As you probably already know, selling a house is extremely stressful, and you don’t want to add to your stress by worrying about what not to fix when selling your house.
When selling your house don’t waste money on replacing old appliances, unless they look totally out of place alongside the fixes and upgrades you should do. Also don’t spend money on fixes or upgrades that add less value to your home than they cost, and never start and not finish a fixing project.
Please take a look at the few items I’ve included in this list of what things not to fix when selling a house, but I also recommend you take a look at my video course 5-Step House Sale & Move, which includes the things you should fix and improve to maximise what you sell your house for. This easy to watch video course includes all the things you should fix when selling a house, and the course itself could be one of the best investments you make when you sell a house.
What I teach in this online video course is what I did when I sold a very large house a few years back. This house sold very quickly, and to the very first person who walked though the front door.
You may even be interested to learn who that person was, as the person who bought this house is not someone you might think would even offer on your home, which is revealed on the introductory video for the course on the above linked-to page.
Never start a project and leave it unfinished, as an unfinished project is almost worse than leaving it as it was in the first place.
For example, if you decide to strip the wallpaper in a room and uncover old badly painted walls, make sure you either re-wallpaper the room, or better still paint the walls so they look clean and fresh. But see what I say below when it comes to old wallpaper in a room.
If you start a project to fix something, make sure you finish it, as you always want to present your house in the best possibly way.
Don’t replace old appliances
When it comes to fixing your house to sell it you probably don’t need to replace any of your old appliances. Having said that, if the old appliance does need to be changed as it’s old and looks shabby against any of the must-do fixes, and especially if you can take the appliance with you and it will fit your new home, it maybe a worthwhile replacement.
If you decide to replace any appliances as they make the room look terrible to potential buyers, there’s nothing wrong in buying second-hand appliances instead of buying new. If you can get a fresher looking second-hand appliance on the cheap from places like Facebook Market Place, eBay, Preloved or Gumtree the newer looking appliance can help to create the right feel to your home.
Always remember that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses, and if you spend a bit of money on upgrading and fixing your kitchen, this can add value to your house and help you to sell your house quickly too.
If the appliance is old and shabby and doesn’t add to the room, get rid of the appliance rather than fixing it or replacing it.
Stripping or replacing old wallpaper
When deciding on what not to fix when selling your home, stripping and replacing old wallpaper is one of those things you may want to leave in place. But not if the wallpaper is damaged or if it’s pealing from the wall, in which case you should fix the wallpaper to help sell your house.
Instead of stripping the wallpaper, which is a horrible job and can be very time consuming, and as long as the wallpaper isn’t damaged or coming away from the wall, I suggest you paint over the wallpaper in neutral coloured paint to freshen up the rooms in your house instead.
Even if the wallpaper is coming away from the wall, a quick and cheap fix to consider is to glue back the pealing wallpaper instead of stripping it all off. Then after you’ve glued and fixed the wallpaper, consider painting it in a neutral colour to freshen the look and feel of your house before you put it on the market with an estate agent.
If you are thinking about stripping wallpaper, get yourself a wallpaper stripper steamer, as this makes the job easier and much faster. I remember stripping wallpaper on house I purchased in Braintree, which had terrible wallpaper on the walls. In hindsight it would have been far easier (and much, much quicker) to simply paint over the wallpaper instead. It was the colour of the wallpaper that was terrible, not what it would have looked like over-painted.
Learn from someone else’s mistakes (i.e. mine) and carefully consider what you do and don’t fix before you sell your house.
Don’t replace doors
External and internal doors are an important feature when selling a house, but instead of replacing your doors which is an expensive fix, repair any damaged doors and give them all a fresh coat of paint.
Probably the most important door of all is the front door to your house, which should be painted with a bright new coat of paint. Curb appeal and first impressions are key to selling a house quickly, and is also key to make sure prospective vendors proceed to view your house.
It’s important to note that some house buyers won’t even come to your front door if they are put-off by the outside of your house and a bad first impression. Please remember the saying “You Can Never Make a Second First Impression“. I go into more detail on this point on my video course noted and linked-to above in the opening paragraphs of this article.
Don’t replace windows
Replacing windows can be extremely expensive and is mostly unnecessary. It’s far better to fix any broken windows or to repair and repaint wooden windows than to buy new ones. If your windows are UPVC units make sure to clean the UPVC frames.
If you have double glazing, it’s important you replace any blown units, but you don’t need to replace the whole window. You can usually find someone who will replace the double glazed unit instead of the whole window, and relatively cheaply. But also, make sure to clean the windows too, as this will help more light into your house and will help show your home in a brighter light.
One thing to consider investing in if you live on a noisy road or if you live near an airport is to install double or triple glazing, as this will cut out noise when buyers view your house.
Final thoughts on what not to fix when selling a house
But often times estate agents are never very good at pointing out what you should and should fix before selling a house, especially if you don’t ask. Which is one of the reasons why I designed my online video course. Estate agents will often simply value your house as-is and not make any suggestions about how to make more money from the sale.
Unfortunately, too many estate agents are simply interested in their commission than in offering you the best service, which in my opinion is to give you the best advice to not only sell your house quickly, but also to sell it for the most amount of money.
But also, and as already suggested at the beginning of this article, I suggested you take a look at my video course about how to sell your house quickly. You can find this course here: Sell Your House In Under 2 Weeks For More Money.
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What Not To Fix When Selling A House
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!
