats that we turned into two bedroom flats as our family grew, I knew we weren't going to be there forever. So it was always in my mind that I would be renovating in a way that would not only suit the way we lived but they would also function well, perhaps for the family unit of the same size, and so kind of thinking of that target market as we were renovating for ourselves. So I think if this is the kind of place you're in in your life at the moment where you were renovating for ourselves, so I think if this is the kind of place you're in in your life at the moment where you're renovating, but you know it's not going to be that home you're going to be living in forever, I think this episode would be a really good one to listen to. I'm going to give you eight things you should think of when you're renovating to sell or you have selling in mind down the line. So, as I mentioned, my husband and I've renovated quite a few properties now which we've bought, renovated and sold on, and actually every property that I've renovated or worked on that we've done that with has achieved the highest sale price on that street, and we've achieved that now, I think, three or four times, and I'm not really saying that to brag, but I think it is generally because I've thought about the people who might buy that home in future and why they might see the renovation as being valuable or well carried out and that it would suit the way they want to live. And I do think that's why we've managed to achieve that.

Speaker 1:

And, of course, if you're renovating this way, if you're renovating a home that's not going to be your forever home, you need to make sure that, of course, it works for you and your family while you're living there, but also that you know potential buyers will see that it's a really great property as well. So, when you're renovating to sell, your focus should be on maximising the property's appeal to potential buyers, but still, you want to ensure a good return on your own investment. So, like I said, I'm going to give you eight things to consider, or eight things you should think about when you're renovating to sell. So let's get into the episode.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing is to understand your target market. So, of course, you need to take into consideration your own property, because if it's a one-bedroom flat, it's not necessarily going to be for a family. If it's a three-bedroom house you might want to think of families, or if it's a retirement property or if it's a starter home. So obviously, think about the target market and who your property will suit. Think about those buyer demographics and then you can kind of tailor the renovation to suit that demographic of that target market. And then also think about the local market trends. You can research this online. You can speak to a few estate agents you know. Consider what's popular in the area. Try and find out what people are looking for. An example of this could be people looking more for open plan living, open concept. Are they asking the agents for energy efficiency or energy upgrades or anything in terms of the home being more eco? So you can kind of speak to a few agents and you can get a feel just get a local feel of what's wanting or what's been requested in your area at that point in time.

Speaker 1:

And then the second one is to set a realistic budget. So of course, if you're renovating to live in a property long term, you may be willing to spend a bit more on the renovation because you're going to be there to enjoy it. But if you're thinking of selling in the next year or two, it's not that you want to do the renovation cheaply, but you definitely want to have it in mind that you need to be a bit more on top of your budget, on top of kind of the more luxurious items that you may have put in. So really think about your budget, how long you're going to be in the property and also then how to best use that budget to maximise that property's potential. I find that if you're renovating to sell, there are definitely certain areas in the property that will bring you a better return on investment. So, for example, if you've only got a certain budget and you need to allocate that to certain rooms, then my advice would be to spend on the kitchen and to spend on the bathrooms.

Speaker 1:

So those always sell a property. If they've done well and they're kind of new and fresh, people really see that and they appreciate that and other things like a good quality flooring, good quality tiles and also that the lighting's thought out properly, those things can also really add to the value of a property. And then you've got things like curb appeal as well. So you'd want to, if you're selling, do some work to the outside of the property so that it's got that curb appeal and it's inviting to kind of walk up to an approach before you walk into the property itself. And also, if you're renovating to sell, you must keep an eye on the budget, especially if you're looking to renovate and then sell quite soon afterwards because you don't want to overspend. It's quite easy to get carried away. I really really know that there are so many lovely things out there and it's quite easy to get carried away and the budget can get out of control. If you've ever done a renovation before, you will know that you want to make the home attractive and welcoming and appealing without really pricing yourself completely out of the neighbourhood. So keep a check on your budget, choose your rooms in which to spend wisely and then make sure you're not overspending on the whole project.

Speaker 1:

And then the third thing is to prioritise those high impact areas. So this is kind of like the previous point. The rooms that buyers usually look at and that really impress them and that would, if they were having to renovate themselves, cost them a lot of money and be quite difficult to do, are usually the kitchens and the bathrooms. So if you prioritise those and allocate your largest portions of your budget to those rooms if they need work, then that will really add impact and your buyers will notice that. And if your budget to those rooms, if they need work, then that will really add impact and your buyers will notice that.

Speaker 1:

And if your budget doesn't stretch to completely redoing the kitchen or completely renovating the bathrooms, then of course there are things you can do to freshen those up. For example, in the kitchen you could change cabinet door fronts. You could change the worktops to perhaps a better quality worktop. I find that a stone, a composite or marble worktop is always really sought after and buyers they love the convenience of it. They love that it gives it a clean look. It's easy to clean. So there are things you can do. If your budget doesn't stretch to redoing the rooms completely, then pick and choose those kind of high impact parts or the high impact areas that you know your buyers will notice when they're doing their viewings. So in the kitchens and bathrooms, let's say, this could be things like appliances, updating the countertops, like I just said, new cabinets, perhaps some new hardware on the kitchen doors. So there are definitely things you can do to upgrade rather than completely redo to get the best price for your property.

Speaker 1:

And then the fourth one is one of my favorites. It's focus on the space and light. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know I am big on these things. So I'm not saying your property always has to be huge, but even in small properties there are ways you can make the most of the space you have, make it seem larger than it actually is, and definitely by increasing the light into the property as well. So things you can do to achieve this is if there are any rooms that are separate that you might be able to open up and make it into a larger room, or have it be where they could still be closed off, so kind of a broken concept design. So they have the option of having a large open space but also the option of still having two separate smaller spaces, then that is a great thing to add. I think buyers really appreciate that. They appreciate how the space will seem larger when those doors are open. So that is definitely something to consider.

Speaker 1:

I know that open concept or open plan living now is becoming a little bit tricky and I find, especially with clients as children get older, if they have children, if they have a family, they kind of want to start off with a big, open concept living when the kids are young, when they're babies, they want to be able to see them keep an eye on them when they play, while still doing things in the kitchen or the living room, for example. As the children get older and I also know this from my own, my own experience, because we have an open plan kitchen, living, dining area but my children are now older, so one is about to be 12 and the other one is six, and now we definitely are feeling that we could all do with some more separation in the space. So think about these things, think about giving options, because if you just opened it up and make it a big room, you might be excluding some of that target market. But if you're thinking about who might buy your property, if it is going to be a family, they might still appreciate the openness, but they also would really appreciate the option of having to shut those doors. So think about that, think about your target market and then think about how you can really maximize the space out of what you've got for them.

Speaker 1:

And then natural light oh my gosh, this is a big one for me. So I think I've mentioned before that I grew up in Cape Town, south Africa, and now I live in London in the UK and Cape Town is just. It has the most gorgeous weather for most of the year, lots of sunshine, lots of light. The houses there are more kind of single dwellings on their own plot with spaces or with space around them, and so just over there we seem to have more light into the properties than here in London where the houses are closer together or terraced and they're kind of the older style Victorian homes. So I find I really struggle here with with light in the older style properties and it it's always something, even when I'm renovating for myself or renovating for clients, that I try and bring into the renovation.

Speaker 1:

So there are ways you can do this, even in those older style properties. Again, one of the ways is to open up some rooms so the light from the front and the back get deeper into the plan, deeper into the home, especially on that ground floor. Then of course in the upper floors you plan deeper into the home, especially on that ground floor. Then of course on the upper floors you have options of adding roof lights like velux windows. You have the options of perhaps adding extra windows or enlarging window openings, and then of course everybody now wants doors opening onto the garden. So if it's a property that allows that, then you can have big glazing, large doors opening up onto the garden, which will of course let a lot more light into that kind of back room, usually the kitchen in an older style property.

Speaker 1:

And if you're not able to do that, if you're not able to add lots of extra windows and glazing, then there are ways that you can trick the eye, placing mirrors in particularly dark areas where light can bounce off of them. That's also a really good way to kind of trick the trick the eye and trick the mind into thinking there's light there. I find this is especially useful in in hallways, where you can steal some light. Perhaps there's a window in the front door or the light is coming in from the living room, let's say. So you can kind of borrow that light with mirrors and then also keep your window treatments to a minimum. So if you, if you have heavy curtains, perhaps swap those for lighter curtains and re and open them as wide as the window, so don't overlap the window with the curtains. So of course, these are more things that you can do when you're having your viewings. They're more kind of styling options, um. But you can do this in addition as well to adding that extra light to the renovation itself. But the way in which you present the property is also really important, which I will touch on again towards the end of the episode.

Speaker 1:

Moving on to number five, and number five is thoughtful interiors. So obviously, if you're living in the home and or you have lived there for a number of years, you would have added your own personality and your own stamp to it, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I love that when people style their homes to add personality into their own homes, because you want your home to represent you. But when you're renovating to sell or if you're making any adjustments to sell, then just keep in mind that you want the interiors to be neutral enough but not boring. One of my real bugbears is when you look on the property for sale website and you can, even without looking at the second photograph, tell that a developer has done that property. It's usually cream walls or blue and grey, really kind of cheap flat carpet or white gloss kitchen with silver handles. You can kind of just see when someone's just done it quickly to develop it and sell it on.

Speaker 1:

I never do that. I always try and add some style, some personality, even to properties that I'm not going to be living in, that I'm just renovating to sell. You just really have to put a bit more effort in when you want to get that buyer and you want to get that good price for your property. And also I just take pride in the fact that I am creating a really lovely home for the next person, for those potential buyers, and I want them to love it and I want them to love it and I want them to enjoy it and I want it to work well for them. So it's really, really important to me that developers just try and develop and renovate better. But anyhow I'm rambling now you want it to be neutral but not boring, so what I like to do is take a lead from the property. So let's look at a character property, for example. There are just a couple of little things if you're renovating a character property to sell that you can add back in to make it look authentic, to make it seem like you have considered the design and not just like you've just done a quick renovation to get the sale.

Speaker 1:

So in one of the properties I renovated to sell, it was a Victorian home. It was an apartment for an apartment. It actually had a really lovely large kitchen dining area which I had enlarged slightly as part of the renovation, but there was a chimney breast which the original fireplace had been removed from. So when I came to renovating the property, I went and searched for an original Victorian fireplace. It wasn't expensive, it was a wooden one which generally would have been found during those times anyway, and it didn't cost me a lot of money. It needed some work. It cost £60 and I got it from a reclamation yard and I got the contractors to install it and we opened up the original stove opening and so the fireplace was then just painted the same colour as the wall and that really just added something that that kitchen needed, because the rest of the property still had some original features. There were two gorgeous fireplaces in two of the other rooms and then just adding that little surround in that one room just added a little touch which then, when the viewers saw it, they just loved it. They just loved that little touch. It then provided a little place that they could form a little seating area around. So just think about how you can bring little things like that back into the home and then think about how people might use it, like with a little seating area around the fireplace, whereas before it was just a big boxy chimney breast just in the room that wasn't doing anything. It's just taking up space and then from that I just made a feature out of it.

Speaker 1:

And when it comes to decoration, in terms of wall color and cabinet choices and finishes and tiles and so on, you can still choose well. You can still choose well. You can still choose neutral but interesting. So neutral doesn't have to just be white and cream. I've used gentle greens, sage greens, I've used black and white, which is always classic and always works. I've used porcelain tiles, which have a really beautiful high quality faux marble look. So you can use neutral neutral but still be interesting and you can see what's out there at the moment in terms of what is in the interiors magazines or what is on Instagram or Pinterest, and you can kind of get your style boards nailed down from there and then carry that through the home.

Speaker 1:

It just makes it easier if you're choosing one metal for, let's say, for example, you're choosing brass taps, you can, then that makes the decision easy. You can put a brass tap in the kitchen, you can put brass taps in the bathroom. It doesn't have to mean it's all the same, because in the kitchen you can match that with a different backsplash or different tile, and in the bathrooms again you can use a completely different tile or flooring. So it doesn't mean that you have to copy the same thing in every room. But it just makes the decision easier and also it just gives interest.

Speaker 1:

If you're changing things up a bit within the property, you want to really show that what can be achieved. You can show that this is a beautiful, interesting property, but you still want to leave enough room so that the buyers can still add their own personality as well, if they wish to change a wall colour here and there, and they can obviously bring in their own furniture and accessories and window treatments, but if the base is good, if you've really thought about the base in terms of the flooring good quality flooring always. I never, ever choose cheap flooring. It just is such a big thing to change for anybody, so especially if it's something like wooden flooring or tiling that is so difficult to take out and change. And if a buyer walks in and they see horrible flooring and they think about how much work and expense they have to go through to change it all up again, they're probably thinking, well, why did they put this awful flooring down in the first place? And that could be really off-putting for a buyer. So really pick and choose those areas where you want to spend the money, where you should spend the money, so that you're getting that best return for your investment.

Speaker 1:

And then number six is a bit of the boring stuff. It's all the energy efficiency, all the compliance, all the certificates and the permits. So all of these really need to be in order. So when you're renovating to sell, make sure that you're getting all of these as you're going through the process. You don't want to get to a point where you're ready to sell and you'd forgotten to ask for any sign-off certificates from your contractor, from building control. So as you're moving through, make sure that you're getting all the certificates that you need. So any safety records or safety certificates. Like, for example, you need an electrical safety certificate if new electrics have been installed, so make sure you get that from your electrician as soon as the work is complete. The same for gas works. You'll need a safety certificate and then building regulations will want all of those certificates. They will want to see those and want to inspect the property and then they will give sign of that the work has been done to their satisfaction and to the safety level that it needed to be carried out to. So just make sure that if you know that you're renovating to sell, or even if you're going to be living in the property for a while and you might sell later on, always make sure you've got those certificates on file, whether it be paper copies or digital copies. Keep them safe in one place, because when it comes to selling, the legals will take you a really long time, and here in England it already takes such a long time. So if they were missing documents and you have to go back to contractors and electricians to get those certificates retrospectively, that could possibly delay your sale. So just make sure that you're on top of the paperwork and you keep all of those documents in the same place.

Speaker 1:

And then number seven is just maintenance and repairs. So obviously, if you're renovating, you'll be having workers in there already. It's the perfect opportunity to address any other maintenance and repairs that the property might need, because all of these things the buyers will notice. So make sure that the property is maintained, any obvious repairs are done, there are no leaks, the house is structurally sound and, like we just talked about, you have the paperwork to prove that. Particularly if any works have been done major works where walls have had to be removed and so on you will need to show that the house is structurally sound. And then, of course, if there's any outdated electrics or plumbing or so on, those will all come up in your buyer's survey, if they were to do one. So you want to make sure that you're on top of that and you've addressed them before the question comes up.

Speaker 1:

And then lastly, number eight, of course it's all about the presentation and the styling. So if you've been living in the home, obviously it will already be furnished and styled to your taste. But just kind of doing a declutter, clearing up, just presenting the property in the best way you can, will really help buyers kind of visualize themselves living in that space. Preparing the home and making it look good will just make it feel more welcoming and buyers will really be able to picture themselves there, living there where they might put their own furniture, their own things. So I think the styling and the presentation really is so important when it comes to selling a home. So when you're renovating to sell, keep in mind that always at the end, just make the most of it, make the home look the best it can look and I assure you the buyers will appreciate it. Well, that brings us very nicely to the end of the episode. Everybody, I hope you enjoyed it and if this episode was helpful to you and you are renovating to sell, drop me a line, send me a message and let me know if it has helped you out. I really do hope it does. I wish you a good week and I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now.

Speaker 1:

For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudiocom forward slash pillars where you'll find an introduction to the process, which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudiocom forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on planning permission. There is one on kitchen design. There is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.