How expensive is redecorating a house?

blue note

I'm looking at buying and everyone is telling me to completely ignore decoration. But I think a house that you can walk into and just furnish will save you a lot of money compared to one which requires new carpets / floors in every room, new curtains, painting, bathroom redecoration, new front door, etc.

Basically, I'm thinking of my brother who put in a new kitchen (normal enough kitchen) for €17k. Then I'm thinking of the houses I'm looking at and if a house needs a new kitchen I'm thinking that's an extra €17k to the price of it compared to one which has a fairly new one. Similarly if a place needs a new bathroom that's another few thousand. Basically every room that needs work is thousands of euro, so if a house needs complete redecoration - 4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 bathrooms, hall, that's €40k you're talking about. Compared to one in "walk in" condition.

But what's people's experience of it? Am I right or am I overestimating? And if so where am I overestimating?

purpleisafruit

blue note wrote: »

I'm looking at buying and everyone is telling me to completely ignore decoration. But I think a house that you can walk into and just furnish will save you a lot of money compared to one which requires new carpets / floors in every room, new curtains, painting, bathroom redecoration, new front door, etc.

Basically, I'm thinking of my brother who put in a new kitchen (normal enough kitchen) for €17k. Then I'm thinking of the houses I'm looking at and if a house needs a new kitchen I'm thinking that's an extra €17k to the price of it compared to one which has a fairly new one. Similarly if a place needs a new bathroom that's another few thousand. Basically every room that needs work is thousands of euro, so if a house needs complete redecoration - 4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 bathrooms, hall, that's €40k you're talking about. Compared to one in "walk in" condition.

But what's people's experience of it? Am I right or am I overestimating? And if so where am I overestimating?

17k for a kitchen is crazy money, could get a fab kitchen for half that price.

heebusjeebus

I had the option between 2 houses last year.
One was walk in condition but very expensive, the second needed work and a lot cheaper.
We did the maths and to do up the cheaper house will bring it in line, cost wise, with the first house.
We decided though, that we wanted to do the house up to our preferred layout, style and standard so we went with the cheaper option and we're currently in the process of renovating.

whippet

I have been re-decorating a house for the last 6 years and its as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.

The house was in walk in condition when I bought it .. but not to my taste. Its about 3500sqf so I am doing it bit by bit.

Upgrading the heating system was the first bit - Solar / heat pump / boiler stove - circa €20k with all the plumbing work
Removing wallpaper and painting entire house - approx. €4k
Total renovation of upstairs bathrooms - €18k
Floors and carpets - €5k
New front door and block work - €3.5k
Replaced all glass in the house (energy efficient) - €4k

Next job is the kitchen - will be some structural work to change the layout of the downstairs - Building work will be about €35k and the kitchen will come in about €40k.

wexie

depends on the size of the house, what flooring, how big is the kitchen, what kinda of kitchen do you want, what kind of bathroom do you want.

Add to that how much of the work involved can and do you want to do yourself, how much shopping around are you willing to do, do you have friends that could help?

I don't think there's anyone here really that could give you a sensible answer.

Personally I would always have tried to look through the decor, all of which can be changed. As opposed to layout (which can be changed as well I guess but not so easily) and location. If you can find two houses in similar location and one needs to be redecorated and the other one doesn't then by all means I'd pick the one in walk in condition but I wouldn't walk away from a house that does need redecorating either. As long as it's functional and can be lived in.

You can make an awful difference with a couple hundred euro worth of paint over the course of a few weekends.

ozmo

blue note wrote: »

.. But I think a house that you can walk into and just furnish will save you a lot of money compared to one which requires new carpets / floors in every room, new curtains, painting, bathroom redecoration, new front door, etc.

Sounds good to me if you are not crazy into diy - some people just like to choose exactly the shade of white for the walls.

If you do buy an undecorated house - make sure you aim to get it all done everywhere in the first few weeks/months of moving in - or you still have that one room unpainted and without carpet in 10+ years time :P

PhoenixParker

Kitchens and bathrooms are expensive but many people reject houses because of hideous carpets or horrible paint, both relatively easily and cheaply fixed.

Painting needs to be done regularly throughout ownership and carpets (especially cheap carpets chosen for quick sale/appearing ready to walk in purposes) need to be replaced fairly frequently too. Walk in may just mean delaying those expenses for 2-3 years and then having to work around your stuff.

Also something can appear ready to walk into but still need fairly major work. Bathroom can look great but have a terrible shower and barely functional plumbing. Kitchens may look ok but all appliances are about to die.

A lot of the time simple fixes cam rectify bad decor quite cheaply too. Repaint a bathroom, change the doors in a kitchen etc.

You're spending a lot of money, think deeply.

The Mulk

How handy are you.

I work/worked in the construction industry and have spent 15k so far on my house, 70's build.
4 k of that was labour to a plumber and carpenter.
The other 11k was materials.
I've spent the last 18 months working weekends and time off on it.(Although I did and will go abroad for summer hols) No structural work, but have redone the heating, rewired the majority of the house (kitchen left to do), drylined all the external walls and put down wooden floors. Painted all walls and woodwork.
I reckon i have 3 months left and i'll be finished.Probably spend 20k.
Painting and wooden floors can make a huge difference and done with little hassle.

blue note

As regards my handiness - I'm pretty good at assembling Ikea stuff. That's my level. I'll be getting in "a man" to do pretty much everything. I'll probably try to figure out a couple of things with the help of you tube our whatever, but I went be making any real savings by doing stuff myself.

As someone said above - you could be left with that awful carpet 10 years later. That's exactly my fear. I'll end up locking a bedroom door so I don't accidentally see the room that's stuck in the 1970s.

Another thing that concerns me is that the back won't give you money for this. If the costs mount up you could easily find yourself stuck in the ugly house because you can't afford to fix it up properly.

Dardania

With the topic you mention of not getting your money back when it comes to selling...to my mind it can be a false statement if taken too literally. How I view it is that if I own a house, any house, I will spend say €2,400 per year on maintenance and decoration. We save 200 per month automatically to a house fund account. We may not spend it all every year, or we may bundle it together and top up for a big expense. But the point is, if you own a house, you will be spending money on it regardless. 
The bit about not getting the money back when you come to sell is true, but only if you overpay for things (e.g. the 17k kitchen). Other normal costs are normal and to be expected.
Its similar to owning a car - some people begrudge maintenance on older cars because they're not worth it, but my view is that if it's a new car or an old car, I should be spending a few hundred every year or two for things like servicing, tyres etc. Doesn't matter what the asset is worth - those are ongoing costs.

The Mulk

My concerns were,

1. Structural work
2. Stippled ceilings

Anything else I can fix myself:pac:

You really need to plan it out and cost it. Some banks will allow money for refurb, but i think will need costings for it.
It does take time to get a house the way you want it. And there's always something else to spend your money on.
I found that turnkey houses will have more interest and command a much higher price than a fixer upper.
Best of luck in whatever you decide.

blue note

I'm more thinking of the additional cost of buying a house that needs complete redecoration / partial / is in walk in condition as opposed to whether or not I'll get that money back when I go to sell it. To be honest, I suspect you don't. In which case when buying if the person your buying from has pumped some money into the house you probably do generally save money. But I'm trying to take all the advice on board and figure out where the truth is and I'm almost exclusively hearing that decoration should be completely ignored. And this doesn't make sense to me.

Dardania

blue note wrote: »

I'm more thinking of the additional cost of buying a house that needs complete redecoration / partial / is in walk in condition as opposed to whether or not I'll get that money back when I go to sell it. To be honest, I suspect you don't. In which case when buying if the person your buying from has pumped some money into the house you probably do generally save money. But I'm trying to take all the advice on board and figure out where the truth is and I'm almost exclusively hearing that decoration should be completely ignored. And this doesn't make sense to me.

See my post 10 above.

And also, when it comes to sell it, while you may not get the money back, you'll have a much larger audience of people looking at your house, so at worst you'll have a quick sale, at best you'll have a bidding war.

The Mulk

blue note wrote: »

I'm more thinking of the additional cost of buying a house that needs complete redecoration / partial / is in walk in condition as opposed to whether or not I'll get that money back when I go to sell it. To be honest, I suspect you don't. In which case when buying if the person your buying from has pumped some money into the house you probably do generally save money. But I'm trying to take all the advice on board and figure out where the truth is and I'm almost exclusively hearing that decoration should be completely ignored. And this doesn't make sense to me.

It all depends what you spend your money on and how you spend it.
The house hopefully will appreciate in value but the fixtures and fittings will depreciate.
I made a small fortune during the last boom changing brass downlights, sockets and switches to brushed chrome.
Now people seem to want white everywhere with USB connections on the sockets.
So the money that was spent 12-15 years ago on these things is now effectively gone and these are worthless! But the homeowner has had the use of them for this time.
I think the cost expected to maintain a house to a normal standard is 1% per year.
Money you should get back if the asset appreciates.

Zubeneschamali

blue note wrote: »

I'm more thinking of the additional cost of buying a house that needs complete redecoration / partial / is in walk in condition as opposed to whether or not I'll get that money back when I go to sell it.

The reason people say ignore decoration is that if you are buying to live in it, you are going to completely redecorate it anyhow whether you know it now or not.

If it is worse than a decorating job - if there is mould or damage or safety issues needing remedial work, cost that in. But if someone tries to charge extra because it was all painted for €5K last year, or they put in this lovely yoke or these fittings - nope, those are worth nothing to you.