What decreases the value of a home?

Your home is your greatest asset. In monetary terms, at least. 

You may feel your greatest asset is your kick-ass sense of humour or sense of decency, but in this post, we’re going to stick with concentrating on what decreases the value of your home. 

When it comes to moving on and selling your home, you obviously want the best price you can get for it. In the current market, you could probably sell a rotting shed for more than you paid for it in the first place, but assuming the property market eventually settles down, how can you protect your investment? 

Whether you own your home outright or you’re in a shared ownership scheme, here are some factors that might decrease the value of your home and what you can do about them. 

The neighbours

No matter how posh, up-and-coming or desirable your location is, if your neighbours are lowering the tone, they’re also lowering the property prices for everyone else in the street. 

If there’s a burnt out transit van in their drive, their front garden’s full of weeds and the paint’s peeling from their front door, it’s going to give a bad impression to potential buyers. 

What can you do about your neighbour’s property though? If you’re on friendly terms with them, you could explain you’re trying to sell your house and offer to tidy up their garden and paint their door for them. 

This could pan out a few ways – they’ll either be delighted to receive free home maintenance, or they’ll be shamed into doing it themselves. 

Of course, they could well tell you to bugger off too. It’s just a risk you’ll have to take. 

The exterior of your property 

Maybe it’s not the neighbours who are lowering the tone of the neighbourhood but the problem is closer to home, i.e. your home. 

Kerb appeal is an actual thing, not just a phrase heard on those property programmes on the television we all love to watch. 

So, if the outside of your house needs a bit of a tidy and freshening up, do it. 

Weed the front garden, put down some fresh slate or gravel and clean the windows (don’t forget the frames). 

And if your house is a quirky colour, no matter how much you love it, not everyone wants a bright pink or purple house so consider having it painted a neutral colour unless you’re willing to accept a lower offer than you were expecting. 

Rotting roofs 

While we’re on the subject of the exterior, don’t forget about the very top of your house – the roof. Just one single missing roof tile can make potential buyers put in a lower offer as they may fear the whole roof needs to be replaced. 

Getting a roof tile replaced isn’t a huge expense and, while the roofer’s up there, they can replace any gutters that have seen better days too. 

Too much personalisation 

Now we’re on to the inside of your home. 

You know when we mentioned above about your bright pink or purple exterior? The same applies to the inside. 

If you look like you celebrate Halloween every day with your black walls and coffin-shaped bed, there’s a good chance your potential buyer will run away and never come back. 

You may be proud of your peculiar personality and rightly so, but hide your collection of snow globes, shove the penis-shaped rug under the stairs and paint over the bright orange and purple hall with a neutral colour. 

Dated decor and appliances 

Kitchens and bathrooms are the number one thing that puts off potential buyers or causes them to make a low offer. 

Although you probably don’t want to spend the money on a brand new kitchen or bathroom if you’re selling up, even small things like chipped tiles or a stained bathroom suite can make potential buyers think they’re going to have to spend thousands of pounds on updates and therefore try to recoup that in the offer they make. 

Tiles can easily be replaced and even the most dated bathrooms can be made shiny again (although, if it’s an avocado suite, you may want to consider replacing it with a white one). 

Renovations 

Not all major renovations are good. 

Kitchen extensions, conservatories and attic conversions are all good and will increase the value of your home but some structural changes are less good and can actually decrease the value of your home. 

For example, although more bedrooms can seem like a good thing, putting up a wall to turn a double bedroom into two tiny single bedrooms is a bad idea.

Similarly, while more bedrooms of a decent size will increase the value of your property, converting a garage into a bedroom when parking space or storage is at a premium, will actually decrease the value of your home. 

There are other reasons why you might not get the best offer on your property but these are usually things that are out of your control such as crime rates, nightclubs and traffic noise. 

However, making your home as clean, presentable and well-maintained as it can be will greatly increase your chances of getting a good offer.