The DIY Bible For Upwardly Mobile Home Buyers

If buying home to improve it and sell on for a profit is your motivation, well done! You are taking your first steps in property development. Many had trodden that path before you and achieved greatness. Others use it as a way to step up the housing ladder until the finally get the house of their dreams.
Buying and selling is a traditional way to improve your lot in many areas. If you can do it with cars, why not with homes? The principles are the same; it is just on a larger scale.

Let’s assume for one moment, that you are on the lookout for a structurally sound ‘fixer-upper’ on which to work your magic. You might browse home listings for Rotherham or Sheffield, and find a little gem that is ideal. What areas of the building should you work on to turn a profit? Here are a few ideas that will add value to it.

Electrical

Maybe the house still features vulcanised rubber wiring that you must replace. A rewire for a three-bed terraced house will cost about two-thousand pounds, but you can do a lot of the work yourself to bring the price down. Ask an electrician to draw up a plan for the cables, so that you can install them yourself. With basic DIY skills, you can run them below floorboards and channel them into the walls. The electrician could then call back to make the final connections which will only take a day or two. That will reduce the cost significantly.

Central Heating

The house might use night storage heaters for warmth, but they are not popular with buyers. They are difficult to control and expensive to run, so it is no surprise that people prefer gas central heating. If there is a supply to the property, you could add a few thousand pounds onto the selling price. With a gas boiler and radiators, as with the wiring, you can do all of the plumbing yourself and ask an engineer to make the final connections and tests.

Kitchen

An average DIY enthusiast can install a new kitchen. You will need to employ a gas engineer and electrician for a few hours, but most of the work is within your reach. Plumbing is easy when you know how to use a compression joint, and the cupboards are easy to assemble and fix. Buyers pay close attention to the quality of the kitchen, so don’t skimp on it.

Insulation

The property must have an energy performance certificate before you can sell it. Improve the EPC score by adding extra insulation to the loft, cavity walls, and installing double glazing if necessary.

Decorate and tidy the house and garden to make it presentable. Skim the walls with plaster if they are in poor condition too, so that they look good when viewers arrive.

As you can see, there are many things you can do to add value to the property. Realistically, you should aim for at least ten thousand pounds profit to make it worth your while. That is possible if you can do a lot of the work yourself. After you complete one project, you will have valuable experience for the next one. Where will you end up? That is all down to you, my friends!