There are a lot of reasons why you may be wondering if your home is worth fixing. Perhaps you are thinking about selling to move to a new location or a bigger house or even to get out from under heavy payments every year. The cost of upkeep is going through the roof and, as a result, many homeowners are either looking to downsize or get out of owning altogether. No matter what your reasoning may beif your home is in need of some major repairs, it’s time to decide whether it is really worth the time, effort, and expense to make those repairs.
1. Define What You Consider to Be “Major”
The first thing to do is to make a list of what you consider to be ‘major’ in terms of repairs. What most real estate agents would consider major would be such things as leaky roofs, broken boilers, and even some issues which need further investigation such as uncontrollable black mouldon walls. There has to be some way moisture is infiltrating the area behind those walls and that could be anything from broken pipes to the leaky roof mentioned above. Those would be major repairs because they could run into a whole lot of money!
2. Is the Investment Worth the Return?
If you decide to make those repairs prior to selling your home, take the time to weigh the cost against the potential for return when selling your home. Most homeowners don’t understand the simple economics behind why they might notwant to make those repairs. For example, you may be asking £200,000 for your home and the cost of a new roof might total £15,000. Most of the time, prospective buyers will make an offer below the list price. You may get an offer for £180,000 if the roof is fixed and you’ve just spent £15k. That means you would only realise£165,000 ifyou accepted that offer. Is it really worth your time, effort, money and frustration to make that repair?
3. Alternatives to Consider
Your house may have been on the market for over a year and you are eager to sell so you take the offer. Wouldn’t it have been better to sell your home “as is” to property buyers like Fast Buy Properties who will offer market value without expecting you to fix that leaky roof or to install a new central heating system? It is important to understand that you do have alternatives to making costly repairs when selling your home and often there is no difference in the amount of profit you will realise.
Going to all that effort to make the exact same profit as you could have done when selling your home “as is” makes much more sense if you want to be honest with yourself. Also, don’t forget that in an effort to make those repairs, you may be tempted to go “state-of-the-art”, which could then result in over improvement for your neighbourhood. Sometimes the best deals take the least effort, and that’s something you really need to consider when weighing repairs against an “as-is” sale.